Hi, I'm a c -cup and I've spent my career interviewing people about politics Presidential elections and some really tough breaking news, but now I need a break and I think you do too So on my new podcast off the cup, I'll still be interviewing people usually famous and most likely my friends But about life,
you know the stuff that consumes us when we're not consumed by politics So come join me every Wednesday for some conversational self -care Listen to off the cup on the iHeart Radio app Apple podcasts or wherever you get your favorite shows Hey everybody the time has finally come this week starting October
7th through October 11th That's a Monday through Friday everybody.
We are revealing the iconic 400 Yes, Bowen Yang and I famously missed our 400th episode here on Moscow at Ristas But we are ready to reveal the iconic 400 who is on the list.
Does it matter? Will it be fun?
Yeah, there might even be a surprise or two in there.
So listen carefully Listen to lost culture Ristas on Will Ferrell's big money players network on the iHeart radio app Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts Welcome to stuff you should know a production of iHeart radio Hey and welcome to the podcast I'm Josh and there's Chuck and Jerry's here
too, and we're just getting totally tubular here on stuff you should know You joke about the eighties my friend, but swatches are still very very popular.
I Never joke about the eighties.
I'm quite serious about That's right, we're talking about swatches if you don't know what a swatch is you may not be into watches Or fun, he may not be a gen xer.
Although like I said that they're still around I have recently gotten into watches For the first time in my life really like I tried to wear watch I remember when I was in like seventh grade and Cuz I thought it kind of looked cool.
That was probably during the fake glasses period No But it never really took and I have always kind of Said that I don't want things on my wrist But I got a watch.
I got a couple of watches About four months ago.
I started just researching watches and how they're made and I was really just knocked out by the craftsmanship And so I got a couple of watches and I the other reason was partially so I could Look for the time and date without picking up my phone because I feel like that Then keeps me on the phone,
right? That's a great great idea Yeah, so it really works and I love my watch a lot and today I bought a swatch Oh cool, which which kind is it a newer kind is it vintage is it?
Well, it's it's newer, but you know, they they a lot of the styles look like they did back then It's it's gonna be a good like kind of fun summer watch.
It's not too wacky, but it's blue and yellow and oh cool Kind of has a big face and it's 120 bucks.
Which is not not nothing but a Quality watch for you know, a little over a hundred dollars is a really good deal these days watches are super expensive Yeah, it really is and that's one thing about swatches is they've kept their prices down all these years It's about the same with inflation.
Yeah, yeah, and you could get swatches that are definitely What they sold them for back in the 80s adjusted for inflation They also have some that are like a little more expensive and then I think the most expensive one Dave helped us with this He turned up when that was like just over three hundred
dollars and they do have some like collaborations with some higher -end watch companies That are more expensive than that.
But if you just get a swatch swatch the most you're gonna spend is about 300 bucks so yeah, yeah, so You me and I when we went on our honeymoon We were walking around the mall as you do on your honeymoon in Hawaii and we just popped in a swatch store and we got like his and her The I guess the jellyfish
like she got pink and I got blue watches Even that's the clear one, right?
Yeah, even yeah a watch having that level of sentimentality I still can't just wear I just couldn't wear it.
I Have something on my wrist, right?
But over the years we still kind of collected some swatches here or there and now our collection Chuck includes one of those giant swatch wall clocks and a really one of those and It's one of the coolest things we own Yeah, I had one of those but it was a knockoff of course It was a switch because you
and I very famously were not allowed basically any brand name, right?
Because we couldn't afford it.
So I had I had a knockoff Whatever's like the kmart version of that was hanging hanging on my wall.
That's awesome. What did it look like?
It looked like a swatch, you know, that's what yours looks like, right?
Like it's got a the big band and everything you just it's like hanging a big watch Yeah, it's ours is so they built like actual seven foot tall with the band stretched out wall clocks called the maxi That were like giant versions of the actual kinds of swatches you could buy on your wrist, right?
And the one we have is called I think the white Memphis style And it's from like 1984 I think something like that and then we went and got the actual watch to match Did you frame it next to it?
No, we just have it somewhere.
So we pick it up and look at it once a while We're like, wow, it really looks a lot like our wall clock Well, I just gotta say I'm not gonna try and talk you anything But as someone who also did not like something on the wrist I really have gotten used to it and it's to the point now where it feels
a little weird when I don't have it on That was fast Yeah, and it's uh, it's a good looking watch.
It's kind of nice to uh, To be like an adult and have a an actual watch and not a apple watch or something Right.
So one other thing about um swatches that drove me crazy.
There's a distinct ticking sound that I couldn't not hear and I Came to find that it was actually I guess kind of a trait of swatches I saw that from researching this that swatches make a ticking sound and it's because of the design The very unique design they have which it will We'll get to that eventually
and when we do it's going to be eye popping Do you just keep waiting for 60 minutes to come on tv?
