About Swarovski

The name Swarovski (pronounced swore-off-ski) is the family name of Daniel Swarovski, the founder.

Whilst apprenticed to his father (a glass cutter) in a Bohemian glass foundry in 1892, Daniel created a prototype cutting machine and moved to patent the invention. With the help of financial backers he formed his own company, Daniel Swarovski & Co, which was established in Wattens, a town located in the Austrian Alps where there were extensive sources of wood to fuel the furnaces of the foundry and easy and inexpensive access to hydro-electric power.

Before the end of 1895, the new Swarovski Company had produced its first line of crystal glass products. Initially there were a few production problems but by the early 1900's after refinements in production and technique, the company's line of crystal glass items expanded to include crystal jewellery.

In the 1956, Daniels's grandson in collaboration with Christian Dior developed a metallic rainbow-like coating they called Aurora Borealis (AB) and in 1976 the first of their ‘Silver Crystal' figurines (a mouse) was created.

Their most recent crystal innovations were in 2004 when they produced their patented ‘Xilion' cut (14 facets) on rhinestones and in 2009 when they introduced the same cut on certain beads in their range.

Today, Swarovski is still a family business, their crystal range includes jewellery stones and beads, many crystal ‘fabrics' and trimmings, cubic zirconia, ornaments, chandelier parts and handles. They also have several other brands such as reflective surfaces - Swareflex, grinding, cutting and drilling systems - Tyrolit, and optical lenses - Optik,

The company's headquarters are in Feldmeilen, Switzerland and Swarovski has production locations in Argentina, Austria, Brazil, China, Czech Republic, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Jordan, Liechtenstein, Mexico, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, UK and the US.