Swatch

Being the world’s foremost watch manufacturer may have convinced Swatch to spearhead a movement that would unify the time worldwide. This was dubbed grandly as the Swatch Internet Time, and for all intents and purposes can only be seen generally by many as half-baked marketing stratagem from Swatch.

The Swatch Internet Time was introduced last 1998 as an impressive concept to unify time. Regions on different time zones will be using a standard time that’s practically the same anywhere, east to west north to south. The time in a Tokyo stock exchange will be the same time in the New York stock market. The goal of Swatch Internet time is to eliminate time zones although.

Swatch Internet Time is done by dividing a day (the 24 hour) into 1000 elements called “beats”. This would make every beat (1 beat) equal to 1 minute and 26.4 seconds. Actually, a similar time scale had also existed during the French Revolution, though it’s pretty much obscure. Swatch Internet Time was introduced as the time scale BMT, meaning Beil Mean Time, in reference to the company’s headquarters in Biel, Switzerland. But unlike Standard Time, BMT does not denote in anyway solar time at a meridian, it is only used since Biel is technically Swatch Internet Time’s place of birth.

Denoting BMT time is quite original. One of the most distinctive is the usage of commercial at (@) to denote the BMT time. For example, 0.248 CET or 4:57:07.2 UTC would mean that it is @248 beats past midnight. The benefits may not seem obvious at first glance, with us used to seeing time in traditional 24-hour clock. But in longer time periods, using BMT is more obvious because saying that an activity happened in @5500 beats would clearly tell that it happened 5 days earlier, since @1000 = 24 hours = 1 day. Saying that as 132 hours requires several processes more to tell that it is 5 days and a half.

Integrating Swatch Internet Time would be pretty simple except that there are few loopholes to be filled. During the time of the Swatch Internet Time release, there were no other denotations for values smaller than a beat, which is a really big oversight surprisingly for a watch making company as reputable as Swatch. With the new face of time keeping, difficulty in arranging the norms, such as lunch, dinner, breakfast, becomes bit of a hassle. Also one big failure is the disregard of Daylight Saving Time, an aspect that makes Swatch Internet Time the same with CET during winter. And DST is followed by several countries, namely most of Britain and Portugal. Converting BMT to Standard Time is also hard.

Commerce also didn’t favor a change well. Swatch Internet Time is also talking about reorganizing bank accounts data, financial records and time stamped valuables, too much a hassle for a convenience that can be lived without.

In the end, speculators and critics labeled Swatch endeavor as a ploy to boost sales and regain dominance. It may be true, Swatch watches were very strong demands in the past for its hip culture and fancy designs, but recently the brand name is experiencing massive decline in sales as Swatch watches became inferior to other emerging well made brands. Swatch is the biggest manufacturer for quartz movement swatch watches, heavily favored for its bargain prices, and Swatch collectible watches, watches whose colors can be customized. If the Swatch Internet Time did succeed, Swatch would then again have a secure footing in the world market as the only retailer for Swatch watches that offer the Swatch Internet Time.

Too bad it all ended for naught. Swatch Internet Time is viable but highly impractical.