Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie

Seiko launched a quartz watch, unveiled in Basel in 1986 and electrically powered by an oscillating weight, similar to that of a self-winding mechanical watch. Seiko and various Swiss firms have continued to build on this technology.

World history

Dissolution of the USSR (December 8th) which became the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).
Berlin became the capital of unified Germany.
Mikhail Gorbachev resigned.
First Gulf War.

Swiss history

The World Wide Web was invented at CERN in Geneva.

Art and Culture

Deaths of the French singer Serge Gainsbourg and of Miles Davis.
The emergence of grunge music which spawned its own dress style.