Editing The Swatch Group (section)

== History ==
===SSIH===
SSIH ([[Société Suisse pour l'Industrie Horlogère]]), originated in 1930 with the merger of the [[Omega SA|Omega]] and [[Tissot]] companies. Swiss watch quality was high, but new technology, such as the [[Hamilton Watch Company|Hamilton]] Electric watch introduced in 1957 and the [[Bulova]] Accutron tuning fork watch in 1961, presaged increasing technological competition.

In the late 1970s, SSIH became insolvent due in part to a recession and in part to heavy competition from inexpensive Asian-made quartz crystal watches. These difficulties occurred even though it had become Switzerland's largest, and the world's third largest, producer of watches. Its creditor banks assumed control in 1981.

===ASUAG===
ASUAG ([[Allgemeine Gesellschaft der Schweizerischen Uhrenindustrie]]), formed in 1931, was the world's largest producer of watch movements and the parts thereof ([[balance wheel]]s, [[balance spring]]s, assortments, watch stones ("jewels")). ASUAG had also integrated an array of watch brands in 1972 into a sub-holding company, [[General Watch Co]]. ASUAG failed similarly in 1982.

===The Swatch Group===
ASUAG/SSIH was formed in 1983 from the two financially troubled predecessor companies, ASUAG and SSIH.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/the-swatch-group-sa-history/|title=History of The Swatch Group SA – FundingUniverse|website=www.fundinguniverse.com|access-date=2019-03-05}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vjJa9IoDqXgC&q=Swatch+invented+Swatch+internet+times+in+1998&pg=RA2-PT226|title=Understanding Leadership: Paradigms and Cases|last=Avery|first=Gayle C.|date=2004-01-13|publisher=Sage|isbn=9781446266199|language=en}}</ref> Taken private in 1985 by then-CEO [[Nicolas Hayek]], with the understanding of the Swiss banks and the financial assistance of a group of Swiss private investors (in particular [[Stephan Schmidheiny]] and [[Esther Grether]]), it was renamed [[Société de Microélectronique et d'Horlogerie|SMH (Société de Microélectronique et d'Horlogerie)]] in 1986, and ultimately Swatch Group Ltd in 1998.<ref name=":0" />

The "[[swatch]]" brand of watch was launched in 1983, by the [[ETA SA]] CEO [[Ernst Thomke]] and his engineers. The quartz watch was redesigned for manufacturing efficiency and fewer parts, and the styling and design were updated.