In Review: Swatch Big Bold Jelly

While I know that Swatch – as a corporation – encompasses a wide variety of brands and watch styles, when I actually hear “Swatch”, it calls to mind brightly-colored, plastic-encased watches. That’s because they were all the rage back in my junior high days. Yeah, the digital Ironman watches were popular as well, but those bright Swatches were all the rage. Well, I’ve recently been spending some time with one that is that memory writ large – the Swatch Big Bold Jelly.

Specifically, it’s the Swatch Big Bold Jelly BLUEINJELLY variant, but the collection has a lot of similarities to the one we had come in, aside from colors. And when I said “writ large” I meant that quite literally. This watch is a pretty hefty 47mm, though it is under 12mm thick. That ones a bit of a visual trick, as with the angles coming from the back of the case to the front, it actually looks to be thicker than that.

But no matter! The Swatch Big Bold Jelly has a case made of plastic and a silicone strap, so this is the very definition of a light-weight watch. Which, frankly, is perfect for summer, along with the bright colors. I was a little concerned about legibility given the transparent dial, but the large hands and indices are pretty easy to pick out, so no problems there (just no lume, so don’t rely on this for nightime time checks). It could also be interesting – or something to watch out for – to see how this watch impacts the pale band I normally have on my wrist in the summer time. Then again, given how easily I burn, maybe not an experiment to try.

Tucked into the Swatch Big Bold Jelly you’ve got a quartz movement, so it’s the simplest of set-and-forget. And, once it comes time to change the battery, that’s a simple thing to do give the battery hatch on the back, easily opened with a coin. Once that’s screwed in, and the crown is tucked in, you’ve got a 30m WR rating, so you’ll be ok if you find yourself jumping through the sprinklers.

While the Swatch Big Bold Jelly is a bit large for my kid’s wrists, this particular one really had my oldest eyeballing to add to her own daily wear choices. And really, there are a lot of colors out there, if you want something big, bold, and bright for the summer months. If you want to pick up one of your own – either in the ghost-like white like we had, or a darker smokier look, pricing starts in at $110 for the collection, directly from swatch.com