Nicolas Hayek, Inventor of the Swatch, Dead at 82 6.35K Brian Moylan 06/28/10 04:01PM Filed to: and now he's dead and now he's dead nicolas Hayek Swatch watch Nostalgia Obits Nicolas Hayek, the founder and chairman of Swatch Group, the company that fitted the world with colorful, affordable, and loud-ticking plastic wristwatches, died of heart failure today. He was 82 and Swiss. Both you and your '80s watches are old.