Swatch called the Apple Watch a joke — and watched its own sales decline for a decade

When Apple announced the Apple Watch in 2014, Swatch Group CEO Nick Hayek dismissed it, saying it had 'no chance' and that 'you cannot eat the soup with a fork.' The Swiss watch industry, which had survived the quartz crisis of the 1970s by moving upmarket, saw smartwatches as a gimmick that would not threaten mechanical watchmaking.

But the Apple Watch found a mass market. By the early 2020s, Apple was selling more watches by revenue than the entire Swiss watch industry. Swatch Group's sales, which had peaked around CHF 9 billion in 2014, stagnated and then declined. The mid-range Swiss brands that Swatch Group owned — Tissot, Longines, Omega's lower tiers — were squeezed between cheap smartwatches below and true luxury above.

Swatch Group eventually launched its own smartwatch (Tissot T-Touch Connect) and a collaboration with Blancpain, but the response was muted. The case illustrated how an industry that survived one disruption (quartz) by moving upmarket can miss the next disruption by assuming the same strategy will work again.