Credited with revamping the Swiss watch-making industry in the 1980s. Watchmakers in Japan and Hong Kong had eagerly grabbed the quartz movement, and in one year the sales of Swiss watches dropped by 25 per cent. What rescued the Swiss watch industry was a very un-Swiss concept of the Swatch. It signalled that telling time was no longer the most important thing in a watch. A $5 watch tells time every bit as well as a $30,000 watch. The Swatch was not selling time, so much as fun and costume jewellery.

In 1998, Hayek came up with the concept of the "Smart" car, made by a subsidiary of Daimler Chrysler, which also makes Mercedes. In 2007 he was rated the world's 273rd richest person with an estimated wealth of $3.2 billion USD.