Lost and Found: Vintage Swatch Clock Bag

A defining 80s fashion trend…

Swatch watches. Everyone had one, and most everyone wore more than one. We were piling on Swatch watches before jewelry stacking even became a thing. My friends and I would collect them, swap them, and borrow them based on the outfit of the day. With our teased hair, blue eyeshadow, and oversized Esprit sweaters, the right Swatch watch could make or break a look. Or so we thought.

Although everyone had the watches, few had the bag. I got the coveted rare Swatch clock bag as a Christmas present. I remember wearing it to high school after the holiday break and my classmates asking me if it really kept time. (It didn’t.)

I wore that bag everywhere in the late 1980s. I don’t remember what happened to it after I went away to college. But decades later, I was in a bar with a group of high school friends talking about old times and my friend Eric said, “One of the things I remember most about your 80s outfits is that big ass Swatch bag!”

As a vintage fashion collector and seller, I always wondered if I would ever come across that bag again. I saw one online a few years ago, but it was sold out. And it was red, not the blue one I had back in the day. I set up all kinds of saved searches on eBay and Etsy so I could be alerted if one became available, but it never did.

As I mentioned in last week’s article, I started doing the “To Be Magnetic” manifestation program a couple of years ago. One of the exercises is to create a “mini-manifestation” list of little things you want that could be reasonably attainable in the short term (as opposed to long-term goals such as a million dollars or your perfect dream partner). The point of the mini-manifestation list to build your trust muscle. So I put the vintage Swatch bag on my list. Then I forgot about it.

A month or so later, I got a notification from eBay that someone had just listed the exact bag I had in high school. I bought it immediately. It was ridiculously expensive, but worth every penny. That’s because I wasn’t simply buying another vintage bag. I was buying back a little piece of my youth.