Announced in March last year but not widely publicised, Swatch now offers a generous lifetime battery replacement for any of its watches. Free battery replacements were offered in the past as limited-time promotions, but it is now a permanent offer for all Swatch watches. [Please visit your local Swatch store for this – the list of stores is available on Swatch.com.]

Anyone with a quartz Swatch that’s out of juice can visit a Swatch store for a replacement at no charge. Swatch will replace the batteries of as many Swatch watches as a customer brings in, but only flat batteries will be replaced. The service is available at all Swatch boutiques globally, but not at service centres.

Also Swatch but no batteries required

The primary reason for the battery largesse is simple: Swatch is owned by Switzerland’s largest watch conglomerate, the Swatch Group (chief executive Nick Hayek is pictured above). While it’s best known as owner of brands like Omega, Longines and Tissot, the Swatch Group also owns Renata. The Biel-based company one of the world’s biggest makers of small batteries – producing over 1m batteries a day – and specialises in the coin cell batteries used in watches.