The luxurious watch trade could also be battling falling exports and gross sales, however the organisers of Watches and Wonders Geneva, the world’s solely main luxurious watch truthful that started within the Swiss metropolis Tuesday, have stated they’re anticipating extra exhibitors and extra guests than in earlier years when the trade was booming.
“Regardless of the context, Watches and Wonders Geneva performs a unifying position for the trade,” stated Matthieu Humair, the chief govt of the inspiration which has managed the present since its inception in 2021. “Having the main gamers and the smaller manufacturers beneath one roof to advertise watchmaking is a key second for this trade.”
The present’s 60 exhibitors are a file, up from 54 final 12 months and 48 in 2023. Some are main international luxurious manufacturers resembling Rolex, Patek Philippe and the maisons from the Richemont and LVMH group stables, whereas others are small-scale independents making only some hundred watches a 12 months.
One of many new exhibitors at this 12 months’s present is Roman jeweller Bulgari, which had sat out earlier editions in favour of organising store at a lodge on the margins of the occasion, in addition to staging a travelling watch expo with its LVMH stablemates together with TAG Heuer and Hublot.
Watches and Wonders Geneva Basis attracted Bulgari — which is able to assist draw a female viewers to the truthful, Humair stated — by revising its governance, admitting LVMH, Chanel and Hermès to its board final 12 months alongside its founding members Richemont, Rolex and Patek Philippe. The truthful additionally provided a greater location for the model, by the doorway to the truthful. “We have been sidelined, which was not passable,” Bulgari’s CEO Jean-Christophe Babin stated of earlier proposals.
Being current contained in the truthful is “costly, but it surely’s value it as a result of you’ve gotten way more conferences and extra visitors,” he added. “Extra importantly, for a model that till 10 years in the past was not really thought-about as a watchmaker, being right here confirms we at the moment are actually a part of the primary league.”
Prices have lengthy been a thorny subject for the Geneva watch truthful and its defunct counterpart in Basel, Baselworld, which was final held in 2019.
Humair stated the organising basis had held exhibiting prices regular over the previous 4 years, and that they remained considerably decrease than charges utilized on the present’s predecessor, SIHH (the Salon Worldwide de la Haute Horlogerie, which held its final version in 2019). 2019 charges at SIHH had been as a lot as 2,650 Swiss francs per sq. metre of exhibition area for a smaller impartial model, in comparison with 1,800 Swiss francs per sq. metre right this moment. Bigger manufacturers pay as much as 2,000 francs per sq. metre.
In accordance with Humair, the manufacturers with a multi-billion-dollar turnover assist subsidise the presence of smaller independents. “There’s a dedication by the main gamers to help the smaller independents and to permit them to be current with an inexpensive price and to satisfy the most important gamers within the trade,” he stated. “It’s a dedication to the way forward for watchmaking.”
Exhibition areas differ in measurement from 400 sq. metres to “a number of thousand” for the biggest exhibitors Rolex and Cartier, he added.
Humair forecast attendance would prime final 12 months’s version, which attracted 49,000 guests throughout seven days, together with 19,000 members of the general public who purchased tickets to attend over the weekend. The occasion’s attain on social media is much greater. “It exhibits the significance of this platform,” he stated, including that he was anticipating these numbers to extend this 12 months. “The momentum is exclusive.”
Rolex, the world’s largest luxurious watch firm with estimated annual revenues in extra of 10 billion Swiss francs, helped open the occasion with a bang because it launched a brand new household of watches known as Land-Dweller. The design had been leaked on social media earlier than the present, in breach of Rolex’s common pre-show blackout.
Some critics noticed the watch’s Seventies-inspired look as aggressive, nudging in on rival Audemars Piguet’s aesthetic. “Rolex is dipping its toes into Audemars Piguet Royal Oak waters,” stated Kristian Haagen, a watch collector and writer of a lot of books on watchmaking.
However Rolex cited its personal archive as an inspiration, and highlighted its innovation with a motion that beats at a better frequency, providing larger precision. “It additionally seems like Rolex’s Seventies Oysterquartz, an homage to an period of superior precision,” Haagen stated.
Whilst LVMH’s Bulgari entered the fold a few of the trade’s largest names stay on the sidelines. Audemars Piguet, Richard Mille, Breitling and Swatch Group manufacturers resembling Omega, Longines and Breguet haven’t but exhibited at Watches and Wonders Geneva and won’t be at this 12 months’s occasion. Final week, Breitling chief govt Georges Kern instructed The Enterprise of Vogue, “I received’t promote yet another watch at Watches and Wonders Geneva than if I wasn’t there. It’s solely ego worth.”
Benjamin Clymer, chief govt of Richemont’s Piaget, stated he welcomed the arrival of Bulgari. “I’m joyful there are new manufacturers right here,” he stated. He additionally famous the worldwide nature of the present. “I’m happy to see retailers from the Center East and India right here. We’re very joyful about our ends in these international locations.”
Humair stated this 12 months’s occasion would search to construct on momentum with youthful audiences. Final 12 months, in response to organisers, 25 % of the general public day tickets have been offered to individuals beneath the age of 25. “They arrive to see the novelties, but in addition to learn and educated. It’s a technology that in a related world wants tangible objects resembling timepieces,” Humair stated.
The organisation hopes to draw the subsequent technology of watchmaking expertise, along with younger patrons, through activations contained in the truthful and within the Geneva metropolis centre.
“This 12 months, we will probably be highlighting the watchmaking professions,” he stated. “We’ve a lab with 13 tasks, 11 of them from start-up college students, that discover the way forward for watchmaking; a networking space the place younger individuals can discuss to younger individuals [in the industry]; a expertise competitors; and the presence of faculties such because the Ecole Cantonale d’Artwork de Lausanne. It’s a novel alternative for the younger technology to find the totally different know-hows within the watchmaking trade.”
The expansion of Watches and Wonders Geneva has attracted copycats. This 12 months, “Time to Watches” takes place the identical week at Villa Sarasin, solely a stone’s throw from the Palexpo exhibition centre the place Watches and Wonders Geneva is held. The occasion will showcase greater than 70 watch manufacturers, largely smaller independents, together with Beauregard, which is the one Watches and Wonders Geneva 2024 exhibitor to not return this 12 months.
Humair stated there have been no plans to merge the 2 occasions. “It’s nice to see different occasions with lots of success as a result of it exhibits the significance of getting the trade united collectively bodily,” he stated. “However these are two totally different organisations with two totally different sorts of occasion, and [a merger] just isn’t on the agenda in the intervening time.”
