Swatch shakes things up with sporty new Chrono Automatic 

Swiss fashion watch and jewellery maker Swatch has shaken up the traditional watchmaking world with the launch of its Swatch Chrono Automatic Collection. The debut collection comprises five sporty models offering stylish looks, rugged design and precision timing. For the popular Swiss makers of fashionable accessories for the wrist, the Chrono Automatic represents an audacious challenge to a market dominated by upscale brands and traditional, more conservative design. The Swiss firm’s ever-inventive and creative designers have wrapped the inimitable Swatch look and feel around a new self-winding movement, putting assured chrono automatic performance and extraordinary style within easy reach of adventurers everywhere.
Each of the five debut models in the Swatch Chrono Automatic Collection features a moulded plastic case; disc-shaped windows in the crystal glass caseback present an unobstructed view of the fascinating mechanical movement within. The heart of the Swatch Chrono Automatic is the new self-winding ETA Calibre C01.211, a fifteen-jewel, 3Hz movement with a 46-hour power reserve. The thirty-minute and six-hour chrono counters are positioned at 12 and 6 o’clock, respectively, while the continuous seconds counter appears at 9 o’clock. A date aperture appears on all models at 3 o’clock. Designed to appeal to active, style-conscious men with an eye for sporty design, precision quality and value, the Swatch Chrono Automatic is guaranteed to shake things up in Switzerland and beyond.

Frequently asked questions:

What is an Automatic watch?
Watch with automatic winding. The movements of the arm wind the mainspring by means of an oscillating weight (5b - see page 3) that turns feely on its arbor. Acting or working by itself “without” human assistance.
This type of watches is at the origin of the Swiss handmade watches.

What is a Chronograph?
A watch indicating hours, minutes and seconds combined with a mechanism whose hand canbe started, stopped and returned to zero on demand to measure duration to one fifth, of asecond. Sub counters for the minutes and hours (usually 30 minutes and 12 hours) totalize the number of revolutions by the chronograph hand.

What is the Swatch Chrono Automatic?
This new ETA movement C01.211 incarnates the strategic interest with technical, innovative, and realizable movements in great series.
Indeed, C01.211 is presented in the form of a simplified mechanical stop watch of which all the production and the assembly were rationalized and automated to the maximum.
To start with the basic turntable, this has one level whereas in general several are found. The advantage of this choice: a facilitated and more rapid production. In the same spirit, the second part of the turntable is manufactured by injection of a synthetic material.
Again Swatch as achieved a technological revolution:  the gauge/movement counts only 184 components, a tiny figure in comparison with the other chronograph movements.

Differences with a standard Swath Chrono:

Is the watch water resistant?
Yes, as all our Swatch watches are at least water resistant up to 30m or more. In this case, the Chrono Automatic is water resistant up to 30m.

Can you polish the glass?
The Chrono Automatic has a high quality sapphire glass. It gives an excellent protection against scratches but you cannot polish it. The back is made of crystal glass. N.B. A sapphire glass can only be scratched with a diamond or a sapphire!

Of which material is made the case?
The case is made of synthetic material – Polyamide first synthesized about 70 years ago. It has become one of the most important thermoplastic polymers. Characterized by outstanding technical properties:

Can you repair the watch?
The Chrono Automatic is the first repairable and dismountable Swatch watch.
The spare parts, tools, the technical documents and the procedure will be communicated on further step.

What is the Margin of the Chrono Automatic?
As you know, the Swatch Automatic watches are mechanical watches. For the mechanical watches the energy does not come from a battery, but arises from the moving of the arm.
An oscillating weight, which rotates when the watch is worn, winds up the drive spring of the barrel (1 – see page 3) .
Mechanical watches are more fragile than quartz watches. They react more sensitively to temperature fluctuations, knocks and the way they are worn. Therefore, a mechanical watch does not run as precisely as a quartz watch and inaccuracies of  ± 20 seconds per day can arise.
From experience we know that a mechanical watch tends towards inaccuracy as long as it is new. This usually regulates itself with the time. When the watch is after margin control not accurate (inaccuracies of more than ± 20 seconds per day), you have to adjust the margin in the service center and not to exchange the product!
The same adjusting as for our Automatic watches can be applied.