Watchmaking: the Geneva Watch Days set the pace

Watchmaking: the Geneva Watch Days set the pace

The rise of independent fashion houses and a new emerging generation will guide the various events until the 1er september.

The Geneva Watch Days watch fair opens its doors on Monday for the third consecutive year. After difficult market conditions in 2020 and an encouraging 2021 edition, this new event will bring together some thirty brands until 1er september. The rise of independent houses and the emerging new generation will direct the various appointments.

More open to the general public than to professionals in the sector, the Geneva Watch Days will make it possible to discover new models of timepieces but also to discuss the state of the Swiss and global watchmaking sector.

The organizers highlight the emergence of “a new generation of leaders” by announcing the participation of Jean Arnault, Benjamin Kuffer or even Alexandre Mille as being “the next generation in watchmaking”.

With the exception of the triptych of giants Breitling, Bulgari and Ulysse Nardin, the Geneva event will highlight small independent brands such as Oris, Hyt and Jacob & Co, announces a press release.

The disappearance of the renowned Baselworld fair could have been a harbinger of this, yet the watchmaking world is not giving up on physical fairs. Only the format changes, because unlike the Watches and Wonders fair in March and April, the timepieces will be presented at the Geneva Watch Days under the pavilion located on the Quai du Mont-Blanc but also in a decentralized way in hotels and shops on the edge of the Lake Geneva.

In the first half of the year, Swiss watch exports climbed by 11.9% to 11.9 billion francs and in July, they grew by 8.3% in one year to 2.2 billion francs, their highest monthly level. since the record high of October 2014. With the exception of China and Hong Kong, most markets have followed this upward trend over the first six months, the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry (FH) recently explained.

Against a backdrop of inflation, severe supply difficulties, labor shortages and confinements in China, the repercussions on prices will also be at the heart of discussions between specialists.

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