April 09, 2024
It’s that time of year again, and like children giddy with excitement on Christmas Eve, we couldn’t be more pumped about what’s in store at this year’s Watches and Wonders Geneva! In just a few days’ time, the doors of Geneva’s Palexpo will open and the great and good of watchmaking will flood in to catch a glimpse, and possibly even a wear, of the new timepieces each of the 54 participating brands are putting out.
Ahmed Seddiqi & Sons favourites such as Bell & Ross, Ressence and Norqain will be present and correct, along with Ulysse Nardin, Tudor, Oris and many more. The big hitters such as Rolex and Hublot will be expected to make some noise with their drops – Rolex’s candy-coloured puzzle watch was the runaway viral timepiece of last year’s fair, while Hublot’s launch of the mind-boggling MP-10 Tourbillon Weight Energy System Titanium at LVMH Watch Week in Miami last February caused quite the stir. Will these Maisons be able to keep up the pace and blow our watch-loving minds once again? Only time will tell.
Watches and Wonders is bigger than ever before this year, extending out of the convention centre and into Geneva’s bustling downtown with its new ‘In the City’ concept. Aiming to bring watchmaking to a wider audience, especially to children and young people, while the industry-only fair runs from April 9 to 12, In the City kicks off at exactly the same time, staying open from April 9 to 13 and providing plenty of free opportunities to step into the highly secretive world of horology. Guided tours, watchmaking workshops and special children’s activities are all on the cards, the perfect warm-up to a trip to Palexpo which will open its doors to public visitors from April 13 to 15. With Watches and Wonders’s CEO Matthieu Humair citing including the younger generation as one of the salon’s chief aims this year, it seems that with In the City it’s well on its way to achieving its goal.
In true Swiss style, this year’s wonders have, so far, remined firmly under wraps. So what can we expect to see when the 2024 novelties are finally released to the world? Only in its fourth edition, Watches and Wonders has nonetheless played host to some very big releases. The Oris X Kermit partnership had almost everyone green with envy in 2023, while 2022 saw the release of the revamped Chopard Alpine Eagle Flying Tourbillon, a lesson in refined design and expert horology. A reworked Tudor Black Bay chrono set everyone’s worlds on fire in 2021 and while 2020 was a difficult year for everybody – not just high-end watch fairs – nonetheless Watches and Wonders kept the show on the (virtual) road with an online fair that introduced, among many others, the arresting H. Moser & Cie Endeavour Tourbillon Vantablack Black Hands which sported the darkest substance on Earth on its dial.
As for this year’s trends, it’s safe to say that colour will be a big deal – the past few years have seen the rainbow look come to full fruit, with everyone from Patek Philippe to Richard Mille bringing out their version, and it doesn’t show any signs of withering yet. Ecological considerations are also a hot topic, with lab-grown diamonds and ethically mined gold, pioneered by Breitling and Chopard, sure to be taking a more highly visible role. Celebrity and expert collabs have become the name of many brands’ games, so we can expect to see a fair number of non-watchmaking names adding their two cents to the launches. And as for new technologies and materials – some of the more technologically-focussed Maisons are sure to be duking it out with their proprietary developments and designs. The Urwerks and MB&Fs of this world would never miss an opportunity to reveal something completely left-of-field to a gathered crowd, so until then we wait with bated breath.
All considered, it’s safe to say that the only thing you really can be sure of at Watches and Wonders is plenty of surprises. And while trends come and go, the aim for these horologers is to create stunning works of watchmaking that will never die – long live Watches and Wonders.
