Swarovski is the luxury brand name for the range of precision-cut lead crystal glass and related products produced by companies owned by Swarovski AG of Feldmeilen, near Zürich, Switzerland.

History

Daniel Swarovski (1862, Georgenthal – 1956, Wattens) was an Austrian glass cutter and jeweller born in Bohemia. In 1892 he patented an electric cutting machine that facilitated the production of lead crystal glass jewellery.

In 1895 Swarovski, financier Armand Kosman and Franz Weis founded the Swarovski company, originally known as A. Kosmann, Daniel Swarovski & Co, which was later shortened to K.S. & Co. The company established a crystal cutting factory in Wattens to take advantage of local hydroelectricity for the energy-intensive grinding processes which Daniel Swarovski had patented.

In 2007, Swarovski in partnership with SOS Children's Villages - USA during World Orphan Week, held a celebrity denim jacket auction event and donated the proceeds to orphaned children in Darfur. Swarovski is a long-time corporate sponsor of SOS Children's Villages projects.

Products

All sculptures are marked with a logo. The original Swarovski logo was an edelweiss flower, but was replaced with the current swan logo in 1988.

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.

In 2004 Swarovski released Xilion, a new copyrighted cut designed to optimise the brilliance of Roses (crystal components with flat backs) and Chatons (diamond cut).

The Swarovski Group also includes Tyrolit (makers of abrasive and cutting tools); Swareflex (reflective and luminous road markings); Signity (synthetic and natural gemstones); and Swarovski Optik (optical instruments).

The company runs a crystal-themed indoor theme park, Swarovski Kristallwelten (Crystal Worlds) at its original Wattens site (near Innsbruck, Tyrol, Austria).

Active-Crystals

In 2007 Swarovski formed a partnership with electronics giant Philips to produce the "Active-Crystals" consumer electronics range. This includes four USB Memory keys and four in-ear headphones, and in 2008 they included Bluetooth wireless earpieces for the brand, all with some form of Swarovski crystal on them as decoration.