Word: swiss
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Once upon a time, high-quality watches ticked, had mechanical movements (hand- wound or self-winding) and almost always came from Switzerland. But that was before the onslaught of Japanese quartz watches dealt a near deathblow to the Swiss industry. Now Swiss watchmakers, who survived by converting to quartz technology, plan to turn back the clock...
...being led by Societe Suisse de Microelectronique et d'Horlogerie, originator of the popular quartz Swatch Watch. The company has - produced six prototypes of a mechanical, self-winding version of the Swatch, which will probably go on sale next year for about $40. Though quartz models constituted 90% of Swiss-made watches last year, the mechanical versions could account for half of all sales...
When the tranquilizer Valium became the most frequently prescribed drug of the stressed-out 1970s, F. Hoffmann-La Roche reached the peak of good health. Thanks largely to Valium and its sister sedative, Librium, the Swiss-based Hoffmann-La Roche became the No. 1 maker of prescription pharmaceuticals and one of the most profitable companies on earth. But lulled by the success of Valium, whose U.S. patent expired four years ago, the company failed to keep pace in the '80s with such aggressive rivals as U.S.-based Merck and Swiss neighbors Sandoz and Ciba-Geigy. Symbolic of Hoffmann-La Roche...
...Gaddafi International Prize for Human Rights has a surreal and oxymoronic ring. Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi, better known as a patron of terrorism than a benefactor of humanitarian causes, has unaccountably set up a Swiss foundation to bestow an annual award on a Third World figure in the forefront of "liberation struggles." Last week Nelson Mandela, the jailed black South African leader, was named the first recipient of the prize and the $250,000 that goes with...
Gaddafi, who put $10 million in trust to fund the award, had no say in choosing the winner. Swiss Socialist Deputy Jean Ziegler, a member of the jury that selected Mandela, said "ironclad guarantees" assured that Tripoli's influence would not be felt in Geneva. Nonetheless, human rights activists were clearly worried about the new philanthropist. Said an official of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees: "If the jury would consider people like Salman Rushdie, it would give more credibility to its independence...