Swatch

Normally a watch would be worn on the left wrist; the main reason for this was because a watch needed to be wound up every day in order to keep running. Certain shapes of tiles, most obviously rectangles, can be replicated to cover a surface with no gaps. In December 2005, Swatch has launched a new marketing stunt in Switzerland (to be launched in other countries) which is all about wearing the Swatch on the right wrist. As both the influence and the extent of Islam spread during the Middle Ages this artistic tradition was carried along, finding expression from the gardens and courtyards of Málaga in Moorish Spain to the mosaics of the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople. They have now become fashionable objects, generating specialised models (the "Flik-Flak" for children, semi-automatic movements, and even diamond-decorated swatches). Palaces, public buildings, and mosques were heavily decorated with dense, often massive mosaics and friezes of astonishing complexity. Swatch itself has also diversified its offerings considerably, and the company now sells more than a dozen different types of watches, including metal-bodied watches (the Irony series), diving watches (the Scuba series), thin and flat bodied watches (the Skin family) and even an Internet-connected watch that can download stock quotes, news headlines, weather reports, and other data (the Papparazzi series). Perhaps because of the tenets of Moslem law (sharia) which disavow religious icons and images in favor of more abstract and universal representations of the divine, many consider decorative tilework to have reached a pinnacle of expression and detail during the Islamic period.

These brands include: Breguet, Blancpain, Jaquet Droz, Glashütte-Original, Léon Hatot, Omega, Rado, Longines, Tissot, Calvin Klein, Certina, Mido, Pierre Bal-main, Hamilton, Flik Flak and Endura. Batchelder. Although sales of Swatch watches are now considerably lower than in previous years, the Swatch Group remains the world's largest watch company, and the Group has accelerated its acquisition of Swiss luxury brands in recent years. Prominent among art tile makers during this period was Ernest A. Artist watches gave a new cachet to what had previously been a trendy youth article. In the United States, decorative tiles were in vogue, especially in southern California, in the 1920s and 1930s. During this same time, Swatch introduced the idea of partnering with noted artists, including Keith Haring, Andy Warhol, and others. Some places, notably Portugal, have a tradition of tilework on buildings that continues today.

Swatches enjoyed their peak popularity in the United States during the mid-1980s, when a series of "Swatch Stores" were founded for the express purpose of selling Swatches. Although decorative tilework was known and extensively practiced in the ancient world (as evidenced in the magnificent mosaics of Pompeii and Herculaneum), it perhaps reached its greatest expression during the Islamic period. Compared to conventional watches, a Swatch was 80% cheaper to produce by fully automating assembly and reducing the number of parts from the usual 91 or more to only 51 components. Decorative tilework typically takes the form of mosaic upon the walls, floor, or ceiling of a building. With an aggressive marketing campaign and a very resonable price for a Swiss-made watch, it gained instant popularity in its home market. Finally, a cloth is rubbed over the wall tile to remove any haze which may remain from residual grout. Sales targets were set to 1 million timepieces for 1983 and 2.5 million the year after. The sponging provides added moisture to strengthen the grout as it cures.

Initially the price ranged from CHF 39.90 to CHF 49.90 but was standardized to CHF 50.00 in autumn of the same year. The excess grout is scraped off with a hard rubber block called a float immediately after applying; further, the grout is wiped again with a moist sponge before it completely hardens. The first collection of 12 Swatch models was introduced on March 1, 1983 in Zürich, Switzerland. The spaces between the tiles are filled with a fine cement called unsanded grout. Hayek, the Chairman of the Swatch Group, affirms that the original contraction was "Second Watch" -- the new watch was introduced with a new concept of watches as casual, fun, and relatively disposable accessories. Modern wall tiles are fixed to a wall using a synthetic bonding agent tile adhesive for dry areas, or a cement-based mortar for areas prone to moisture, such as bath or shower walls. The name "Swatch" is often misconstrued as a contraction of the words "Swiss Watch", but Nicholas G. Pictorial tiles, consisting of many tiles that the installer assembles like a jigsaw puzzle to form a single large picture, are available.

During this time, Swiss manufacturers lost most of their market share to Japanese companies like Seiko. Wall tiles are usually glazed, and are often patterned by painting or embossing. Swatch was originally intended to re-capture entry level market share lost by Swiss manufacturers during the aggressive growth of Japanese companies in the 1960s and 1970s. These are usually ceramic, but other materials such as mirrored glass or polished metal can be used. Swatch is a brand of stylish quartz watches (some available in Automatic) produced by The Swatch Group Ltd. While ancient Roman building bricks were broader and thinner than modern ones and are therefore usually called tiles, the term wall tile is normally applied to finishing tiles. See Laying tile
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The spaces between the tiles are nowadays filled with sanded or unsanded floor grout, but traditionally mortar was used. Floor tiles are typically set into mortar consisting of sand, cement and oftentimes a latex additive for extra strength. Small mosaic tiles may be laid in various patterns. Clay tiles may be painted and glazed.

These are commonly made of ceramic, clay, porcelain or stone. They include ridge, hip and valley tiles. There are also roof tiles for special positions, particularly where the planes of the several pitches meet. The tiles are usually hung in parallel rows, with each row overlapping the row below it to exclude rainwater and to cover the nails that hold the row below.

Roof tiles are 'hung' from the framework of a roof by fixing them with nails. These include:. Because of their long history, a large number of shapes (or "profiles") of roof tiles have evolved. Some clay tiles have a waterproof glaze.

Modern materials such as concrete and plastic are also used. Roof tiles are designed mainly to keep out rain, and are traditionally made from locally available materials such as clay, slate, or wood (wooden tiles are called shingles). .
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Tiles are most often made from ceramic, with a hard glaze finish, but other materials are also commonly used, such as glass, slate, and reformed ceramic slurry, which is cast in a mould and fired. Tiles are often used to form wall and floor coverings, and can range from simple square tiles to complex mosaics. Less precisely, the modern term can refer to any sort of construction tile or similar object, such as rectangular counters used in playing games (see tile-based game). The word is derived from the French word tuile, which is, in turn, from the Latin word tegula, meaning a roof tile composed of baked clay.

Tiles are generally used for covering roofs, floors, and walls, or other objects such as tabletops. A tile is a manufactured piece of hard-wearing material such as ceramic, clay, stone, porcelain or even glass. Mission or barrel tiles are semi-cylindrical tiles made by forming clay around a log and laid in alternating columns of convex and concave tiles. These result in a ridged pattern resembling a ploughed field.

Pantiles - with an S-shaped profile, allowing adjacent tiles to interlock. Roman tiles - flat in the middle, with a concave curve at one end at a convex curve at the other, to allow interlocking. This profile is suitable for stone and wooden tiles, and most recently, solar cells. Flat tiles - the simplest type, which are laid in regular overlapping rows.