Swatch’s New ‘Break Free’ Watches Celebrate Keith Haring’s Artwork

Welcome to Dialed In, Esquire’s column bringing you horological happenings and the most essential news from the watch world.

Four decades ago, the folks at Swatch decided to host the first ever World Breakdance Championship. This was no small thing for a Swiss watch brand, especially one that was founded just a year beforehand in 1983. But unlike many makers from the cradle of high horology, Swatch was didn’t have decades or centuries of history informing the way it did business. Instead, the new company was focused on innovation and breaking through to a new audience while the impact of the quartz crisis—in which traditional mechanical makers were shaken to their core by the sudden and ubiquitous availability of inexpensive, quartz-driven models—was still reverberating throughout the watch world.

Besides, Swatch itself was in the business of quartz watches. And the attitude around them was all about accessibility, youth culture, and new, decidedly un-fussy wearers. “The values Swatch was built on, along with proudly being Swiss-made, have never changed,” explains Swatch CEO Alain Villard. “Joy of life, creativity, innovation, self-expression, and positive provocation are all here to stay.”

Haring’s poster for the World Breakdance Championship in 1984.

Considering all that, a breakdance competition in New York City made perfect sense—as did the decision to team with influential artist Keith Haring for the artwork promoting the event. Now legendary for his instantly recognizable iconography, Haring was right in the middle of his rise to fame at the time. His poster, plastered throughout the city, featured a breakdancer with a watch dial for a head below a hand-drawn Swatch logo.

“Swatch’s collaborations with Keith Haring have helped establish our long-standing relationship with the art world and solidified our reputation for pushing boundaries in design,” says Villard. “It’s an enduring connection that continues to resonate today, as consumers are drawn to the unique energy and cultural significance that his work represents.”

Swatch ‘Breaks Off’ Watch

Now, after 40 years, the artwork is finally showing up on an actual Swatch—two, in fact. A duo of Bioceramic What If? watches, available now, feature Haring’s artwork on the face. One is presented in full color. Another, in black and white. They’re joined by a reinterpretation of the watch gifted to the original competition winners, featuring artwork by Swiss design team Schmid and Muller.

A second drop from the “Break Free” collection, as Swatch is calling it, features something really special: a watch based on the original artwork given to Swatch and used to create the Modele Avec Personage watch from the 1986 collaboration with Keith Haring. It’ll be available on October 17.

The new From the Archive watch featuring Haring’s artwork.

“When we decided to honor the 40th anniversary of the World Breakdance Championship, we did a deep dive into our own archives and knew that we had to liberate this unique artwork and bring it to a new generation of art lovers,” says Villard. “The watch is truly exceptional because the original work has been recreated exactly on the dial and, while the figures are picked out in ink, the original pencil drawings and artist’s notes are clearly visible.”

In the end, Villard says, it’s all about tapping into the energy of that original event in 1984—and of Haring’s work in general: “The Break Free collection really underlines what happens when you give people time, space, and freedom to express themselves.”