What to anticipate from Watches & Wonders 2025

After a post-pandemic excessive, final yr was a quieter one for the watch trade, with drops in exports and gross sales signalling an finish to the record-breaking highs of the previous few years. What to anticipate, then, from this yr’s Watches and Wonders? With 60 manufacturers getting ready to unveil their watch releases, many assume the largest occasion within the horological calendar might be a quieter one this yr, with much less of an emphasis on model new collections, and extra of a concentrate on reworked classics.

Amongst the doom of falling gross sales and, consequently, costs, there are indicators the market might go in fascinating new instructions. Developments in ladies’s watches are responding to a brand new technology of feminine customers who count on bigger dimensions and mechanical actions of their watches, whereas performs on color and materials elsewhere present that innovation and a pushing of the technical boundaries continues to be key for a lot of.

The main focus is firmly on a youthful viewers this yr on the salon itself. Final yr, 1 / 4 of attendees had been below 35, one thing the salon has constructed on this yr with a programme devoted to a horological schooling. The LAB area, a hub of latest applied sciences, may also embrace members from colleges, start-ups and apprentices. In Geneva itself, there might be an emphasis on watchmaking coaching programs, workshops and actions for kids. ‘The Lab will deliver new initiatives and I’m very a lot trying ahead to discovering the scholar tasks,’ says CEO Matthieu Humair, Watches and Wonders Geneva. ‘I’m additionally trying ahead to the Longitude 0 exhibition, with its aesthetic staging, that can take guests for a journey alongside the well-known Greenwich meridian.’

Customer expertise, too, might be tweaked, with each the press and now the general public capable of register for product displays and excursions prematurely. ‘Watches and Wonders Geneva permits the guests to expertise the world of watchmaking in many alternative methods, no matter your stage of data,’ Humair provides. ‘This yr, now we have designed an thrilling and tailored program to make every go to distinctive whereas providing the identical stage of providers that made the success of the Salon. Watches and Wonders Geneva is an immersive watchmaking expertise.’