The following article was produced in partnership with Swatch.
Consider the inherent qualities that make Swatch so iconic: daring, provocative, groundbreaking and endlessly creative. Sound familiar?
Since 1983, Swatch has dared to stick out from the crowd with innovative and joyful timepieces that challenged the status quo, demanding that the world’s watch enthusiasts sit up and take notice.
The same could be said for breakdancing. Now, I’m not talking about Australia’s viral Raygun moment during this year’s Paris 2024. The origins of the movement itself run deep, rooted within the crosssection of culture found in New York in the 1980s.
Neighbourhoods like the East Village were alive with the sights and sounds of today’s emerging subcultures. If you took a walk around the Bronx, you would have seen the rise of the era’s creative expression: huge murals and street art adorning the walls, hip-hop DJs spinning vinyl and looping breaks on the turntables, and breakdancers taking to the pavement.
Both Swatch and breakdancing burst onto the scene in an era of creative rebellion; a form of collective expression that broke away from convention. Swatch’s timepieces, with their bold designs, playful colours and new materials, disrupted the traditions of watchmaking, embracing individuality in a way that few brands would ever consider at the time.
Swatch watches became a statement piece for the youth culture of the 1980s; a reflection of the audacity to be different, mirroring the vibrant, kinetic energy of breakdancing like nothing else on the market. And so, on 20 September 1984, Swatch hosted the first-ever World Breakdance Championship in New York City. 40 years on, the watch group’s ‘Swatchtitude’ continues to BREAK FREE.
With the first products launched on 3 October, Swatch’s latest BREAK FREE collection takes its inspiration from the first event in 1984, utilising the unique talents of one of America’s most recognisable artists to give the brand’s latest models a contemporary twist.
Keith Haring’s signature style has defined an era of bold, graphic street art, not only in the U.S. but across the globe. His work, known for its vibrant lines and social commentary, was a natural fit for both Swatch and the enduring breakdancing scene – a confident partnership that represents freedom, movement, and rebellion against convention.
“That’s what kind of art interests me the most and always has; invention and some kind of, not endowing but, embodying some kind of basically human spirit into an object. Whether it’s on a canvas, or on an object, or a carved piece of wood or whatever this thing is, it’s this transformation of these raw materials by a human spirit or a human thought.”
Keith Haring
With three watches in the first wave – BREAK TIME, BREAKS OFF and BREAK LOOSE – Swatch has delivered three distinct designs whilst maintaining the brand’s Swiss-made DNA. The BREAKS OFF and BREAK LOOSE pieces feature two contemporary reworks of the original World Breakdance Championship poster in both monochrome and Swatch’s inherently bold colourway.
The BREAK TIME boasts the design from the 1984 winner’s Swatch, first created by the Swiss duo Schmid and Muller. Utilising Haring’s peerless palate of creative expression, BREAK TIME is a true collector’s item and a hallmark of this new collection.
Swatch BREAK FREE collection is available across stores in Collins Street, Pitt Street, Bondi Junction, Queen Street, Chermside and Murray Street and online.