Inside the Changing Landscape of Swiss Watch Fairs

GENEVA — Switzerland’s watch honest rivalries are set to proceed as two of Geneva Watch Days’ founding members — Bulgari and Breitling — voiced their dedication to persevering with the late-summer occasion, shutting down rumours that they’d defect to the bigger Watches and Wonders honest subsequent yr.

The Swiss watch honest panorama has been redrawn in recent times: Following the collapse of Baselworld in the course of the pandemic, Watches and Wonders (Switzerland’s greatest honest, previously generally known as SIHH) has sought to consolidate its place as the primary gathering for manufacturers, sellers, and collectors. However along with some main manufacturers persevering with to again Geneva Watch Days, various watch gatherings each in Switzerland and overseas have proliferated, suggesting that the business’s calendar is being durably reworked.

The watch honest rivalry, in addition to the rising variety of smaller festivals and occasions exterior Switzerland, present how the Swiss business — which for many years moved more-or-less in lockstep to assist exhausting luxurious conquer new markets across the globe — is turning into extra fiercely aggressive as manufacturers combat for market share. Final week, Rolex acquired a serious Swiss-based multi-brand supplier, Bucherer, because the turf struggle for retail areas and the advertising and marketing highlight proceed to warmth up.

“We will proceed to develop sooner than the business [average] for the following 15, 20 years with out being a part of Watches and Wonders,” Bulgari chief government Jean-Christophe Babin advised the Enterprise of Style. “So long as I will probably be on the helm of Bulgari, it is going to be like that.”

Breitling’s chief government Georges Kern mentioned that after discussions with Watches and Wonders, his circumstances had not been met. “We have been accepted for 2024, however we nonetheless determined to not go,” Kern mentioned. “I might [participate] if the idea have been extra versatile and simpler to make use of for all contributors. And the governance must be extra ecumenical.”

Following Baselworld’s demise, the long-running honest’s anchor manufacturers comparable to Rolex, Patek Philippe, Hermès and Chanel joined forces with SIHH loyalists comparable to Richemont’s Cartier and IWC to create Watches and Wonders. However Bulgari and Breitling, as soon as Baselworld stalwarts, have stayed on the sidelines even because the 2023 version attracted 43,000 distinctive guests, together with as many 5,400 retailers and 1,400 members of the press.

Babin and Kern have continued to be vocal critics of the present, citing a governance construction dominated by Richemont, Rolex and Patek Philippe. Bulgari’s LVMH sister manufacturers TAG Heuer, Hublot and Zenith have all joined Watches and Wonders, however the luxurious group remains to be not represented on the board of the inspiration that organises the honest.

“We will settle for to not resolve all the things, however we can’t settle for to resolve nothing,” Babin mentioned. The 64-year-old business veteran mentioned the present was too costly and that the format of high-cost model cubicles, formal shows and paid-for public days was outmoded, including that the supply made to Bulgari by the organisers to exhibit was “insulting”, “humiliating” and “a well mannered strategy to flip you away.”

“We need to have a justifiable share of area,” he mentioned. “We can’t have 10 p.c of Cartier.” He additionally mentioned that making members of the general public pay to enter the occasion was “stingy”.

A “Truthful” Various

Geneva Watch Days was created in 2020 in response to Covid and the cancellation of the spring festivals. Babin was its foremost architect, collaborating with Kern and Patrick Pruniaux, the  chief government of Ulysse Nardin and Girard-Perregaux, to craft a “twenty first century idea” of an business gathering.

Exhibiting manufacturers pay charges between 10,000 and 100,000 Swiss francs relying on their measurement to cowl central prices — mainly a pavilion on Lake Geneva’s waterfront that’s free to enter for members of the general public. In any other case, manufacturers function independently, organising in resort rooms, boutiques, eating places or different areas across the metropolis. Babin identified that his occasion has been endorsed by the Canton of Geneva, whereas Watches and Wonders has not.

Babin mentioned he was assured Geneva Watch Days, initially a Covid stop-gap, can be again subsequent yr. “The organisers of the standard festivals don’t like the concept that a model alone can collect a couple of different manufacturers, and organise for a fraction of the associated fee a good which is attracting lots of retailers and media, and that’s rising yr after yr.”

