News With its Instant Stores, Swatch has no desire to attain the pinnacle of fashion, but to mark its presence temporarily in the most unusual places.
The pace of life is forever increasing; the public is becoming more and more unpredictable; trends come and go at an ever faster pace and often spread across the globe instantly. In large cities, one finds generally the same chains of stores along the most famous shopping thoroughfares, at most in a different order. With its Instant Stores, Swatch has decided to remedy this state of affairs.
The concept of points of sale that can be set up and dismantled in the twinkling of an eye allows Swatch to appear anywhere in the world where the stage is set for stimulation or excitement. Instant Stores will sprout up like mushrooms in all major cities, will make their ephemeral presence felt, and will then relocate, in the space of a day, to another venue. This "guerrilla" philosophy and a flexible infrastructure will allow Swatch to react quickly and to seize the most unexpected occasions. If necessary, it will be possible to set up a point of sale for a single day or an evening. An Instant Store can therefore be erected virtually instantly to coincide with a festival or an event. But an Instant Store can also be installed in a given location for a month, a year or even longer.
Ephemeral points of sale need a pragmatic installation concept, with flexible interior fittings. The designers of Instant Stores have therefore developed a module that can be installed and dismantled with all requisite speed. Instant Stores are designed around this module – and it alone. It consists of two modified hexagons, which can be used in extremely flexible ways: they can serve as a display space or as furniture for a portable computer, as a chaise longue or as a table. Aluminium rails allow the attachment of presentation equipment. With this futuristic and versatile installation, Instant Stores will surprise, arouse curiosity and stimulate new experiences.
The designers of the Instant Store are, in a way, the "bad boys" of Swatch. They have even gone so far as to hijack the company’s logo, which has been pirated and covered with a Swiss cross transformed into an asterisk. This allows messages to be added to the logo.
After a lightning first appearance on the fringes of this summer’s Montreux Jazz Festival, the inauguration of the first Swatch Instant Store took place on 9 July in Berlin. Significantly, Swatch chose to install it not on the very upper-class Kurfürstendamm, but in the happening district of Berlin Mitte, on the Münzstrasse 18. For installation of the point of sale, in addition to the modules themselves, the team on call needed only an old truck, a few construction materials and four days. When the electrician hired for the job asked to see drawings of the premises, all he got in return was a shrug of the shoulders.
In terms of promotion, too, the Instant Store was not afraid of being provocative by causing noise, excitement and amusement: two days before the inauguration, Mexican wrestlers and international kung-fu artists "spread mayhem" in the streets and alleys of Berlin Mitte as they distributed flyers in between show bouts. They were accompanied by mariachis musicians, who provided "the sound" for the performances.
July 15, 2005
