Customer Reviews

Swatch: A Guide for Connoisseurs and Collectors

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Somewhat disappointed, not a guide for the collector. Covers very little in terms of particular Swatches. Only lists a handful of Swatches from each category, not the exhaustive list the tittle leads you to believe. On the other hand, if you are obsessed with the most interesting watch ever produced, then you should have this book. Just don't expect to use it for looking up unknown Swatches. If anyone knows of a good book that lists all Swatches made please let me know mark.duncan@mindspring.com .

I have the 1998 version of this book, I have Swatch Yourself book from 1991 and Bonello's Swatch-Collector 2000 book. I will give a brief overview of them in comparison.

Swatch: A guide for.... covers the years 1982 to 1996.

Pros: 19 pages of info about the evolution of the creation of the Swatch watch.
Pictures are of good quality.

Cons: Too few pictures. Some pictures that are in the texts margins are not identified.


Swatch Yourself: Covers years 1983 to 1991.

Pros: Many Swatch watches pictured, great pictures with index in back.
Very large book.

Cons: No nuts and bolts info about the history of the swatch or identifing
model features.


Bonello's Swatch-Collector: Covers the years 1983 to 1999.

Pros: Has the most listed and pictured swatces of all 3 books.
Index included.
Nuts and bolts about what the watch codes mean.

Cons: picture quality not as good as the other two books.
No historical info.

Having more than one swatch book is a must

I'll keep it short; The book is hardly a "guide". It's a poorly written, unnecessarily opinionated overview of Swatches...

That said, it does feature some interesting historical and production sections. The author glosses over various models, with nice photos and layouts. Unfortunately, worthwhile text in the book is overshadowed by tiresome blathering, as if readers need pictures described to them... Don't pay too much, or read too much, lest you regret it.

I enjoyed this book. It's pictures were very nice and of course colorful. Had a good introduction to the history of Swatch watches and also informitive for the beginner collector. Nice book overall.