News 
After a week packed with launches, meetings and lively discussions, Geneva Watch Days drew to a close with record results: 52 brands took part and nearly 1,500 watchmaking professionals, including 650 media representatives and 250 retailers from all over the world, gathered on the shores of Lake Geneva.
Open to the general public for five days, the Pavilion at the “Rotonde du Mont Blanc” welcomed 13,800 visitors, an increase of more than 70% on last year. Connoisseurs of fine watchmaking were able to admire over 100 new timepieces free of charge, displayed in 65 showcases around four themes. No less than 650 of them took advantage of guided tours given by experts from the Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie (FHH), while VIP programs were offered to collectors.
The nine symposia on themes of interest to the watchmaking industry were also a great success, with around a hundred people attending each one in a new space, the so-called Glass Box, set up right next to the Pavilion. The brunch organised by the FHH on Saturday 31 August attracted some 150 watchmaking enthusiasts, who were able to test their knowledge in a quiz, while three talks, also organised by the FHH, provided an insight into the world of each brand, their new products and humankind’s relationship with time. Students, collectors and business executives were able to chat directly with some of the CEOs of the participating brands over three informal breakfasts.
In the Culture Club, set up in a wing of the Pavilion, the FHH, the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève, the Geneva Watchmaking School, the Horological Society of New York (HSNY), Horopedia and The Watch Library, all partners in the event, offered ongoing activities.
Finally, the charity auction on 1 September, organised jointly by Geneva Watch Days and Phillips in Association with Bacs & Russo, raised CHF108,000 for the Pierre Amstutz Fund, which supports apprentices in precarious situations at the Geneva Watchmaking School, enabling them to complete their studies in good conditions.
But beyond the figures, the special atmosphere of this decentralised, self-managed event, which takes place in the heart of summer on the shores of Lake Geneva, is something to be savoured.
September 12, 2024