Inside Swatch Group’s futuristic new headquarters

Swatch group opened the doors to its new US$221-million headquarters earlier this month, and naturally, Esquire to celebrate one of the most impressive and innovative watch brand centres in the world.

There are two parts to the Shigeru Ban-designed building, a five-floor, 240-meter-long main structure, along with the Cité du Temps, a 28-meter-high building with approximately 1.5-million tiles on its side.

The Cité du Temps is home to both Planet Swatch and Omega museums that detail each brand’s heritage. Some 6,234 Swatch watch variations are on show (out of the total 9,154 produced by the brand since 1983).

The headquarters opened in the town of Biel, Switzerland and Swatch Group CEO Nick Hayek Jr. hopes the new building will help put the small town on the architectural map.

The building was designed by Japanese architect Shigeru Ban and features a striking honeycomb design. According to Hayek Jr., the building “heralds in a new chapter in the history of the brand.”

The building also stands testament to the chairman and CEO’s late father, Nicolas G. Hayek, who began the project in 2004 but passed away in 2010 before the building was completed.

You can see more of the new Swatch centre below.