2024 will see the biggest-ever Geneva Watch Days, with 52 brands and over 100 watches, and Watch Advice will be there covering all the action!
Geneva Watch Days is back again this year after a massive success in 2023. Launched in 2020 by six Founding Members—Breitling, Bulgari, De Bethune, GirardPerregaux, H. Moser & Cie. and MB&F, the city-wide fair is heading into its 5th year, and what started out as a bit of a breakaway event, has now turned into one of the biggest events on the Horological calendar. Last year’s event attracted over 8,000 visitors, 600 media representatives, and 300 retailers from all over the world, and if the watch world talk is anything to go by, then we should see these numbers increase when Geneva Watch Days opens its “Doors” later this week.
Running from Thursday 29th August over the weekend and through Monday 2nd September, there will be 52 brands exhibiting with over 100 individual timepieces – all on show and all open to the public. While Geneva Watch Days is what they call a decentralised fair, meaning there will be exhibits and displays across the city and in brand boutiques, there will be a main pavilion area by Lake Geneva, at the Rotonde du Mont-Blanc, which will be open to the public each day.
If you’re a keen watch lover and want to get to know more about each brand and their associated watches, then you can also book a free tour via the Geneva Watch Days Tour Registration Page. Once you’ve done a tour, you can wander through the pavilion or head to some of the local boutiques to see what they have on offer, and each afternoon, there will be symposiums back at the pavilion, in a special area called “The Glass Box” hosted by Revolution Watch. Again, if you want to watch these, then you can register for them HERE.
Your Daily Guide
There will be plenty of activities, talks, tours, and other exciting things each day, and while each day won’t be the same, the below outlines a bit fo a run sheet for what is happening everyday. But, if you are in Geneva, or are planning on heading over, then you can see the full daily program here.
Pavillion
- 11am – 6pm: Free public access
- 1:30pm: Guided tours by FHH (Foundation de la Haute Horlogerie)
- 2:30pm: Guided tours and craftsmanship demonstration by FHH
The Glassbox
- 8:30am – 11am: combination of Private breakfasts & press conferences
- 11:30am – Variety of symposiums & keynote talks
- 12pm onwards: Symposiums, press conferences and keynotes
Watches & Wonders vs Geneva Watch Days
What is the difference between Watches & Wonders and Geneva Watch Days I hear you ask? Well, several things actually. But before I get into that, a little bit of recent history to help you understand where all this started and the link between Geneva Watch Days and Watches & Wonders …
Watches & Wonders was born out of the collapse of Baselworld, which last took place in 2019. If you had been following any watch media coverage at the time, you’d undoubtedly be familiar with the growing discontent that some, ok many, of the industry’s major players had with the fair and its organisers. As a result, many brands moved to SIHH/Watches & Wonders, and when Rolex, Patek, Chopard, Tudor, and Chanel all pulled their support for Baselworld, it sounded the death knell for this once great and long-running fair. While this helped propel Watches & Wonders to what we now know today, it still left a void for many brands. So in 2020, Geneva Watch Days was born – and during the Covid Pandemic nonetheless!
Back to the original question – what is the differences between Watches & Wonders and Geneva Watch Days? Firstly, Watches & Wonders is first and foremost an industry trade fair for the watch world to bring to market and exhibit their latest and greatest, to meet with heads of retailers and distributors as well as showcase their pieces to the world through the world’s watch media, such as us here at Watch Advice who had a busy, but fun time at this years fair.
Geneva Watch Days on the other hand is more a public fair, and a celebration of watches from some of the industry’s biggest independent brands, like Breitling, MB&F, H. Moser & Cie, Oris, Girard-Perregaux, Jacob & Co and a few brands from LVMH and Swatch, namely Bvlgari (LVMH), Breguet and Blancpain (Swatch). While Watches & Wonders is held at the massive Palexpo, Geneva Watch Days has a central hub, but has exhibitors throughout the city in the 5-star hotels and their own boutiques, creating more of a festival vibe for the 5 days.
Below is the complete list of brands exhibiting at this year’s Geneva Watch Days:
Watch Advice Coverage
As mentioned, the Watch Advice team will be heading over the Geneva this week to see all the brands and their new releases (there are some great ones coming out too), talk with industry reps and of course, bring you our readers a showcase of what we see and do. We will have the new releases on the site, so make sure you keep coming back to the homepage each day to see what has dropped, but as we’ll be on the ground, make sure you follow our page on Instagram as we’ll be dropping content across each day, before, during and after the fair!
And of course, if you want to follow us individually, as I’m sure we’ll all have own own unique takes on things, then you can do so via the following links – @ChampsG, @Digital_Escapement, & @watchadvicesam
Stay tuned…
