An advisor to the World Bank, the International Olympic Committee and many governments, he helped create opportunities and employment for hundreds of thousands of people. He also had various other commercial interests including Belenos Clean Power, an alternative clean energy company based in Bienne, Switzerland. He helped create the SMART car, a small, stylish city car now produced by Mercedez Benz. Hayek’s dynamism and influence, however, went far beyond the watch industry. Hayek’s extraordinary vision enabled him to realize and ensure the sustainability of a strong watch-making enterprise with high Swiss added value”. Hayek at the helm, SMH - renamed Swatch Group in 1998 - became, within a period of five years, the most valuable watchmaker in the world. Equally important was the launch of the low-cost, high-tech, creative and iconic Swatch watch - the “S” stands for “Switzerland” and “second” reflecting where it is made and the fact that its low cost means customers can afford more than one. The merger between ASUAG and SSIH to form SMH (Swiss Corporation for Microelectronics and Watchmaking Industries Ltd.) in 1983 was a critical step in turning the industry around. Hayek, however, was convinced that the Swiss watch-manufacturing industry had a future and could regain its competitive edge. In the early 1980s he was asked by a group of Swiss bankers to oversee the liquidation of ASUAG and SSIH, the two main Swiss watchmakers that were reeling from heavy Japanese competition. He quickly made his mark as a skillful entrepreneur and trusted business figure. Hayek launched his business career on August 1, 1957, as a management consultant. An estimated 300 million Swatch timepieces have been sold worldwide. Swatch is now the biggest watch-manufacturing firm in the world, with more than 700 Swatch shops worldwide and earnings of at least CHF 5 billion in 2009. The Swatch Group is a regular user of WIPO’s Madrid System for the International Registration of Marks, a user-friendly and cost-effective option for registering and managing trademarks internationally. For example, the message for the Jaquet-Droz brand is “Eternity - the Ultimate Luxury”. This is a very strong part of how we operate”. “We have a unique message for each of our brands. Hayek outlined the company’s approach to branding. In a recent interview with the Indian daily MINT, Mr. Hayek was a master of marketing, introducing simple ideas to leverage the reputation, prestige and exclusivity of the Swatch Group’s stable of 19 watch brands, including Breguet, Calvin Klein, Longines, Tissot and Omega. A 1988 fake-fur Swatch is reported to have been recently valued at £18,500 (approx. About half of the designs Swatch launches each year are phased out after six months, making them highly collectible. Today Swatch launches some 300 designs a year and is one of the largest users of WIPO’s Hague System for the International Registration of Industrial Designs which offers a cost-effective way to protect designs internationally by filing a single application, in one language (English, French or Spanish) and in one currency (Swiss francs). Hayek said, “I am not making watches only to look at the time. Its low cost means that fashion-conscious consumers can own several Swatches to suit mood and occasion. Its avant-garde designs made Swatch a fashion statement. The Swatch’s innovative mechanism has only 51 parts compared to the over 91 parts in a conventional watch. Hayek’s unique entrepreneurial talent combined “disposability, affordability and reliability” to deliver a range of colorful, trendy and low-cost plastic watches for every occasion. Hayek was a decisive force in the launch in 1983 of the Swatch watch, an icon of popular culture. The industry, Switzerland’s third largest exporter after the machine and chemical industries, sells nearly 95 percent of its production to overseas markets. The innovative strategies he implemented in the early 1980s breathed new life into the entire Swiss watch industry, enabling it to regain its leading position worldwide. Hayek, co-founder and former Chairman of the Swatch Group, is widely credited with reviving the Swiss watch industry in the 1980s when it was under threat from mass-produced, low-cost electronic timepieces. Hayek was born on February 19, 1928, in Lebanon and at the age of seven emigrated to Switzerland, where he became a Swiss citizen.Ī pioneering and charismatic entrepreneur, Mr. The world famous Swiss watch industry lost a leading figure recently with the death of Mr. A Tribute to the Man behind the Swatch: Mr.
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