Nicholas Hayek the Swiss Watches Guru Died yesterday aged 82
Nicholas Hayek, the driving force behind Swatch and Breguet watches died yesterday aged 82.
Working as an independent engineer, Mr Hayek was instructed by banks to shut down several Swiss mechanical watch manufacturers and component suppliers that were having financial difficulty in the early 1980s in what was later dubbed as the "quartz crisis". At this time watch manufacturers could start mass producing quartz watches at incredibly cheap prices thus many low cost watches began appearing on the market and the knock on effect saw watch prices tumble. But instead of following the banks instructions Mr. Hayek actually did the opposite and together with his business partners they decided to invest more into the future. He was often many times seen to be criticizing the banks and their fat cat and greedy business practices.
In 1983 he launched Swatch Watches which soon became a household name hailed for their unique designs and innovation, which lead to Swatch watches becoming a worldwide fashion watch.
By 1998 the Swatch Group had many big name watches in their stable including Breguet and Omega and yearly sales in excess of £3 billion worldwide.
It is said that Mr. Hayek always wore at least 2 watches on each wrist !!!!
He also played a big part in the design and manufacture and development of the Smart Car and also had projects in the pipeline to develop a small electronic car.
The Swiss president Doris Leuthard was quoted as saying "We owe Mr. Hayek a lot".
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