From watch to smartwatch: innovation against the clock

As part of the month-long celebration of the Francophonie, swissnex Boston and its Café des Sciences partners invites you to La Grande Soirée Scientifique: Interview with Elmar Mock, the inventor of Swatch.

Interviewed by Heidi Legg of TheEditorial.com // Presentation in English

Wearable devices and smart watches are quickly emerging onto the market—and as a result the traditional watch industry now faces disruptive changes. New players are finding their way into the market, for example Apple has announced the Apple Watch—but Swiss watchmakers are reluctant to adapt their strategies. A similar situation appeared in the seventies when the Swiss watchmakers faced tough competition from Japan.

It was thanks to leaders such as Elmar Mock and his world famous Swatch that Swiss watch manufacturers could regain their market shares. In this live interview, Elmar will share his perspectives on how today’s traditional watchmakers can proactively determine their best course, and will provide valuable lessons from his 20 plus years of experience in disruptive innovation.

Elmar Mock is the co-inventor of SWATCH. He is a public figure in Switzerland and across Europe, challenging status quos and shaking industries with disruptive inventions.

Elmar revolutionized the Swiss watch industry, which in the 70’s was losing market share to Japanese quartz watches. Hungry to provide new inventions for the benefit of society, he founded the innovation factory Creaholic, where he currently acts as Managing Partner. Creaholic tackles problems using a horizontal strategy, working across disciplines, departments, and industries. It is based in Biel, the French part of Switzerland.

Through Creaholic and a team of 30 multidisciplinary fellows (scientists, designers, IP experts, economists), he engaged in more than 700 projects with clients in a wide variety of verticals.

Elmar is co-author of the book La Fabrique de l'innovation, ed. Dunod (June 6, 2012.) English translation will be available soon.

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Heidi Legg is the Founder of TheEditorial.com where she interviews visionaries and thinkers around her in Boston and Cambridge, USA. She weaves together these big thinkers in their fields, using a singular long-format interview, much like The Paris Review for writers. She then brings these visionaries together for live events to discuss ideas around disruption, change, realities and utopias. Heidi’s work has been published in TheAtlantic.com, The Boston Globe’s BetaBoston.com, Thehuffingtonpost.com and theKnightsbridge-Village.com.

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