The Swatch Gent was part of the first collection of twelve models that Swatch introduced in Zürich on 1 March 1983. Early models carried code marks rather than names, and the black Gent with gold-tone hands and a plain “Swatch Quartz / Swiss” dial is one of the best known of those first watches. The case is a single piece of plastic measuring 34mm, with two bridges that strengthen the connection to the strap. Instead of a separate movement, the bottom of the case also serves as the base plate for the quartz movement, which ETA engineers Elmar Mock and Jacques Müller reduced to 51 components, a project known as “Revolution 51”. The case was closed with a new ultrasonic welding process, so the watch was designed to be assembled by machine rather than serviced. It shows hours, minutes and seconds and runs on a battery.

The project was led by Ernst Thomke, then chief executive of ETA, who presented the collection at a press conference on launch day. Its aim was to win back the entry-level market that Swiss makers had lost to cheap Japanese quartz watches during the quartz crisis, and to make an analogue watch fashionable again while digital displays were popular. Prices started between CHF 39.90 and CHF 49.90 and were standardised at CHF 50 in the autumn of 1983, low enough that customers often bought more than one. Sales targets were one million watches in 1983 and 2.5 million the year after. In 1985 Nicolas G. Hayek and a group of Swiss investors took control of the group that became SMH and later the Swatch Group, which grew around the success of this plastic watch.

Watch writers treat the first Gent as the watch that changed the Swiss industry. Fratello calls it “the plastic watch that changed everything” and notes that it was an instant success from the moment it reached the market. Its critics have always pointed to what made it cheap: a welded case that cannot be opened for service and a disposable character. For collectors, 1983 originals in good condition, especially with their original box and papers, are the starting point of a large and active Swatch collecting scene, and complete examples can sell for well above the original price. The original 1983 Gent is no longer produced. Swatch continues the idea in its Originals line of plastic-cased watches.