Yeah, I do and then I just bury my head under pillows Till it's over.
All right. Should we get into this thing?
Yeah, let's because What's interesting to me chuck is that swatches were born out of a mega crisis in switzerland in the beginning of the 70s Yes, absolutely.
Everyone well, maybe not everyone if you've never Don't know anything about watches.
You may not know that switzerland is renowned for their watches if you've ever heard the term Runs like a swiss watch That's not because they're cruddy And that they're they break down and that they don't keep good time It's because they have long been a country that just has amazing craftsmanship with not only,
you know putting watches together But manufacturing the tiny little parts and everything That's you know, if you've heard of rolex and car D.
A and omega like all these really nice watch brands They're coming out of switzerland and they always have been Yeah, and one of the reasons why they're so ridiculously high priced is that craftsmanship?
Yeah um And that's just how it was like if you wanted a nice watch you bought a swiss watch and you paid through the nose for it And that's that was life Until the japanese came along.
Yes, we we got it. We have an idea here The japanese are famous chuck famous for improving upon other people's inventions Just taking them and making them just amazing and this is a really good example of that Seiko introduced a watch called the astron on christmas day 1969 And it completely shook the watch
world because the astron was the world's first quartz watch And that that just changed the whole the whole game because you can make a quartz watch for very cheap And they keep much better time than a traditional movement.
Yeah, I mean it's interesting.
They're they're cheaper.
They last longer um, I guess there isn't the You know the um The the fame that attaches itself to you know, a swiss watch that's made from all tiny little parts But you can't argue with quartz as a as an improvement.
Um I'm hesitant to almost say it's like clearly better because You know a great mechanical watch is still a wonder to behold and keeps really good time But quartz came along and it was very disruptive to the industry Uh, we talked a little bit about quartz What was that in it was semi atomic clocks?
Uh, felt even more recent than that though.
No No, that was pretty recent.
It was only a few months ago Was it that nuts?
Yeah, it seems like a few years Uh in the best way possible by the way Uh, but quartz, uh oscillates at 32768 times per second and when you have quartz as a part of your Watch, uh, well not circuitry, but just as a part of your circuitry.
Oh, is it? Okay. Great Um, then you can cut back on a lot of those other little tiny parts And you can make a thinner watch like beyond the fact that it just runs better and lasts longer Uh, they can be smaller and you don't have as many tiny little parts that eventually could maybe break No, because in a traditional
mechanical watch when you wind it you're you're tensing You're adding tension to a spring and then that spring slowly unwinds and it drives all these gears and everything and that's how it keeps track of the time and that's why if you look at a traditional mechanical watch The second hand that keeps
track of the seconds goes in a sweeping motion an unbroken sweeping motion all around the face Uh the quartz watch just ticks off one second at a time The second hand moves every second and the reason why is because that circuitry has counted 32 ,768 pulses and now it's time to advance one second.
Um, so that's a huge difference.
But yeah, just the like you were saying like yes quartz is is Obviously better but in the way that like an advancement tech and technology is better That doesn't mean that the craftsmanship that it's Competing with is any worse and in some ways it makes that craftsmanship, you know that much more desirable
down the road Yeah for sure.
Uh, but these quartz watches came in from japan in the 1970s After that debut in 69 that you mentioned.
Well, I guess that was christmas 69 so The summer of love the christmas of love just a handful of days before the 70s Uh, I think right before oh, no, I guess that was 70s into the 80s And bookie nights Yeah, that was that was like mid to late 70s.
Yeah. Well, but that famous new year's eve scene when uh, Oh, yeah, what's his name, you know?
Yeah, that's a big bummer uh, anyway, um Quartz watches come along they really disrupt the industry and all of a sudden switzerland found itself in a sort of a watch crisis Uh before this broke out before quartz came along they controlled 50 of the whole watch market in the world uh, and then by 1977
a mere seven years after the debut of these Japanese quartz watches seiko became the largest watchmaker by revenue in the world and switzerland saw their industry fall off from Uh, I believe between 77 and 83 from 43 percent to less than 15 percent, which is a like a real real financial crisis Yeah,
it's You don't even have to know what a number is to know that that's a massive financial crisis, right?
Yeah, and this is not just a couple companies.
This is the entire swiss watchmaking industry, which was a huge part of the swiss economy for centuries, right?
So it was a really it was a national crisis in switzerland And so these companies that make up the swiss swiss watch, uh making industry were just dropping like flies uh, and it came down to a couple like really major companies that own brands like omega and longines and tiso Um like just really high
end swiss watch brands the two companies were alamaine switzerish urine industry Ag yeah, my apologies to our german listeners who we know are out there and then the other one is the uh, society swiss port industry or lagerse and I said that with a weird spanish accent But that's it in french and these
two companies were like mega companies and they were like goliath Failing falling over essentially.
