Swatch is the name of the world-famous watchmaking company, which was established in 1983 in Switzerland. Famous for its affordable prices yet higher quality and extraordinary design watches, the brand is known across the globe and distributed its products through hundreds of its stores.
Though Swatch is a very progressive brand, which introduced a new colorful design every year, the visual identity is something, that is very important for the company, and once it was set in 1983, it has never been changed.
By not redesigning its logo, Swatch made the emblem iconic and instantly recognizable in every continent of the world, as it’s been associating with stylish watches for decades.
The modern and fancy logo, designed in 1983 is composed of a lowercase wordmark in a custom typeface, written in black and placed on the left from the square emblem, which features a solid red background and a white cross on it. Yes, the emblem of the brand is the national flag of Switzerland, but it looks like a contemporary icon, being accompanied by confident unique lettering.
The clean geometry of the Swatch emblem balances the fancy-looking letter is of its logotype, creating a complete picture and showing the brand at its best: with the value of roots, though willingness to grow and innovate.
The Swatch logotype in the lowercase is executed in a smooth and futuristic sans-serif typeface, which has all letters’ corners rounded, and the contour of the “A” open. The “S” looks a bit horizontally stretched canvas which adds progress and dynamics to the wordmark, which the soft “W” evokes a friendly and welcoming feeling.
As for the color palette, the Swatch visual identity is executed in the most traditional and timeless tricolor — red, black, and white. The combination of these colors can make any image look powerful and modern, though is the case with Swatch, it also reflects the brand’s roots and the country of its origin.
In fact, the Swatch symbol includes the flag of Switzerland, which is a white cross on the red background. This emblem (or, to be precise, its inverted version) is probably more known as the symbol of the Red Cross movement, which, in its turn, is based on the flag of Switzerland.