It had to happen. After all, Art Basel launched itself in Hong Kong. Now it is the turn of the Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie, the watch fair that takes place every January in Geneva, to make the journey to the other side of the world.
At this year’s SIHH, there was already much conversation about the upcoming Hong Kong event, called Watches and Wonders.
While not as big as Geneva, it will nevertheless occupy 10,000 sq m at the Hong Kong exhibition centre. Earlier this year, the organising committee – like the SIHH, Watches and Wonders is run by the Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie (FHH) – went on a multi-stop media tour of the region.
This fair is an important acknowledgment of the significance of Asia for the health of the watch industry.The event was first discussed three years ago, when the financial state of Europe and the US was even less healthy than it is now.It was also before the new government of China brought with it a climate of, if not austerity, then certainly restraint that has led to some luxury brands experiencing steep drops in sales there.
That said, the Chinese customer is still buying outside China. A reported reduction in tariffs on watches imported into the country will close the price gap that is also a barrier to purchase there.
It is perhaps with the uncertainty on the mainland in mind that the FHH is positioning Watches and Wonders as an event targeted at the wider region.
“All the region is included, they are all invited – greater China, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Korea and Australia,” explains Fabienne Lupo, managing director of FHH.
“The target is the Asian region. It’s not focused on China.”
Although Ms Lupo is also the organiser of the SIHH, she is at pains to emphasise the difference between the two events and insists that the Hong Kong event will not cannibalise the Geneva fair.
“The SIHH is a trade fair, a professional fair and it will remain in January in Geneva because it’s the cradle of fine watchmaking. But the exhibitor committee of the SIHH believed that the time was right to organise an additional fair, or event, with a different focus, especially on customers, collectors and connoisseurs.
“It’s really much more like an educational platform for fine watchmaking,” she says.“The objective of Watches and Wonders is not to weaken the SIHH, but to reinforce the fact that we have to raise more and more awareness and to educate the Asian customers.”Unlike the BaselWorld fair, the SIHH does not have a public day; access is strictly limited to press, distributors and retailers.
Ms Lupo emphasises the role of the Hong Kong event in closing the knowledge gap in Asia. Fewer than 200 Chinese press attend the SIHH. This is only a fraction of the number expected to visit Watches and Wonders in Hong Kong.
The SIHH fair appears to run at near capacity when it comes to general members of the press, Ms Lupo indicates. “We cannot handle crowds of journalists. We cannot have all these people who are not retailers and specialised press come to Geneva in January,” she says.
That said, “The SIHH remains the central place where the key people from all over the world get first-hand information and get access to these products that they can talk about and also order,” Ms Lupo adds.
The programme of seminars, workshops and skill demonstrations in Hong Kong, she continues, will aim to inform those wanting to learn more about the culture and craft of watchmaking.
The fair will include all the important Richemont brands but there are other participants, too, among them Richard Mille, who is on the event’s steering committee.
“We very seldom have the possibility or occasion to explain to the public what we are doing and to spread high-end watch culture and this is one of the rare occasions we have to do that. This is why I was keen to participate,” says Mr Mille, who is at pains to emphasise the difference between the SIHH and Watches and Wonders.
“It is not a replica or duplication, but something that has very different objectives” and different visitors.
“As well as retailers bringing clients, banks will bring their clients, auction houses will bring their clients and we will spread a little bit of the culture of high watchmaking,” says Mr Mille.
His sentiments are echoed by Bernard Fornas, Richemont co-chief executive, who described Watches and Wonders as “an invitation to celebrate a renewed and embellished tie linking Europe to Asia: the very particular passion of time”.
It is to be hoped that, as well as sharing the culture, some good business will be done. The timing of the event at the end of September is significant in that it means that the brands will have had time to manufacture and deliver to the markets the models that were launched in Geneva at the beginning of the year.
As Mr Mille puts it: “My task for Watches & Wonders is to have the real products; at SIHH they are more prototypes.
“But this will be the first time that these products will be shown to the public.”
Provided he and the other exhibitors get their production schedules in order, the watches on show at Watches & Wonders will be on sale in the shops as well.
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