They were in midfall.
Yeah in mid freefall And so what usually would happen in a case like this with these big corporations is you would take Uh, the assets that each company has like, you know, these individual brands that they own sell them off uh, hopefully make some money doing that and then that's basically it but Uh
a guy named nicholas and this is just I love this kind of story a guy when someone comes along And just says no we're not doing that and that was a case with nicholas g hyek Uh who if you ask people in switzerland, in fact, there was an actual survey like who were the best The best wisp people of all
time and they said albert einstein honoree do not Who created the red cross in the janiva convention and then nicholas hyek who put his foot down and said no We're not selling these things off We're going to merge together these two big companies and we're going to start making cords watches Yeah, he
was a the head of a marketing consulting firm essentially business consulting firm And they were like just come in and figure out the best way to sell these companies off for parts to the highest bidder And like you said he said no i've got a much better idea and it wasn't like they were just like oh,
okay Go do that. We don't care.
We're eating, uh mezco rosti over here.
So who who cares? Um, they were very much involved in this and he had to convince the entire swiss Watchmaking industry.
Yeah, and all the swiss banks that were backing the industry and that would eventually back this merger like Guys, we need to merge these two companies like chuck will eventually say on this podcast called stuff.
You should know years from now and We need to Make our we need to like start making money hand over fist really quick and we're not going to do that with these luxury brands We need to figure out how to make a very cheap Very swiss watch and get it to market asap.
Yeah, but that's the key there that you mentioned like they weren't saying Hey, let's get parts from japan And just kind of build from there.
They're like we're gonna make these things in switzerland We're gonna put our swiss, you know our country's name behind these basically Which had so much pride in their, you know watch craftsmanship And we're gonna make them all here and that's gonna be the difference and He did not invent or design
the swatch he came up with this idea For this merger there had been prototypes of the swatch a couple years before I think in 1981 Two full years before this merger there was one called the popularis Which was a quartz watch.
It's you know, not my style is very of the time In 81 but it's it was thin and kind of groovy looking don't you think?
Mm -hmm. Sure. Yeah And that was it that was the first one, uh, but it was not a swatch When hyatt took over in 83 he was like we got to make these low -end watches and we gotta start making them Like stylish we want someone to be able to go out and buy a cheap watch Maybe who's never owned a watch before
because they were expensive Luckily he had some really good employees under his um, well employee in these two merged companies Um, one of them was a guy named earnest tom key.
He's considered one of the other fathers of swatch He had a couple of designers jock muller and elmar moch working under him and between these three together You had some amazing designers, but also just really smart Watch engineers and tom key in particular had been working for a good decade or so Trying
to make the world's thinnest watch.
Yeah And eventually he did it was a watch called the delirium.
It was less than two millimeters thick That's 5 64 of an inch thick a watch with all of the movements and it wasn't a mechanical watch It was quartz But it was still super duper thin even for a quartz watch And in fact, if you watch scarface tony montana is wearing one of these It was just a big big
deal. It was a very expensive watch just because it was so thin and also it was swiss So if you put these guys who are really good at designing and really good at engineering with fewer and fewer parts in smaller and smaller spaces together You've got the uh, the basis for creating a brand new kind
of watch that switzerland had never produced before which is cheap swiss And innovative and stylish.
Yeah, it's funny. It was very of the time like Thin thin thin watches was a big thing back then.
I kind of even remember that Yeah, I feel like and I said, you know I've done a little bit of research since i've gotten into watches a little bit but it seems like Seems like chunky watches are kind of the thing now and that very sort of thin even maybe rectangular bezel kind of watch is And the bezel
is just the you know, the little glass piece that sits over the top of everything to protect it You have been doing your research.
Well, there's only a handful of watch parts and you got to know what they are Okay, uh, but that doesn't seem to be very in as in style anymore Uh, but they would get those parts down, you know, even for a quartz watch I think a typical quartz watch had about 91 parts.
They got that down all the way to 51 They called it within the company revolution 51 And it was a it was a big deal like it was it I mean they're still around and still a huge company for all these reasons Yeah, and okay, so that's going on you've got tom key creating watches with fewer and fewer parts
at the same time, um elmar moch he had this dream to Start using plastic injection molding.
Yeah to make watches and rather than get approval to buy a plastic injection molding machine, which is like half a million Marks, I think at the time Um, he just ordered it And so luckily they had this plastic injection molding machine and they used it to create the first swatches And that helped them
reduce the number of movements even more because a lot of the movement parts Are what mount the actual moving parts to the watch?
