TRIWA: A New SWATCH Story?

It never ceases to amaze me how many people do not know what SWATCH stands for: Second Watch. As the legend goes, the brand was created in 1983 to save the flailing Swiss mechanical watch industry during their "quartz war" against the inexpensive Japanese-made digital watches, by creating a mass-market, low-priced product with irresistible fashion appeal. The rest is history.

Fast forward four decades into an era when no brand can aim at any kind of significant global success without a clear, positive, humanistic and preferably environmental purpose, and we may be witnessing the birth of another Swatch-alike phenomena: enter TRIWA. And yes, you've guessed it, it's another acronym, this time for "Transforming the Industry of Watches". Since a mere fashion statement would be deemed too frivolous these days, TRIWA claims that "we want to use the symbolic value and placement of the watch for something more relevant and create modern statement symbols instead of traditional status symbols.?By designing watches with stories that transcend style, trends and status we hope to highlight important issues of our time." And they're off to a great start: "Time for Change" is the umbrella theme behind their Swedish-designed collections, and they have already raised two major banners: "Time for Oceans", and "Time for Peace".

In the "Time for Oceans" collection, every watch is made from salvaged ocean plastics. A very simple idea already employed by major brands like Adidas and others across the world.

In the Time for Peace collection, it gets even better: destroyed weapons from obsolete military and/or confiscated trafficking stocks are melted down to create "Humanion Metal", which then incorporates every timepiece. Brilliant.

While only time - and close attention - will tell whether these are sincere commitments or vain purpose statements, the right ideas and brilliant executions are already there. And I, for one, will keep my eye on this brand, since my vast collection of Swatches seems to be looming behind me.