Watches And Wonders Swiss Watch Fair Held In Geneva Last Week Draws A Record Number Of Visitors

Watches and Wonders, the watch fair that has replaced Baselworld as the event of the year in the Swiss luxury watch calendar, wrapped up a banner year on the weekend. Attendance at the fair, held in Geneva from March 27 to April 2, doubled in attendance this year. It closed on Sunday with a record attendance of 43,000 visitors compared to 22,000 in 2022. That included 5,400 retailers from 125 countries. The city of Geneva accommodated 35,000 overnight stays related to the fair.

Watches and Wonders staff even clocked the number of shares on social networks: 1.8-million posts mentioned #watchesandwonders, with an estimated reach of over 600-million people, an all-time high. The general public was invited to attend the fair over the weekend of April 1-2, and all 12,000 tickets were sold out before the weekend started. Interestingly, 25% of the tickets sold were purchased by people under the age of 25. They were also invited to attend special watch-focused events and boutique happenings throughout the city of Geneva.

There were 50% more journalists at the fair, an increase mainly due to the return of Asian markets (which did not attend last year due to covid). There were a total of 1,400 journalists at the show, and another 2,600 following along online. Retailers attending the show collectively made more than 8,000 appointments, keeping the staff busy from the 48 participating brands, including Cartier, Rolex, Patek Philippe, Vacheron Constantin, Piaget, Chopard, IWC, Panerai, Parmigiani Fleurier, TAG Heuer, Van Cleef & Arpels, A. Lange & Söhne, Chanel and more. Expect more brands next year: Watches and Wonders president Jean-Frederic Dufour, who is also the CEO of Rolex, gave an interview with Swiss daily newspaper Le Temps, extending an invitation to the Swatch Group, which he hopes will join the fair next year. That would bring in several more brands, including Breguet, Blancpain, Omega and Longines.

The growth of the fair is mirrored in the Swiss watch industry as a whole, which has had a record year. Exports of Swiss watches reached 24.8-billion Swiss francs in 2022 (about $27-blllion).