And what they did was they built in all of those parts that mount the the movement to the watch Into the case itself So it was all one solid part and that even further dropped the the number of moving parts needed that much more Uh in the original swatches that came out look at you you said case What did
uh, that's a watch part Oh, thanks.
I thought i've been saying like kasi this whole time You're finally you're like you finally got it josh.
All right, uh, shall we take a break?
Yeah, let's all right Let's get to the end of this watch Hi, i'm s e cup and i've spent the last 20 plus years knee -deep in politics in the news I've covered some really tough subjects from war to genocide to six presidential elections way too much, trump And you know what I need a break like a mental
health break from the news From the triggering headlines and I kind of suspect some of you listening out there might need a break too So my new podcast is going to be just that A fun and loose space where I talk to my famous friends and people I admire about all the stuff that consumes us When we're
not consumed by politics.
I did not really rebel in the 60s.
I had no sex in the 70s Um, what I made no money in the 80s So when true crime came along I missed that trend too So many great guests are joining me from josh mankewetz to larry willmore to molly jong fast to josh.
Gadd. I'm so excited that you have this platform and I am Just like hoping that I don't Destroy the platform in its earliest stages Listen to off the cup on the iheart radio app apple podcasts or wherever you get your favorite shows Hey everybody the time has finally come this week starting monday october
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Yes These are the top 400 people in all of culture and we're Unveiling all of them number three seventy two nancy karrigan We will never really know why We have worked tirelessly on this list.
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of iheart women sports So Okay, so we're back with swatches, uh, switzerland has this great idea but they had a little bit of a Just sort of an early challenge on their hands.
Uh, you know, they found how to reduce the parts and make everything cheaper Which was great, but they eventually looked around their factory and said Here's the deal.
We want to make these all here But everyone here makes a ton of money like switzerland Just for regular old jobs has the highest, you know, some of the highest wages in the world at least Uh and has for a long time.
So, you know, they could have outsourced they could have gotten some parts from different, you know Uh countries in the world have them brought in and maybe just assembled in switzerland but they're they held firm and they said no we're not going to do it we need to just innovate and Get manufacturing
technologies, uh that are so advanced that we can get these things down to like, you know, 30 to 50 bucks And they were able to do it Yeah, that that's one of the reasons why uh hayek or hayek is so revered not only did he challenge The watchmakers in switzerland to make a cheap swish swiss watch Um,
he also was like now you have to redesign how we make watches from the ground up And they were successful and they ended up coming up with the swatch um and as much as that is a Like the innovation to the whole thing is impressive the marketing piece to swatches was um I mean it was just as just as
much a part of swatch as this new way of making watches because um hayek was He saw watches a little differently He was an outsider and up to that point if you made watches you you considered watches jewelry high -end jewelry, essentially Yeah And he was like, no, this is your overthinking watches or at least you're
overthinking this watch that we're making These are not jewelry.
We're gonna make them fashion statements like fashion items and just like say ties or shoes And you have more than one tie and you have more than one pair of shoes We're gonna make it so these people who are buying our watches want more than one watch.
It's gonna be amazing guys Yeah, and they they went in.
I mean it was a huge risk.
Um But you know, he he painted a picture of like, uh, imagine a world where uh teenagers want four and five of these Uh, and all of a sudden they're you know over the course of a few years they're investing You know two or three hundred dollars in their watch collection And that's a good start and you
know, it could be a second watch for people and that was in fact If you've always thought that swatch was swiss plus watch Um, you're probably right, but other people including hayek have said it was actually a mash -up of second watch um But you know, they had uh marketing people that came in there
was a guy a consultant named frans Sprecher Uh, he supposedly coined the name swatch and he officially said no, it was swiss plus watch Um other people in the company did say second watch.
So Either way you get swatch.
My money is on officially probably swiss watch Me too.
That's what i'm going with but who cares it's a swatch Yeah, and the first, uh 12 swatches came out in 1983 march first they debuted in switzerland germany in the uk And if you go look back at the original 12 swatches you'd be like, those are swatches You can tell it's got some swatch quality to it
But it just is so boring and stayed in middle of the road as far as its design goes And it turns out that was a deliberate decision because as they were About to go to market with these things Apparently everybody including hayek got cold feet and was like what what happens if this doesn't work Yeah
So they decided to go with um the colors that the swiss army Uses in their uniforms So if it was a flop they could turn around to the swiss army and be like why don't you buy all these surplus watches?
Yeah, at least try to break even here.
Yeah, like you guys did great with your knives So imagine what you could do with a watch.
Yeah Have you seen swiss army man?
Yes, I have Okay, got you Yes, did you like it?
I did In a lot of ways.
Yeah. Yeah, it's a crazy movie The the the directors of everything everywhere all at once, right?
Oh, that makes sense.
