The wonderful world of watches

A behind the scenes look into the Watches and Wonders expo

This March I made my way to Geneva for the long anticipated (LIVE and in person) Watches and Wonders—the large watch fair where all the big boy brands set up elaborate booths to welcome press and retail to see the latest and the greatest from their lines. This is a massive event with hundreds in attendance and no expense is spared. The Palexpo where this is held is sort of like the most glamorous mall you have ever seen. Brands like Cartier anchor an entire city block of the expo. There are tables and bars throughout offering espresso and croissants in the morning, and snacks and lunch in the afternoon. The French champagne starts to be poured at 11 am (thank god) and there is a steady flow of European wines that continue through the day. But let’s not get distracted—we are here for the watches. While the expo was going on for about a week, I had planned an intense 3 days of back-to-back meetings with brands that I personally like and was excited to see the folks in person—many whom I call friends. I had appointments with Cartier, Rolex, Chopard, Tudor, Patek Phillipe, Hèrmes, A. Lange Söhne, Oris, Panerai, Parmigiani, Tag Heuer, Vacheron Constantin, Zenith, Jaeger Le Coultre, Moser, IWC and Chanel. It is a pretty intense affair. The appointments are scheduled for 30 - 45 minutes each, either one on one or with other press. I like being in these meetings with other press as it usually is a fun group of people with whom I have been navigating this world for several years now, a solid group of hardcore watch journalists who really love the objects and often ask more intelligent questions about the new watches than I do. It was this group of characters who inspired my book, A Man and His Watch—a book born out of all these expos I was attending in Basel and Geneva, meeting with people and brands who had incredible stories.