Scented Swatch watches

Swatch watches symbolized the switch from the 1970s to the 1980s for me. My 1970s watch was a clunky black digital, with a band that didn't bend and made you sweat and the same ugly digital face as any other digital watch. Swatches, with their bright colors and fun attitudes, were the 1980s on your wrist.

It took me a long time to get into the Swatch world, but I think eventually I did get one. I don't think, however, that it was this awesome scented one, Granita di Frutta. But that smell will forever stay with me because I was a Seventeen magazine addict in the days before Sassy hit, and if I recall correctly, they had an ad for this particular Swatch, scented in the same smell. I loved it, and the smell didn't flee the magazine insert or whatever, it stuck around for months. In fact, looking at that link from Hillary Buckholtz's great "I'm Remembering," I think that's a picture of the magazine and the scented ad itself. Here's a closeup on Flickr.

This 1985 Chicago Tribune article (bless you, Internet) says Granita di Frutta watches were the ones with "bands in Italian snow-cone flavors that are scented to match their colors: iced mint, sweet raspberry and mellow banana." Raspberry is the only one I ever heard of, then, but man, has its scent lingered in my brain, all these years.

Here's another blogger who went through her issue of Seventeen and reports that the Swatch scent still lingers.

Did you have a Swatch? A scented one? Did you know someone who did?