Most Jamaicans recognise Swatch International as the sound system that fueled the ‘Passa Passa’ era of dancehall where the famous street dance took the world by storm, generated new street slangs, entertained thousands of tourists and spawned copycat events all over the world.

Despite all that success, Swatch International is not done, the sound system says in a press release.

“We intend to continue to push the ‘Passa Passa’ brand internationally,” O’neil Miles, the founder of Swatch International, said in the release.

“Anytime you say the word, ‘Passa Passa’, it conjures up a feeling, a feeling of community and enjoyment that was born out of the community of Tivoli Gardens. The weekly Passa Passa event grew to be one of the biggest street dances in Jamaica. It brought peace and love to the wider Kingston community as the people embraced those from outside the community as one,” Miles explained.

Over the years, Swatch has cultivated a huge underground cult following for its unique style of customising its dubplates and integrating them in the regular juggling, thus generating a high, euphoric ‘vibes’ in the party.

“Swatch has received various awards from the music industry in recent years varying from best juggling sound to the best quality sound,” he reminisced.

Swatch International, the real Passa Passa sound, was established in 1991 by the bright mind of young O’Neil Miles, whose love for music went back from the days he used to attend Jamaica College.

In a short time Swatch International became one of the top ranked sounds coming out of Kingston Jamaica, from the late 90’s going on to the year 2000. The company now revolves around a team of 16.

The team includes the maintenance crew, technician, and several selectors plus Miles himself. Among them are Oniel “Boy Boy” Trought, Ashmaine “Alex Frass” Henry, Walter “Ice Box” Blackwood, Richard “Little Richie” Campbell, Leonardo “Bj” Nelson, Kenneth “Alonza Hawk” Campbell, Sheldon “Ice Wata” Evans, Delroy “ Barge” Burnette and Richard “Shortman” Anderson.

The Swatch International sound has three complete sound systems and the team can play at least three events for one night.

“We are covering the 14 parishes of Jamaica. We play frequently right across the United States, the UK (United Kingdom), Japan, Canada and most of the Caribbean islands,” Miles said.

Miles said that they have huge fans in far-off places like Japan where “they just get crazy when we are playing”.

“We are getting overseas dates now more regularly, in Canada for example, sometimes we go there two times in one month. We have a Japan tour coming up and we will also be touring Europe later this year,” Miles said.

The future and continued success of Swatch International is possible because of the hard work put in by O’Neil Miles and his dynamic team, he said.

“The young selectors are getting more mature and have started to travel to the Caribbean islands. The young selectors will start to travel to the US later this year,” Miles said.