1998
• The lucky mascot Club Watch for 1998 is the Lucky 7 (1); the second
Club Special of the year, Happy Pig, is designed by Steve Guarnaccia.

• February 10: the French snowboarder Karine Ruby member of the
Swatch ProTeam, wins the first ladies’ gold medal for snowboarding
(giant slalom) in the history of the Olympic Games, at Nagano
(Japan).

• February 14: Launch of the Valentine’s Day Special Love Bite.

• March 14: final of the FIS Apine Ski World Cup in Crans-Montana,
Switzerland, where members of Swatch The Club meet with Nicolas G.
Hayek; Candy Dulfer in concert in the evening.

• March 17: Launch of the Official Watch of the 1998 World Fair in
Lisbon, the Swatch Access Adamastor (2) which can be used as an
entry to the Expo (May through September). Through this new model,
Swatch provides support for a WWF project to protect and maintain
the Bazaruto Archipelago in Mozambique. Auction of 120 watches
signed by famous people organized on the Internet and in Swatch
Stores.

• April 1: Nick Hayek Jr appointed President of Swatch Watch.

• World first: Nicolas G. Hayek unveils the Swatch Talk watch-phone
at the CeBit Fair in Hanover, Germany. The new Swatch Cordless II
Generation also presented.

• American movie director Spike Lee creates the Swatch Aquachrono
Special Wake Up (3).

• Spectacular launch of the Swatch Irony Scuba 200 in Death Valley,
USA, with Nick Hayek Jr, Peter Fonda, and the ’Cirque du Soleil’ circus.

• Opening of the Swatch Megastore on the Champs-Elysées in Paris,
France, to coincide with the 1998 Football World Cup; magnificent offi-
cial inauguration in September attended by Nicolas G. Hayek, Nick
Hayek Jr, and Tyra Banks plus many other guest celebrities and mem-
bers of Swatch The Club.

• Launch of the new Swatch Chrono Alarm line and the Autoquarz.

• June 24: the SMH is dead, long live the Swatch Group (4) !.

• As Official Timekeeper for the Mountain Bike World Cup, Swatch
launches the Swatch World Dual Series, an MTB parallel heat competi-
tion.

• With the Swatch Access Menang (5), the brand is Official Timekeeper
at the Commonwealth Games held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, as well
as the Goodwill Games in New York, with the Swatch Access Time for
Goodwill.

• Swatch marks the 100th anniversary of the Philippines with the
launch of the Swatch Philippine Centennial (6), available only in
that country.

• Swatch Taiwan celebrates the arrival of the Skin Jelly (7) with a spe-
cial packaging limited to only 3,000 pieces, and the millionth Swatch
sold in Taiwan with the artist Peter Marco, designer of the Swatch Artist
Alien Baby.

• A Swatch designed by a Princess - Love & Nature, created by
the grand-daughter of King Bhumipol of Thlailand to mark his 70th
birthday.

• The first Skin Special, Nuit Etoilée, set with 21 Wesselton diamonds
and produced in a numbered lirnited series of 9,999 launched with glam-
our in Amsterdam, one of the world’s rnajor diamonds centers.

• Launch of the Swatch X-mas Special, Sparkling Life - a watch em-
bodying the bubbliest of bubblies.

• First Swatch Store opened in lsrael, in Tel Aviv - the latest addition to
the 250 Swatch Stores worldwide.

• Swatch Internet Time (8) based on the new Biel Meridian (BMT)
launched in Biel by Nicolas G. Hayek, Nick Hayek Jr, and Nicholas
Negroponte, President of the MIT Media Lab, Boston, USA. Internet Time
divides the 24-hour day into 1000 units called ’.beats’.

• The new digital Swatch.Beat (9) line launched.

• Sixteen Gold Members nominated for 1999 on the basis of a photo
illustrating their relationship with Swatch.

• In conjunction with photographer Michel Comte Swatch creates the
largest cultural billboard in the world (10) (over 42,000 sq ft) on the
façade of the Georges Pompidou Center, concealing renovation work.