I didn't know that that definitely makes sense now.
Yeah. Yeah They were always sort of on the outside there with those wacky ideas.
Yeah for sure All right.
So they were selling these first ones for about 50 pounds in the uk Uh, those 12 watches sold even though they were people had no idea what they were in for with the swatch based on these 12 But they still loved them Uh, they they sold very well Um summer of 83 comes along and they had another brilliant,
you know, one of the most brilliant marketing Marketed companies of all time probably was the swatch But they said hey Um, I don't even think people are saying The the term drops yet.
Maybe they were i'm kind of curious when that started It was a great time a shoe drop or a jersey drop or something or a hat drop But they had a swatch drop called the jellyfish My brother had one of these and I was texting him yesterday and I was like, did you have the original?
1983 jellyfish, that's the clear one And he said he sold it a little while ago For a little bit of money and he said I don't think it was one of the first years and he said why is that A big deal or he didn't know it was the first year.
He said why was the 83 a big deal?
It's like well, that was the first one.
Um, if I remember he got it a couple years later and you can still they still make like versions of the jellyfish now, but it took off once the jellyfish hit and The idea of these drops these special releases Uh, they would release collections in the fall and the spring and then one off specials once
a year and they were huge Yeah, I think they even did seasonal specials.
So a few times a year But the the fact that these were just you know, they come and go pretty quickly like they'd make a limited amount It would sell out really quickly People started collecting swatches.
There was a I can't remember Deliberate scarcity, I guess.
Yeah created by the the the seasonal one -offs, right?
and That helped propel swatch like from watchmaker to this is this is exactly what hayek was going for These are fashion items.
They're fashion statements.
They're desirable Things that people can buy multiple ones of and show, you know who they are inside by wearing something on the outside essentially Yeah, ironically maybe wearing a swatch with your Muscle shirt of the japanese flag Because those are big and don't forget the headband the matching headband had
to have the matching headband we played an 80s set our band did at the porch fest in our neighborhood a few years ago and I wore like an mtv shirt and these like neon glasses and stuff and I had the headband I was like jeez, is that even something you can do these days?
Like wear a headband of a japanese flag.
I'm not even sure if I feel good about it.
Uh, but I didn't do it in the end Okay.
Yeah, that's probably good because you know those hipsters will throw beer bottles at you on stage like the blues brothers Yeah, well, but we have a chicken wire protecting us So that's fine.
Luckily, you know, I mean you got to if you're gonna wear a japanese headband in 2023 Yeah, let's see where were we?
Well, I guess we can go to 85 because that's when uh, That's when things really changed, right?
yeah, so um, I guess the whole thing was kind of uh, like you said They sold pretty well initially and then when they started to add the one -offs like that that became like a really big deal but 1985 was when Swatch expanded even further out and actually I think 84.
Yeah is when they started to expand um They were kind of they like the red bull model of like, oh that's a crazy sport.
Let's let's sponsor that Swatch looked around was like this is super cool and the kids are into this Let's sponsor this or that or this and what they came up with first was the swatch watch new york city fresh fest which is Considered the first hip hop concert tour ever Yeah, it was houdini and kurtis blow
and run dmc Fat boys.
I saw I think they did it for a few years because I saw where like the beastie boys opened up But that had to have been like maybe second or third year But it was a big deal and they were on the on the leading edge of kind of everything That was cool in the early to mid 80s um, so of course what you're
gonna have is people trying to get in on that and They had like the cheap cheap knockoffs.
Uh, like literally some of them were named watch m -w -a -t -c -h and things like that uh, but like legitimate brands, um, like guest jeans guest started making watches and Some other big 80s brands started getting in there on the watch scene like clearly ripping off swatches Yeah, um one brand was armotrons
a watch Yeah, I don't know what that is, but I went back and looked at them and I was like these are actually kind of cool They were they were all cool.
They actually pushed the envelope a little further like swatch came along and and Like laid the groundwork for other people to go even more crazy with their watches and on the tron was one of them And so there's nothing wrong with some friendly competition swatch had no problems with that What swatch
had a problem with was the counterfeits that were flooding the market.
Yeah about as fast as Genuine swatches were selling.
Yeah watches seem to be one of the most uh, counterfeited Sort of high -end items and I guess in this case not as high -end but uh, you know fake Rolexes There's always been a market for counterfeit watches and swatches was no different Uh, they were selling 11 ,000 legitimate watches a day a day in 1984
And they estimated that 10 ,000 fakes were being imported every day.
Man. That's crazy. Yeah Uh, you said that they were kind of trying to get their fingers into every cool thing that was emerging at the time Another thing I saw was that they um sponsored the impact skateboarding tour.
Oh, yeah starting in 1988.
