New Swatch design NYC

I’ve always been both fascinated and fond of the whole swatch story.  They entered the market around 83-84 and caught on quickly because they were fun, fashionable and affordable.  The meaning of the name “Swatch” was a derivative of “second watch”. It was never intended to be a main watch and indeed was practically a disposable fashion accessory.

Swatch recently redid their fitout on their Broadway & 44th St store. The store is dominately white, which these days is a bit cliqued, but they’ve managed to choose off-whites in a range of different rich hues which simply work with the watches – making them stand out so much you can see them from across the street at Planet Hollywood.

The case lines are a series of interlocking shapes bearing a symbolic resemblance to watch gears. Being in different heights, sizes & shapes they can be moved around the floor in any number of configurations without fundamentally altering the flow, but giving immense flexibility to showcase new product and respond to different trends.

In a rather bold move, the cases are relatively close to the floor, not typical for a comparitively cheap product which is typically racked. It creates the impression of the watches being more museum pieces than cheap fashion accessories – although admittedly Swatch aren’t as cheap as they once were.

They’ve also worked customer seating into the case designs which is much appreciated around Times Square where typically your feet end up killing you after a few hours shopping.  They have also created chandeliers out of swatches which is not only a good use of the product but does communicate the mass market nature of the product – whilst it may not be quite as cheap as it once was its still very affordable and you still can get a few.