Swiss Watches

For hundreds of years the Swiss were known as the best watchmakers in the world. The jeweled precision of their mainspring-driven mechanisms was the envy of the industry. 

Then, about thirty years ago, a Swiss design engineer working for one of the leading watch companies invented the prototype of what would eventually be called the digital watch. 

When he presented it to his bosses, they laughed him out of the room, proclaiming that a battery-powered timepiece with a liquid-crystal display would never be accepted by the public. 

The inventor took his idea to Japan and America, and the rest is history. 

Had the Swiss watch companies been able to challenge the existing paradigm — the belief that their mechanical watches would always be the standard for the industry — the Swiss might still be a major player in the world of timepieces.

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