That was a big one, too And then also one of the other things swatch became really famous for was collaborating with artists like the hottest artists of the day Uh, and the big one the one that really kind of put it all over the top was one of the early ones in 1986 They um, they had keith herring designed
four different watches and they are today I think the most coveted swatches like ever by collectors.
Yeah for sure. Uh, I mean they're cool looking It's keith herring and it's on a watch base.
So What more do you need to know?
Uh, they went to andy warhol first and he said no, I don't have time for this He said but you should get this guy keith herring Um, I think if you have an entire Like primo collection of those four You can get, you know up to a hundred grand for those four watches at auction Yeah, and the way that you
tell their primo is you take your pinky and you dab it on the watch bezel.
Yeah And stick it to your tongue or maybe your gums and you're like, yeah, that's a primo watch man.
This is pure pure bezel Um, so they they also uh aside from herring they collaborated with a bunch of other artists yoko ono She delivered one with a bunch of butts naked bottoms.
That's a super yoko ono thing to do pig caso The pig that paints.
Oh, yeah I can't believe that they didn't clean up the art that they used from him.
It's just too It's too appealing.
Yeah, it's not there's no mess ups in it.
You know what I mean?
Yeah I just I think they may have done that.
Um, and then alfred hof hof hof kunst hof kunst What would you say mr.
Laffey? uh Alfred I would probably say a hof kunst I'm pretty sure I said that in one of the five times I tried it i'm sure you did Well, anyway, he had another legendary.
Um released in 1991.
He designed three swatches that were basically Food it looked like food one was bacon and eggs One's a disturbing looking cucumber puffy cucumber Another's a tomato and then the big marketing thing that came up with for this is that in europe?
You bought them in the grocery aisles of a supermarket.
That's where you could get those swatches, which is kind of cool Yeah, I feel like you could get swatches in a lot of different places uh, like Maybe if you lived in a big enough city, you had an actual swatch store Mm -hmm, but didn't they just sell them at like, you know, the the poster head shops
and places like that, too Yeah, that was another thing too.
You could also get them at like department stores like you could get them all over the place, right?
Yeah, um and They figured that out.
I read after they tried the traditional route, which is sending them to jewelry stores And in the u .s.
They did not catch on immediately because they're the main The main stores that they tried to sell swatches through to the united states first Were jewelry stores in san antonio, texas And they didn't sell very well.
They went back to the drawing board They're like, let's try this a different way And then they started to sell them all over the place And then they they took off very quickly in the u .s After that and they're like middle america doesn't want these so we're going to go To the coasts and the coast supported
swatch for a very long time until they caught on in the midwest They couldn't even sell their uh, there's no basement in the alamo swatch there That's right.
So, you know, there was trouble Mm -hmm.
I lived in the midwest.
I grew up in the midwest and I don't think I got my first watch until 1986 probably You know, my first swatch is coming in the mail in the next week.
I've never owned one Yeah, I can't wait to see that one when it arrives Yeah, part of it was it like I said, I didn't wear watches back then but I don't know.
I think the other thing is just like Uh, I mean you're lucky you got one because you kind of grew up how I did which was like Hey, if it's cool and costs money, you're not getting it.
Yeah. No for sure. I did too.
I wore nights of the round table shirts I i've said more than once but good for you.
You got that swatch, you know, I worked worked myself to the bone.
Yeah Uh cutting the lawns.
What were you doing?
Walking the dog cutting lawns taking out the trash So you bought it yourself then it wasn't like a christmas gift No, I I my parents still got it for me Okay It didn't make that much money, but I think it's still it were only like 30 or 40 dollars But yeah, and that was a lot of dough though.
It was but it was still Most people with a job could afford a swatch no problem.
Essentially. I was just 10 You know, yeah, I was too busy spending, you know, eight dollars to go to concerts in arenas when I was 12 years old For my busboy wages.
That's awesome Wait 12 you started working at 12 josh.
I was a busboy at a barbecue restaurant when I was 12 years old No, I know that's where the guy put his foot in the brunch wicks too.
That's legendary but I never caught on it That it was 12 It was 12.
It was totally illegal and under the table Uh, yeah, and it's what's so funny as i'm trying to imagine everyone who doesn't know the brunch wicks 2 story Wondering what in the world you're talking about, uh, you can go listen to restaurant health inspections is the story where that data Okay.
Yeah, and it's it's popped up weirdly several times Well, it's kind of an important story It's funny.
It just came up last night.
We were watching an episode of the bear which by the way I don't like this new season.
I'm not sure if you're into it or not I couldn't get into I watched the first episode or two and I just it wasn't for me of the whole show or the new season The whole show.
Oh, okay. Yeah first two seasons good.
