The 12 best Swiss inventions of the last 50 years

Switzerland is not only known for its watches, chocolate and alpine scenery, but also as a country of innovators. Over the past 50 years, the Swiss have created inventions that have changed not only everyday life, but entire industries. From the first coffee pod to high-tech drones, each of these achievements tells a story of courage, perseverance and talent. What has Switzerland contributed to global science and technology, and what makes its innovations so successful?

1974: Voltaren

Geigy already dominated the market for anti-rheumatic drugs with butozolidine, but in 1964 Merck introduced indomethacin, a much more active substance. Geigy then searched for a new non-steroidal anti-inflammatory agent with good tolerability: diclofenac. It was launched in Switzerland and Japan in 1974 under the trade name Voltaren. It was so successful that it became one of Novartis' three flagship drugs.

1975: SIG Sauer P220

Described as reliable and as accurate as a Swiss watch, the SIG Sauer P220 quickly gained popularity in both the police and military. Switzerland adopted it in 1975, the year it was developed. Japanese troops and Danish special forces were won over by this 9mm pistol developed in Switzerland by Schweizerische Industrie-Gesellschaft (SIG). To increase sales, SIG signed a partnership agreement with the German company Sauer & Sohn in 1976. This combat pistol became even more popular due to the film industry. The SIG Sauer P220 appeared in the hands of Jamie Foxx in the film Miami Vice and Bruce Willis in Die Hard 4.

1976: Coffee capsule

Nestlé owes a lot to Eric Favre, the father of capsulated coffee. In the late ‘70s, the employee's invention didn't please his employer. The company chose to focus on instant coffee. It took ten years before Helmut Maucher, then CEO, gave the go-ahead to launch coffee capsules under the Nespresso brand. Today, the company is one of the market leaders in the capsule coffee manufacturer market. In 2019, the company's liquid and powdered beverage segment generated sales of  23.2 billion Swiss francs.

1977: Isostar

Isostar was the first sports nutrition brand launched in Europe in 1977. It was invented in Neuenegg in the canton of Bern by the Wander group. However, its inventor remains unknown - he is lost in the Wander archives. Over 43 years, the Isostar range has expanded, with energy bars being introduced in the 1980s. Today Isostar is Switzerland's leading sports nutrition company, exporting two-thirds of its products.

1982: The Swatch watch

This economical watch was inspired by the Delirium model, which had the world's flattest case. Nicolas Hayek founded the Swatch Group in 1982 and together with his team he developed quality watches at an affordable price to revitalise the Swiss watch industry. In the 1970s, Swiss watchmaking was in crisis, mainly due to competition from Japan. The first collection was released in 1983 under the name ‘Quartz’: emblematic models with an understated design, fitted with a black plastic strap and a case 8.75 millimetres thick. They were sold at a price of 50 francs.

1986: Coronary stent

The development of the first patented coronary stent, a small cylinder of wire mesh, by Hans Wallsten of Lausanne and his company Medinvent consolidated the effect of the previous invention and made angioplasty a reliable alternative to coronary bypass and the treatment of choice. This stent was implanted for the first time in the world in 1986 at the University Hospital of Toulouse and subsequently at CHUV. Medinvent was acquired by Pfizer in 1989. The market was worth more than 10 billion dollars in 2019.

1989: The Web

British researcher Tim Berners-Lee was about to revolutionise the way people search, browse and share information. His project to help scientists from around the world share the results of their research quickly became widespread. Because files stored on disparate computers could be easily linked in hypertext using a browser, its application quickly spread beyond the scientific world. In 1993, CERN put the software into the public domain: thus the World Wide Web was born.

1998: Smart

The Smart car, capable of playing Tetris in a car park, appeared on European roads in 1998. The project had been nurtured for several years in the mind of Nicolas Hayek, who wanted to apply Swatch's recipe for success to a car model adapted to the urban environment. A partnership concluded in 1994 with Mercedes-Benz made it possible to produce a car with a length of 2.50 metres. In 20 years, 2.2 million Smart cars have been sold in more than 40 countries.

2004: Laser mouse

Despite competition from touchscreens and touchpads, the mouse is not going to be a thing of the past. The device that changed the face of computing was patented in 1967 by American Douglas Engelbart. Although he didn't invent it, computer scientist Jean-Daniel Nico made significant improvements. In 1979, he replaced the perpendicular wheels with a trackball. He then added an optical system that uses an LED to track movements. 

This prototype, developed at EPFL, caught the interest of Daniel Borel, founder of Logitech. The company's first mouse (model P4) hit the market in 1982. Years later, Logitech engineers invented the first laser mouse: the MX 1000. Introduced in 2004, it replaced the optical sensor with a more accurate beam that worked on any surface. The company quickly became the world leader in this market and in 2019 announced that it had passed the two billion mice sold mark. 

2007: Doodle

Doodle was born in Michael Nef's mind in 2007 when he was organising a dinner party with a large number of guests. To make the task easier for himself, the IT specialist from Aargau set about creating an online platform for making appointments. Then, together with his EPFZ colleague Paul Sewinch, they founded a company to professionalise their business, which was later named Doodle. The site, which is now owned by Zurich-based TX Group, has more than 30 million users.

2010s: Professional drones

While China dominates the hobbyist drone market, Switzerland has excelled in the development of professional and commercial flying machines. More than 100 companies operate in this sector, providing more than 500 jobs. The ecosystem is built around two Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology, the ‘lungs’ of the Drone Valley. Here are a few examples: founded in 2009 and acquired by the French group Parrot, SenseFly is a pioneer in the aerial drone sector. In 2014, Flyability paved the way for drones capable of flying indoors. That same year, Verity Studios' micro-drones took off, and in 2019, they broke the record for the largest swarm of 160 coordinated drones.

2025: Space evacuator

The nose of a Vega rocket soars 700 kilometres into the infinity of space. But not for long: the European Space Agency (ESA) has decided that in 2025, this object will be ‘picked up’ by a hook-shaped satellite with four robotic arms. The aim is to steer it off course and inject it into the Earth's atmosphere, where it will disintegrate. This unprecedented operation is being led by ClearSpace, a Swiss company established in early 2018. The Lausanne-based startup, which specialises in space waste management, led the international ADRIOS consortium. The programme, supported by eight ESA member states, has a budget of more than €100 million.

Conclusion

Looking back at these impressive inventions of the last 50 years, it is safe to say that Switzerland will continue to amaze the world with its innovative solutions. Who knows what discoveries await us in the coming years? One thing is certain: this small country in the heart of Europe will continue to make a significant contribution to the development of global technology and science.