Clip-On Clocks Are Clicking

Just a decade ago, Switzerland seemed doomed to lose its place as the superpower of time. Tokyo was ticking ahead with inexpensive wristwatches that captured a larger and larger share of the market. But in 1983 the jazzy and fashionable Swatch, which sells for $30, buzzed into markets from Singapore to San Francisco and rescued the Swiss industry in the nick of time. Now Swatch has a new Swiss competitor clipping at its heels.

Le Clip, a quartz fashion watch set into a clothespin-like plastic clip that is designed to be worn almost anywhere except the wrist, has captured markets in 20 countries. The clip sells at about the same price as a Swatch and comes in 60 models, with such names as Tutti Frutti and Panther. Following the European debut of Le Clip in mid-1986, retailers sold more than 1 million within twelve months. The watch has now traveled to the U.S., where the manufacturer aims to sell a total of 750,000 within a year. Le Clip is hottest in California, where the trendsetting teenagers of the San Fernando Valley have made it the accessory of the moment.

Le Clip is the brainchild of Michel Jordi, 39, a former manufacturer of watch straps from tiny Grenchen, Switzerland. He and Heinz Peter Barandun, a former bank executive, along with two others, privately financed the project and started production only six months later. "We couldn't have done it if we had been a large company," says Barandun, now Le Clip chairman. "As a small group, we saw its potential and just went ahead."

While Le Clip is not likely to overtake Swatch anytime soon, the watch has already been honored by knockoff artists. Three factories producing Le Clip copies were recently closed down in Hong Kong. Company officials hope the half a million fakes in a crown colony cellar never see the light of day.