Le Pre De La Swatch, Nicolas Hayek, Est Dcd

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Le pre de la Swatch, Nicolas Hayek, est dcd
Swatch Group chairman Nicolas G. Hayek,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], seen here in 2008, died unexpectedly of heart failure at his workplace June 28, 2010, the company said in a statement. Hayek, who was 82 in February, was widely credited with saving the Swiss watchmaking industry when he completed the reorganisation of the ailing Asuag and SSIH watch companies, merging them into the new Swatch Group in 1985. (REUTERS/Christian Hartmann)
Nicolas Hayek, entrepreneur de gnie et inventeur de la fameuse montre Swatch, est dcd lundi d'une crise cardiaque l'ge de 82 ans. Cet homme au caractre bien tremp est l'origine du concept de montre bas prix qui a abouti la cration de la petite montre en plastique au design color, sans cesse renouvel, qui a rvolutionn le monde de l'horlogerie helvtique et lui a donn un second souffle au dbut des annes 1980. Positif, nergique, celui qui est galement l'inventeur de la Smart est parvenu au fil des ans btir un empire de renomme mondiale. Natif de Beyrouth, Nicolas Hayek occupait le poste de prsident et administrateur dlgu du Conseil d'administration depuis 1986.

Nicolas Hayek, 82, chairman and former chief executive of the giant Swiss watch-manufacturing firm Swatch, died June 18 at his office in Biel, Switzerland. He had a heart ailment.

The self-styled "Mr. Swatch" is credited with reinventing Swiss watchmaking in the 1980s by introducing radical cost-saving moves after he was asked to help close it down.

When Swiss banks asked Mr. Hayek's consultancy firm for a report on the Alpine country's watchmaking industry, the two main manufacturers were on the verge of bankruptcy. The banks thought Swiss watches could not compete with digital watches made in the Far East; the makers did not want to abandon their high prices and were rapidly losing market share.

Mr. Hayek maintained they could survive by making less-expensive products and charging a premium for top-of-the-range timepieces "Made in Switzerland" -- the traditional home of precision timekeeping.

Guided by Mr. Hayek's consultancy, the watchmaking companies merged to form SMH, in which Mr. Hayek bought a 51 percent share in 1984. Mr. Hayek reasoned that a cheap watch could tell time just as well as an expensive one, and SMH started to produce a plastic wristwatch -- the Swatch -- which revolutionized the industry. SMH was renamed the Swatch Group in 1998.

He introduced the use of plastic cases, quartz movements and mass production to hold down prices.

Although the Swatch brand became a global fashion success, Mr. Hayek also made money from the company's more upscale brands, such as Breguet, Calvin Klein, Longines and Omega. "People buy these watches like others buy Picassos," he told the International Herald Tribune in 2004.

Mr. Hayek became a national figure, respected as one of the economic leaders of Switzerland despite his very un-Swiss flamboyance. He also had a primary role in helping Swatch develop the Smart Car, in a venture with Daimler AG that was later bought out by the German carmaker. Mr. Hayek said that a city car only needed "room for two big adults and a crate of beer." In recent years, he became a vocal critic of the two big Swiss banks, Credit Suisse Group and UBS AG, saying their business practices were a threat to Switzerland's economy.

One of the richest people in Switzerland, according to Swiss magazine Bilanz,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], Mr. Hayek was born in Beirut in 1928. The family moved to Switzerland when he was 7 and Mr. Hayek went on to study chemistry, math and physics at France's Lyon University.

In 1963, he founded the management consultancy Hayek Engineering in Zurich, which has advised a wide variety of international companies including Nestl, Siemens and U.S. Steel.

But Mr. Hayek's big break came in 1982 with the famous report on watchmaking. He was passionate about timepieces,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], telling the British weekly the Sunday Times that watches were "emotional products."

"A watch is something people carry on their bare skin, sometimes 24 hours a day," he explained in a 2000 interview. "We have to convince every individual that this particular watch fits his or her personal style and lifestyle to the best."

Known to wear as many as four watches on each arm, Mr. Hayek said that Swatch produced "beauty, sensuality, emotionality in watches -- and we also produce high-tech on your wrists." Mr. Hayek began to wind down his career when his son, Nick Hayek, took over as Swatch chief executive in 2003. Mr. Hayek senior stayed on as president and remained active in the running of the company.
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