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Under the leadership of Nicholas Hayek, The Swatch Group, makers of the Swatch watch, is widely credited with revitalizing the Swiss watch industry by offering a consistent set of brands addressing all segments of the global watch market. New opportunities beyond the watch market have been explored recently (e.g., telecom, cars), but they did not live up to expectations. In October 1998, The Swatch Group launched Swatch Internet Time (SIT). SIT divided every day into 1,000 "beats" equivalent to 86.4 seconds each. Each day began @000 (@ was the abbreviation for beats) and noon was @500. A new meridian line was created that passed over Swatch headquarters in Biel, Switzerland, making Biel Mean Time (BMT) the official reference for Internet time. Many questioned Swatch''s motive behind SIT. Some believed that launching SIT was merely a way to reenergize the Swatch brand in markets such as the United States where sales and the Swatch image had been suffering. And others questioned whether the concept of SIT would catch on.; 1) To consider the factors of success and failure in brand extensions. Assess The Swatch Group''s options with the formidable brand it has built, 2) To discuss how to balance function and emotion in brand concept management and manage "brand communities," and 3) To ask students to evaluate approaches to generate synergies between different brands in a product line across the world.