I'm not liking this one anyway There was a scene in the walk -in cooler Where the guys just sitting in there and I was like, oh god, I used to love the walk -in cooler Because it always gets so hot And I would be working over the dishwasher and just sweating with all that steam And I would go in the someone
asked me to go to the walk -in to get something and I would always take twice as long Just so I could be there in the coolness and watch randy put his foot in the Man, that is so gross, dude Like I could throw up now if I really stopped and thought about it for a while.
I know I think I think we need a break.
All right, let's take a break Hi Hi, i'm essi cup and I've spent the last 20 plus years knee deep in politics in the news I've covered some really tough subjects from war to genocide to six presidential elections way too much trump You know what?
I need a break like a mental health break from the news From the triggering headlines and I kind of suspect some of you listening out there might need a break too So my new podcast is going to be just that A fun and loose space where I talk to my famous friends and people I admire about all the stuff
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I had no sex in the 70s Um what I made no money in the 80s So when true crime came along I missed that trend too So many great guests are joining me from josh mankewitz to larry willmore to molly john fast to josh gab.
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swoops and tariqah foster brassby an iheart women's sports production and partnership with deep blue sports and entertainment You can find us on the I heart radio app apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast Presented by elf beauty founding partner of I heart women's sports Hey everybody.
The time has finally come this week starting monday, october 7th going daily through friday October 11th bohen yang and I matt rogers are unveiling the iconic 400 yes, these are the top 400 people in all of culture and we're Unveiling all of them number three 372 nancy karrigan We will never really
know why We have worked tirelessly on this list.
I'm mekah babaro. That's really good.
Once you hear i'm mekah babaro You know exactly who was talking and we really think it's gonna resonate christina No Happily flying a pride flag also there might be a little bit of a surprise or two in there So listen carefully hint hint friday Listen to lost cojores thus on will ferrell's big money
players network on the I heart radio app apple podcast or wherever you get your podcasts So Chuck's swatch watches weren't the only things that swatch made if you were live in the 80s Almost anything that swatch made in the first five years was super cool Just landed.
There was the phone swatch, which was just like the jellyfish It was a see -through phone so you could see all the parts and they use very colorful parts.
Yeah to make the phone One of the cooler phones of all time Uh, there was that maxi swatch the wall clock that I was talking about There was this was one of my favorites I can still almost smell one of them the granita de fruga line the italian ice line it smelled right Yeah, the pink one was raspberry
and that's the one I can remember smelling the yellow one smelled like banana The green one smelled like mint how long though like after being that rubber band on your Sweaty wrist in the summertime.
What did that thing smell like after a month?
I mean not good, but when you first got it, it was amazing I can remember that smell and I can remember the smell of strawberry shortcake.
Do you remember how she smelled?
No, I didn't play with strawberry shortcake For my for my money one of the best smelling dolls of all time.
Okay But so anyway, not everything that swatch put out especially after the first few years was a hit Um, there were some flops There were some middle of the road ones and then there were some others that were like, yeah, this is pretty good Yeah, and this is mainly through the 90s they tried to branch
into You know like the cell phone market and stuff like that when that became a thing I think 93 was when they teamed up with, uh, nokia Uh to make a swatch looking cell phone So, you know that didn't sell so great Uh, they had some other ideas that kind of came and went again not selling so great None
of these were like bona fide hits, right?
Uh, the twin phone from 1989 was it was like memphis design Um, and like the it had a handset and then the base also doubled as a second handset So yeah, fran could talk on the phone.
That was a good idea at the same time.
Yeah, and it looked cool too But then there was stuff like the swatch beat which was from 1998 where they essentially tried to recreate how we um Track time by dividing the day up into 1 000 beats Um, so 000 beats was midnight 999 beats was 11 59 pm and each beat was 86 .4 seconds and everybody said
Swatch yeah, we've been using 60 seconds for a really long time and we're all pretty comfortable with it We're just gonna stick with that uh, yeah, exactly, uh, make your swatches and make them like we love them, uh, although in the 90s is when they started Um, they started making mechanical watches
again under the swatch banner Uh and started making sort of higher end stuff, uh watches with metal cases um partnering with Some of their other you know luxury brands to make you know, sort of hybrid Luxury swatches and like you said early on you can still You know get like a 300 swatch these days.
It's mechanical and metal Um, yeah, which is you know, it's cool to diversify a little bit.
I guess and those seem to be selling.
Okay Yeah, and I mean they definitely did diversify They had a digital touch screen watch years before the the apple watch like they they really have done some Innovative stuff.
It's just a lot of it hasn't caught on But one that one thing that they kind of branched off into that.
I wasn't aware it was swatch But it was the smart car.
It was a collaboration with mercedes and smart stands for Swatch mercedes art car.
Who knew did you know that?
Of course not nobody knows it Yeah, but I thought that was pretty cool.