This yr’s occasion attracted round 40 retail companions, roughly a 3rd greater than in 2022, and in keeping with Kern, was anticipated to file round 8,000 guests together with 600 members of the worldwide press. The pavilion additionally hosted a sequence of panel occasions and an public sale to lift cash for the Geneva Watchmaking College.

As for prices, Babin mentioned he had invested round 1 million Swiss francs ($1.13 million) exhibiting at Geneva Watch Days, including to the 1.5 million spent by the model to stage a separate occasion at a Geneva resort throughout Watches and Wonders earlier this yr. He estimates collaborating in Watches and Wonders would have value as a lot 8 million Swiss francs. “We make investments the differential in media and different occasions in the course of the course of the yr,” he mentioned.

Talking at Breitling’s Geneva boutique final week, Kern agreed that Geneva Watch Days was a extra environment friendly use of his funds. “It’s value perhaps two or 300 thousand,” he mentioned. “It’s peanuts. And it’s tremendous environment friendly, tremendous efficient, and we have now the identical affect as we might have at a giant honest.”

Rising Membership

Whereas Geneva Watch Days stays a lot smaller than Watches and Wonders (which claims to have reached greater than 600 million folks on social media from the hashtag #watchesandwonders), manufacturers like Breitling get a much bigger share of the highlight on the extra intimate occasion.

Kern mentioned he expects Geneva Watch Days to proceed to develop because of its decentralised idea. “Many larger manufacturers need to come subsequent yr,” he mentioned. “They don’t need infrastructure, they need to go into the lodges. It really works as a result of we do it ourselves. We don’t have any organising committee that we have now to pay.”

The late August timing additionally appeals to some members relatively than April, when Watches Wonders (and previously Baselworld) usually happen. Watches and Wonders precedes the quieter summer season season, whereas Geneva Watch Days leads right into a busy gross sales interval that covers Thanksgiving, Diwali, Christmas and Chinese language New Yr, Babin mentioned. “Right here, we get a lot better power behind these novelties, as a result of they’re recent.”

“It’s again to highschool,” Pruniaux echoed. “In any given yr, we have now between six to 9 launches, so we’d like totally different timings.”

Not everyone seems to be on board with the altering calendar, nonetheless. Edouard Meylan, chief government of the unbiased watch model H. Moser & Cie, mentioned he “pushed exhausting” to have the occasion in November, when the Solely Watch charity public sale and prestigious Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG) happen.

“Geneva has two foremost watch weeks. One throughout Watches and Wonders [in April] and one other for the GPHG and Solely Watch,” Meylan mentioned. “We’d have all the most important collectors coming… I believe we might all profit.”

Occasions Overseas

Supporters of Geneva Watch Days’ extra intimate, decentralised format are weighing whether or not to take the idea on the highway, travelling to different watch hotspots.

“There’s a consensus within the business that it’s good to have a good exterior of Switzerland,” Pruniaux mentioned. “This mannequin works as a result of it’s in Geneva and lots of manufacturers may be concerned at minimal value. Now the query is might or not it’s replicated elsewhere with the identical cost-efficiency?”

Kern mentioned he believed it might, however not but. “We’ve been brazenly discussing going to China, however we should always first consolidate Geneva with extra, larger manufacturers,” he mentioned.

Far-flung showcases are already populating the watchmaking business’s calendar: Watches and Wonders will host an occasion in Shanghai later in September, with 10 manufacturers slated to take part.

In November, manufacturers together with Rolex, Audemars Piguet and Chopard will head to the Center East for the return of the biannual Dubai Watch Week, which is organised by retailer Seddiqi. Luxurious conglomerate LVMH has staged a roving watch honest of its personal, presenting new collections for its manufacturers like Bulgari, TAG Heuer and Hublot in Dubai and Singapore in recent times.

These occasions come along with a sooner tempo of single-brand shows, as watch manufacturers more and more search to create memorable advertising and marketing moments and deeper connections with collectors and the press. Glitzy occasions like Louis Vuitton’s most up-to-date presentation on the Musée d’Orsay (throughout Paris Haute Couture Week) and Omega’s assortment launch in Mykonos have gotten extra commonplace.

Within the digital age, “folks nonetheless need to meet and speak about watches,” Kern mentioned.