Swarovski Crystals
Have you heard of Swarovski? In 1895, Daniel Swarovski started Swarovski Crystals, a company that makes a range of precisely-cut crystal glass and related luxury products. They make figurines, jewelry and fashion clothing, home decor, chandeliers, and loose crystal elements. Their headquarters are in Wattens, Austria. This is near the beautiful town of Innsbruck. The company has quite a bit since 1895 and now they have over 24,000 employees in all branches.
Daniel Swarovski was born on October 24th, 1862 and passed away on January 23rd, 1956. He was born in northern Bohemia which is now called the Czech Republic. His father was a glass cutter who owned a small glass factory. At his father’s glass factory, Daniel served an apprenticeship and became skilled in the art of glass-cutting. In 1892 he patented an electric cutting machine that facilitated the production of crystal glass. Like all true entrepreneurs, this invention and his creativity and dedication were instrumental to the success of his company. But as all successful businessmen have to do, they paid a price for their advanced techniques. They established their factory to take advantage of local hydroelectricity for the energy-intensive grinding processes which Daniel Swarovski had patented.
Their products include crystal sculptures and miniatures, jewelry and couture, home decor and chandeliers. They have many techniques to make their crystals shine brightly and look beautiful. In order to create a crystal that allows light to refract in a rainbow spectrum, Swarovski coats some of its crystals with special metallic chemical coatings. Aurora Borealis, or “AB”, is one of the most popular coatings, and gives the surface a rainbow oil slick appearance. Other coatings include Crystal Transmission, Volcano, Aurum, and Dorado. Coatings may be applied to only part of an object; others are coated twice, and thus are designated AB 2X, Dorado 2X etc.
Top stay ahead of the competition and keep the company profitable, they are always innovating. In 2004 Swarovski released Xilion, a new copyrighted cut designed to optimize the brilliance of ‘Roses’ which are crystal components with flat backs, and Chatons, which are diamond cut crystals. Their group of companies also includes ‘Tyrolit’ – makers of abrasive and cutting tools, ‘Swareflex’ which makes reflective and luminous road markings, ‘Signity’ who specialize in synthetic and natural gemstones, and ‘Swarovski Optik’, who make optical instruments such as binoculars and rifle scopes.
They also run a crystal-themed indoor theme park, ‘Swarovski Kristallwelten’ (it means ‘Crystal Worlds’) at their original site. The Crystal Worlds center has a grass-covered head in front, the mouth of which is a fountain. This Crystal Worlds exhibition is completely inspired by their crystals. The park is designed to amaze and entertain, but not to educate. There are no explanations about the crystal-making process there.
A few short years back in 2007, Swarovski formed a partnership with electronics giant Philips to produce the ‘Active-Crystals’ consumer electronics products. This includes USB Memory keys and in-ear headphones. In 2008 they rolled out additional products such as Bluetooth wireless earpieces. These all sport some form of Swarovski crystal on them as decoration. Their figurines are considered collectible, with a stylized mouse being the very first figurine created. A smaller version of this mouse, now labeled the ‘replica mouse’, is still available. The company produces many types of figurines from ladybugs to limited edition Disney collectibles. So, now, when you hear the name ‘Swarovski’ you’ll know a bit more about them.
