My watch month: April 2025 - fascinating diversity and nervous fragility

My watch month: April 2025 - fascinating diversity and nervous fragility

There's no question that Watches & Wonders was the mega-topic for the entire global watch community in April.

Initially – after the end of the often-maligned yet much-loved Baselworld – the transformation of the former Richemont trade fair SIHH into Watches & Wonders, which is also open to other brands, was viewed critically:

It probably won't be anything more than an interim solution in response to the Basel exit (the last one took place in 2019). That's what many thought. I honestly thought so too.

I didn't even like the name, as you can read in one of my columns from 2019:

"Cars & Wonders, Jewels & Wonders, Wine & Wonders, Whatever & Wonders... the name concept somehow fits everything. Okay, it's probably easier for many people to pronounce than Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie. And the alliteration of "Watches" and "Wonders" is a recognized linguistic device. So good, so boring."

Then, the coronavirus pandemic put a damper on the first and second Watches & Wonders, so they were held only as digital events in 2020 and 2021. For a product as emotional as a watch, where haptics also play a crucial role, and for the associated exhibition-loving industry with its great passion for communication and gossip, this was a suboptimal start.

The third dimension

In 2021, I commented: "Watches & Wonders Geneva was professional all around, but unfortunately flickered across the screens of the global community as a two-dimensional watch show. What was missing was the third dimension, the depth."

Since 2022, all of this has fortunately been taking place again in the seemingly endless expanse of Geneva's Palexpo halls. And Watches & Wonders continues to grow and thrive. What started with a good 30 exhibiting brands has now grown to 60.

The Rolex coup

The fact that Rolex was involved from the very beginning certainly helped. The brand continues to attract incredible attention—and possibly also from other, equally exciting brands.

This was also the case this year, with the difference that the most important Rolex novelty was leaked before the official launch on April 1, Rolex brand ambassador Roger Federer had taken to Instagram two days earlier to see the not yet launched Land-Dweller and the press release was not sent around the world on the morning of the first day of Watches & Wonders, but already at 0.01 a.m.

The result: countless exhausted journalists, bloggers, and influencers milled around the aisles of the Palexpo halls on the opening day of Watches & Wonders 2025. After all, everyone wanted to win the race to be the first to reveal the latest Rolex releases.

Diversity at its Best

The positive effect: from the very first hour, everyone was able to concentrate on the many other exciting watch premieres – okay, some of them only started on the second day due to the Rolex-induced fatigue.

But at the latest then the 55,000 visitors (2024: 49,000) – of which 23,000 on public days – in a ticking diversity without equalIn just a few years, Watches & Wonders has truly managed to become arguably the largest watch event in the world. All of Geneva participates, and the fun continues outside the exhibition halls as well.

For the first time, it was possible to carry out the parallel Time to Watches to visit, specifically at the Villa Sarasin on the Palexpo grounds, just a few minutes' walk away. Here, the clocks ticked a little differently – more independent and less expensive, but no less creative and high-quality.

Added to this were the many activities in Geneva itself. These included free cultural events as part of the "In The City" program, as well as offers from watch brands in boutiques and hotels.

Not to mention all the conversations about the industry, the shared glances at watch-clad wrists, and the unanimous crystal ball reading – fueled by the US President.

Fragile watch world

Because in the midst of its most beautiful existence in the champagne-soaked Watches & Wonders bubble, it threatened to burst. Spoiler alert: it held, but was significantly stretched. Because something else burst—or rather, exploded—in the first week of April: Donald Trump's tariff bombshellSwitzerland was subject to particularly high tariffs.

This didn't fit in with the – albeit temporary – beautiful, perfect, and glamorous world of the Palexpo halls. After a declining export year in 2024 and a mediocre start to 2025, the Swiss watch industry's figures were already showing signs of slump.

It was already clear: A simple “keep it up!” will not be enough in the future to bring products that nobody needs to people all over the world.

The tariffs—of all things, for the US market, so crucial for Swiss watches—once again highlighted the fragility of the watch industry. And its nervousness.

Even though many brand representatives displayed ostentatious calm, hectic activity apparently began behind the scenes, attempting to fly as many watches as possible into the USA before the 31 percent tariff came into effect.

It was clear that tariffs would come. And this was apparently already reflected in the export figures in March 2025. Analysts at Jefferies assume that the positive figures for March 2025 "were likely aided by advance shipments to the US in advance of the impending tariffs." And these were certainly intensified in the first week of April, before April 9, the original start of the US tariffs.

Now, as with almost all other countries, tariffs have been initially lifted for Switzerland, and a 10 percent base tariff has been set. Bilateral negotiations are ongoing. The outcome is open – because Donald Trump and his decisions are unpredictable.

All of this demonstrates—as, for example, the Chinese anti-corruption campaign in the 2010s and the coronavirus pandemic in the early 2020s—how fragile the economic balance of the global watch industry is. The currently strong and continuing rise of the Swiss franc is also currently causing problems for export-oriented watch companies.

It remains exciting to see what strategies the watch brands will develop to assert themselves in the future.

My hope is that they won't limit themselves to price increases so as not to let their own margins shrink too much, hoping that the well-heeled will simply accept this.

It would simply be a shame if the wonderful diversity of the fascinating world of watches were to be enjoyed by fewer and fewer people.