Swatch

I bought my Swatch watch at their Manchester outlet about a year ago, and I’m pleased with my purchase — it keeps good time and fits nicely with my ‘look’. I was prepared to spend £200 on the right watch, but I ended up going for a Swatch ‘Irony — Open Ocean’ for £65 which has a solid aluminium casing and a rubber strap. Here it is on Amazon:
It’s a ‘fun, scuba’ watch, but I still find it suitable for more formal occasions.
Rubber (and plastic) straps are the cheapest to replace — about £1 or something — and Swatch being focused on watches gives me confidence that they’ll be there for me if a need a new strap or a repair. Incidentally, silicone rubber being naturally bendy, I think it may last a lot longer than a leather strap — ‘Nice design innovation, Swatch!‘
Swatch is a bit like Apple. Although the Swiss had a lot of watch manufacturing know-​how, it seems that by the early eighties the Swiss watch industry was in a bit of a mess. Then Swatch (among others) was conceived and put the Swiss watchmakers back on track through a winning combination of design, styling, engineering and marketing. Like Apple, Swatch’s product offering doesn’t stand still but keeps evolving.
After a trekking round various jewellers and department stores, I found the Swatch in-​store experience a breath of fresh air for a variety of reasons. The store is a manageable size and clearly laid-​out. Swatch are focused on watches, with the repair guys right there in the back shop or even serving you. The watches are not locked away in a case, which gives you a better chance to look at them. I visited the Swatch store a couple of times before making my purchase and found all the staff I dealt with approachable and knowledgeable.
Swatch now make an extensive range of watches from executive-​looking metal types at £250-​ish, sports, daft-​looking bling watches — you name it — so maybe there is a Swatch for you. While I don’t feel 100% tied to the Swatch brand, I would tend to check in at a Swatch store if I needed to buy another watch as I feel they have all but the most extreme ends of the watch market well-​covered.

I think Swatch watches are really great. I’ve owned four or five in my time, and I think their design and overall feel is so much cooler than the kind of chunky silver watches I was briefly drawn to when I was 15 and thought that having a silver Adidas watch that weighed about half a stone on my arm was a good idea. It wasn’t a good idea.
This Swatch shop is small and sparse (i.e., achingly cool) and located on Market Street. The staff are friendly and approachable, and happy to help suggest some watches or styles you might not have been thinking of.
The prices of Swatch watches are probably the best thing. Whilst not mega cheap, they’re definitely affordable and to have something so stylish fro an reasonable price is definitely a good thing.

Swatch. Really cool watches that are not really expensive. Is that really possible? Well, yes.
The watches here are gorgeous, and start at £40 or something, so they’re affordable. They have all sorts of colours, shapes and sizes. Digital watches are evil, these are heavenly.
Also, they do loads of great fun kids watches as well so it’s a good place to start learning to tell the time.
This branch is really nice, as they all are really. Its modern inside with a glowing sign and it makes you really want the watches. The other thing I have to say about this branch is that on two occasions in my 4 years in Manchester, two different men have approached me on Market Street, not very far from this shop, offering to sell me a brand new Swatch watch in its box. Perhaps they should tighten security or something…

Swiss Military watches and Swatch, two watch companies, famous from Switzerland! Swatch is not my style, to start with. But it is well recieved nonetheless!
They’re cool and fresh! The watches have a light and friendly feeling about them, I’m more of a metal and big dial, old fashioned that way, when it comes to watches. Swatch watches are somehow, I feel, ‘teenager all the way’-watches! I don’t know how much sense that seems to make, but that’s what comes into my mind!
It’s not on the expensive side at all, so you can afford it when you bank account seems to like you a little. The colourful playfulness and the very modern designs seems to please all! Good collection and great buy!

Watches are my new guilty pleasure, especially the plasticky style watches. I am currently loving the Brio styles and the chunky Adidas retro styles in all the bright colours. If it looks like candy then I’m there. Which I guess is why the Swatch shop really appeals to me.
Swatch has had a bit of a revamp lately, they have gone beyond the whole kid’s first watch styles and more into the cool wristwear styles. Some of them are actually pretty awesome, graffiti art for the cool timepiece wearer. For Realz!
I was eyeing up one of their shiny (yep apparently that was what the name of the range was called) watches and it was only £27.50, in these terrible economic climates that I believe would come under the category of a bargain!
The store itself is really cool and bright and airy and funky and that’s a lot of ands…
The staff were really nice too, very helpful without being overbearing.
Good vibes all around.

If memory serves me correctly, the two characters that featured in that famous Swatch watch of my childhood where Tick & Tock.
One thing that definitely hasn’t escaped my mind is just how much I wanted one!
Judging by the cold metal gleam of today’s Swatch stores, things have moved on pretty rapidly.
I guess kids are just too savvy to fall for simply naming the big and little hands these days– damn it Playstation, what have you done to our children?!
Be that as it may, Swiss watches are still the best in the world, and whilst Swatch isn’t exactly giving TAG Heuer and the like sleepless nights it is a brand that makes a quality, stylish product that’ll last you a lifetime.
The store is über cool and super modern and the staff are engaging and knowledgeable, making even the process of shopping for your watch much more enjoyable than it has any business being.