Swatch – Grand Prix Watches

Swatch was founded in 1983 by Elmar Mock, Jacques Müller, and Ernst Thomke. Started in response to the quartz crisis, the brand is famous for brightly colored and inexpensive battery-powered watches, with its name being a contraction of “second watch”. Under the leadership of Nicolas G. Hayek, Swatch was instrumental in saving the Swiss watchmaking industry.

Swatch is a subsidiary of The Swatch Group, which also owns brands such as Blancpain, Breguet, Certina, Glashütte Original, Hamilton, Longines, Omega, Rado, and Tissot. Notable product lines have included Swatch Originals, Swatch Grand Prix, Swatch Irony, Sistem51, and Swatch x Omega.

Danny Sullivan

Danny Sullivan has featured in at least one Swatch print ad during the early to mid 1980s. The driving suit that Sullivan wore appeared to be from his 1984 stint with Shierson Racing in CART, after spending the previous season in Formula 1. There are no known documented driver editions.

Alexander Wurz

Swatch announced Alexander Wurz as a brand ambassador in a press release from June 22, 1998. Swatch was also listed as a private sponsor on Wurz’s personal website from 1998 until 2000, the years that he raced in Formula 1 for the Mild Seven Benetton team. The sponsor page included the following text:

Alexander Wurz – for many years an enthusiastic Swatch fan – personally represents those statements, which is why he became one of the „official„ Swatch ambassadors.

According to a WorthPoint listing, Swatch had hosted the Austrian driver at a 1999 Swatch store event in London. Included in the listing were photos of Swatch packaging that featured Wurz’s name, Benetton F1, and with an April 1999 date.

According to multiple sales listings, Wurz had gifted what appeared to be Swatch “.beat” Virtual Wave (ref. YQS1003) digital chronographs with customized straps to his Benetton F1 team members after the end of the 2000 season. The strap featured a sewn on patch with the words “For the Team Thank you”, a facsimile of his signature, and “Alex Wurz” underneath.

Alexander Wurz driving the Benetton B200 at the 2000 Australian Grand Prix. (Photo: Erikrost22, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

Goodyear Eagle F1

Swatch-focused online resource stay-tuned-to-sw.de mentions the release of two Goodyear Eagle F1 special edition pieces from 2002. One was based on a Secret Agent (ref. RCS401D) with a tire tread-inspired strap and limited to 17000 pieces, and served as a promotional giveaway for customers who purchased Eagle F1 17″ tires. Another special edition was based on the Straight Edge Irony Chrono (ref. YCS1006H), with a smaller production run of 1,000 pieces.

While these pieces have no direct connection with modern Grand Prix racing, the Eagle F1 name does stem from Goodyear’s historical roots in Formula 1.

Sauber Petronas Club Exclusives

Swatch has provided exclusive Sauber Petronas-branded watches for the team fan club during the 2003 Formula 1 season. Named the Sauber Petronas Club, membership tiers were divided into Fans and Supporters.

Fan membership included what was described as an “exclusive Swatch sporting the SAUBER PETRONAS Design, available to Fan Club members only”. Multiple online listings included a mention of reference number GK337C as the platform model. Team branding was featured on the blue strap, with stripes that continued onto the case which housed a skeleton dial.

According to stay-tuned-to-sw.de, Supporter membership included a Sauber Petronas-branded Swatch Irony, although this has not been adequately archived by Wayback Machine. Aside from a single small image, photos or descriptions of this model cannot currently be found.

During the same year, the team shop catalog also included two unspecified Swiss made watches named “Carbon Watch” (Art.Nr. SP-5121) and “Chrono Watch” (Art.Nr. SP-5122).