Watches and Wonders 2024: watchmaking trends at the cutting edge

From the halls of Palexpo to downtown Geneva, professionals and the general public were fully immersed and able to enjoy the numerous activities created specifically for the occasion. The "In The City" program and its activities in the "Watchmaking Village" gave enthusiasts the opportunity to experience a multitude of watch-related activities tailored to all generations of enthusiasts. As the fair was drawing to a close, a few hours before the end, Matthieu Humair was serene: "The numbers, across all types of attendance, have been higher: we welcomed 1’500 journalists (+10%), 5’800 retailers (+10%), and overall with the public, we are at +14% attendance. End customers were also much more numerous, and we sold 19’000 tickets to the public, compared to 12’000 in 2023, with 25% sold to those under 25, with an average age of 35. Watches and Wonders have become the essential platform for the industry, where gathering is paramount. It's a business accelerator; all the brands have emphasized to me the importance of meeting new, often young, customers. This is crucial for the watchmaking industry."

Within the fair, the 2024 novelties from the exhibiting houses offered a wide variety of models with complications. The Geneva-based house Vacheron Constantin set the bar very high with the 63 complications of its Les Cabinotiers-Berkley Grand Complication watch, presented after eight years of development. The most complicated timepiece in the world, it features, for the first time, a Chinese perpetual calendar, integrating 2’877 components. It surpasses the record already held by the House with Reference 57260.

On the other side of the Sarine River, IWC Schaffhausen has designed a secular perpetual calendar for the first time. The Portugieser Eternal Calendar model automatically takes into account the exceptions related to leap years in the Gregorian calendar by skipping three leap years over a period of 400 years. In addition, its moon phase is so precise that it will deviate by only one day after 45 million years. As for Jaeger-LeCoultre, the historical brand from Le Sentier, established in the region in 1833, this year offered a brand new three-axis tourbillon, the heliotourbillon, rotating on three axes to create a "spinning top" effect, in its Duomètre Heliotourbillon Perpetual model. Very iconic, the Cartier Privé Tortue model was highly anticipated by collectors, in its monopusher chronograph version.

At the opposite end of the spectrum of what watchmaking could present this year, Watches and Wonders revealed more accessible watches, often equipped with a three-hand mechanical or even quartz movement, with a significantly reduced case size, the other major trend of the year. This was the case with Hublot and its new Classic Fusion Original model in gold or titanium with a 29mm diameter and quartz movement, which becomes, on this occasion, the brand's entry-level offering. Another form of great purity, the new Hermès Cut creation, halfway between the circle and the round, offers a more feminine watch equipped with the Hermès 1912 manufacture movement, available in steel or in a combination of steel and rose gold, set or unset.

Others, like Tag Heuer, excelled in the reissue of iconic models, such as the Monaco or the Carrera with its iconic "Panda" dial.

Overall, markets were very enthusiastic about the innovations presented by the exhibiting houses. However, anticipation of the brands' performances for the year is no longer euphoric; they are cautious and predict only a few percent growth. The publication of the first-quarter 2024 figures from the major luxury groups in the coming days will undoubtedly confirm a return to normalcy for the industry, after two years of strong growth.