It was originally going to be called the swatch mobile It would have never sold but I think it would have been a pretty cool secondary market collectors item for sure second car the scar That's right.
Hey, you know what?
Uh scott aukerman friend of the show He actually I was on comedy bang bang as a guest and he told me can't remember how it came up But he told me that factoid about the swatch car Oh really of that.
It's did for swatch mercedes art car had no idea Yeah, and I didn't know this is before we had covered swatches so I didn't know at the time and he wasn't sure and I told them that if that Well, we found out it was true and I told him that I would Shot him out on the show But yeah, if you want to check
out that episode of comedy bang bang Uh, I was on it with scott and the gang and it was a lot of fun.
Very cool uh, so like we said swatch came along and they it saved the watch industry in switzerland so much so That all of those amazing luxury brands like tiso and omega and longines They're all owned by the swatch group That's how that's how important swatch was to the swiss market that it was like.
Yeah, it's swatch. We're all swatch And that's how you can find those brands still today And to kind of give you an idea of how much of a hit swatch was in 1983 They sold 1 .1 million swatches around the world Three years later they were selling 12 million a year That's pretty impressive as far as the whole
thing goes Yeah, if you want a dollar figure for the companies when they merged they were losing 124 million dollars a year 10 years later after the swatch comes along they were posting profits of 286 million dollars a year And as of last year in 2023 Uh, the swatch group is reporting profits of more than a billion dollars Uh,
which is amazing. What a success story.
Uh, I think they're selling like Close to 6 million actual swatches a year still still yeah And I mean part of that is because they release so many there's so many swatches and people just love them and they're cheap enough But I mean it's still impressive.
However, you slice it.
That's incredible There's one other fact that I love that I wanted to throw in So because those parts were sealed into the case when the case was built or injected You couldn't repair a swatch.
I think you still can't An original plastic swatch you couldn't repair and when swatch first came out Everybody was up in arms about that So swatch conducted a study to figure out how long a swatch would last and they came up with 30 years So not bad if you're exactly if your 40 watch is going to last
you 30 years You can shut your mouth about whether you can repair it or not.
I think that was in their official press statement That's right.
You shut your mouth Uh, you got anything else?
I got nothing else.
This is a fun little trip down memory lane I can't wait for my swatch to get here.
I will post that on uh At chuck the podcaster And i'll throw it up on the stuff.
You should know instagram as well Very nice and since chuck mentioned that he is at chuck the podcaster on instagram.
That means it's time for a listener mail Would you post the his and hers Sure.
Yeah, I will. I now that i've talked about it.
I feel bad. I'm gonna start trying to wear it again Just see see what happens.
Yeah Uh, you know what in lieu of listener mail this week, we're gonna do something.
We haven't done in a long long time Uh, we are Here in year 17 still trying to grow this show everybody.
So this is a special call to go and Rate and review us on itunes Or anywhere that you can rate and review stuff.
You should know that stuff really helps us and kind of like the old days like tell tell your friends and family and co -workers like how much you enjoy the show if you do and That that helps us out We're we're still looking to grow this show after all these years and the way we did it from day one Was
very much organically through word of mouth.
So we're we're asking you again for a nudge Yeah Thanks in advance for any nudge you can give us everybody uh In the meantime before you give us a nudge or while you're giving us a nudge At any point if you want to get in touch with us and say hi or whatever you or send us photos of your swatches That's
great. You can send it off to stuff podcasts at iheartradio .com So Stuff you should know is a production of iheart radio For more podcasts my heart radio visit the iheart radio app apple podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite shows Hi i'm esee cup and i've spent my career interviewing people
about politics Presidential elections and some really tough breaking news But now I need a break and I think you do too So on my new podcast off the cup i'll still be interviewing people usually famous and most likely my friends But about life, you know the stuff that consumes us when we're not consumed
by politics So come join me every wednesday for some conversational self -care Listen to off the cup on the iheart radio app apple podcasts or wherever you get your favorite shows I'm sheryl swoops and i'm turica foster bratsby and on our new podcast We're talking about the real obstacles women face
day to day because no matter who you are There are levels to what we experience as women and t and I have no problem going there Listen to levels to this with sheryl swoops and turica foster bratsby an iheart women's sports production in partnership with deep blue sports You can find us on the iheart
radio app apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast Presented by capital one founding partner of iheart women's sports Hey everybody, the time has finally come this week starting october 7th through october 11th That's monday through friday.
Everybody we are revealing the iconic 400 yes bo and yang and I famously missed our 400th episode here on las culture east us But we are ready to reveal the iconic 400 who is on the list.
Does it matter? No, will it be fun?
Yeah, there might even be a surprise or two in there.
So listen carefully Listen to las culture east us on will ferrell's big money players network on the iheart radio app apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts
