Watchmakers are upbeat at thriving Geneva trade fair

New watches were showcased at the main pavilion of the Geneva Watch Days event. (c) 2023 Ivan Simeon, [e-mail]

Geneva Watch Days, a relatively new addition to the watch industry calendar, recently concluded a successful fourth edition. The watchmaking industry is flourishing, but some clouds may be on the horizon. SWI swissinfo.ch journalist Alexey Tarkhanov takes the industry’s temperature.

This year’s Geneva Watch Days welcomed nearly 1,500 industry professionals, 8,000 members of the public and dozens of watchmakers both large and small from August 29 to September 2. The event brought together small independent manufacturers like Urwerk, which makes roughly 200 watches a year, and luxury brands like Bulgari, whose production is 200 to 300 times greater.

From the eight companies that took part in the first show in 2020 (Breitling, Bulgari, De Bethune, Girard-Perregaux, H. Moser & Cie, MB&F, Ulysse Nardin, and Urwerk), the gathering has expanded to 39 exhibitors.

The centre of this year’s fair was once again a white pavilion overlooking Geneva’s Jet d’Eau fountain that housed the opening ceremonies, press conferences, meetings, auctions, and new watch collections.

The white pavilion opposite Geneva’s famous Jet d’Eau fountain. (c) 2023 Ivan Simeon, [e-mail]

Each brand organised its own receptions and presentations in the venue of its choice. Jacob & Co and Ulysse Nardin welcomed guests in their Geneva boutiques. Bulgari, meanwhile, installed itself at the Ritz-Carlton hotel, and several companies rented suites at the Beau-Rivage hotel.

A watchmakers’ cooperative

Geneva Watch Days is an unusual watch industry event. It began in 2020 during the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic, when the future of the two big traditional watch shows – Baselworld and Watches & Wonders (formerly the Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie, or SIHH) – seemed uncertain. Geneva Watch Days offered a new organisational model: more human, more agile, and more modern. Each brand was free to decide how much to invest in the show and how and where to host guests. This spared the organisers many worries and has allowed them to expand the number of exhibitors.

“In 2020, Bulgari CEO Jean-Christophe Babin phoned me,” recalled Maximilian Büsser, founder of MB&F. “Then I [received a call from] Patrick Pruniaux at Ulysse Nardin. Both of them said the same thing: ‘Baselworld and SIHH are cancelled. We have to do something. The life of the watch industry cannot stop.’”

Babin explained that in the large traditional watch shows, brands have their hands tied by leases, deadlines, and numerous obligations. “[At Geneva Watch Days], each brand decides for itself within the minimum requirements of the contract. There is no risk of not having enough time to prepare an exhibition or not being able to afford the rent. We don’t have a typical hierarchical structure. We operate more like a watchmaking cooperative,” he said.

CHF10,000 ($11,200) entry ticket

The “entry ticket” for brands wishing to participate in Geneva Watch Days is more affordable than for Watches & Wonders, which costs CHF2,000 ($2,240) per square metre for stands of 50 to 400 square metres. “Young brands pay the minimum price, which is just CHF10,000 ($11,200),” explained Antoine Pin, president of the Geneva Watch Days Association and managing director of Bulgari. The large wealthiest brands pay more: up to CHF90,000 ($100,850).

The inauguration of the watch fair on August 29. (c) 2023 Ivan Simeon, [e-mail]

Young independent brands have had relatively easy access to the show from the start. They typically queued for years to get into one of the big shows. “The presence of this many independent watchmakers is a good sign,” said Pierre Jacques, CEO of De Bethune. “It shows that the industry is booming and that the newcomers are full of hope.”

Denis Flageollet, master watchmaker at De Bethune, is more cautious. He fears that the development of new brands could be artificially stimulated. He worries that they might become objects of speculation, that clients might buy the first watches made by young watchmakers not out of love but as lottery tickets, hoping to make money later on resale. “Real watch brands develop slowly,” he said. “And trade shows alone won’t help them very much.”

A growing industry, but…

At the opening of this year’s Geneva Watch Days, Delphine Bachmann, a member of Geneva’s cantonal government, remarked on the favourable climate in the watchmaking industry. She sees the event as an “an international showcase for Swiss watchmaking excellence, which exported more than CHF24 billion ($27 billion) in 2022”. This is a record sum, up by 11.4% compared to 2021.

The growth, however, is neither linear nor irreversible, as shown by the drop in price of iconic Rolex, Patek Philippe, and Audemars Piguet watches in the secondary market.

Swiss watchmakers sell their products worldwide. As a result, energy prices, the Russian war in Ukraine, China’s economic problems, and the rise in US interest rates will no doubt affect overall sales for 2023.

Yet many brand leaders believe that periods of slowdown are as intrinsic to economic cycles as phases of expansion and that, ultimately, revenue in 2023 will be greater than in 2022. Growth may not be as impressive as in 2022, but they feel it will be measurable.

The Rolex-Bucherer marriage

In late August, Rolex – the world’s number one luxury watch brand – announced its decision to buy Bucherer, a Swiss watch and jewellery retailer. The sale was a hot topic in Geneva. Many at the show felt that, in purchasing Bucherer, Rolex was looking to preserve the market rather than change it.

“It’s much better that Rolex buys retailers instead of real estate because this consolidates the industry and benefits everyone,” said the head of one of the brands present at the show.

This same leader, who wished to remain anonymous, sought to reassure those worried about being excluded from Bucherer’s shelves: “Rolex isn’t going to transform Bucherer stores around the world into Rolex-only outlets, that wouldn’t make any sense.”

Edited by Samuel Jaberg