If you’re into watches, chances are your social media feeds have been jam-packed with Geneva Watch Days content recently, as the watch world gathered in Geneva for the second time this year. Compared to Watches & Wonders, which takes place in a huge convention center near the airport, Geneva Watch Days almost seems like the Swiss version of a block party: two main tents on the shores of the lake with key events and parties, and a little trail of journalists, collectors, and enthusiasts going around various hotels and private event venues around the heart of Geneva. Here’s what it’s like to attend.

The heart of the action at Geneva Watch Days is right in the city center. Most of the participating brands set up in hotel suites somewhere near the lake, with prime views of the water and the ever-present Jet d’Eau. Being Geneva, there are always non-participating brands present, some with workshops or storefronts in the city, and some taking up private hotel suites for appointments with collectors and press who are in town for the main event. There’s a main pavilion with exhibitions, talks and evening events, and another pavilion called the “Blue Box” with immersive watchmaking experiences.

The vast majority of the brands are in the Beau-Rivage, Four Seasons, Hotel d’Angleterre, and Hotel Eastwest, all within the same area along the shore of Lac Léman (aka Lake Geneva, for the English speakers). There are a number of exhibitors around other districts in Geneva as well, some a short walk across a picturesque bridge to the area of town that has many swanky watch and other luxury boutiques. 

Most attendees pick their poison, favoring the brands they like to collect, or in the case of media attendees, the brands they can manage to cover in the short few days of the event. With 71 participating brands and all of the ancillary events and showrooms around town, it quickly becomes an exercise in balancing appointments with FOMO.

While I was there, I had the opportunity to meet with quite a few brands and attend some interesting events, as well as a memorable dinner at F.P. Journe Le Restaurant.

The heritage brand, owned by House of Brands, the group that also includes Breitling and Gallet, relaunched in April with a massive splash, featuring the Polerouter, Compax, Cabriolet and Disco Mini collections, plus the Couture and Signature tiers. This was my first opportunity to see the entire collection in person. We mostly focused on the Polerouter (because it is my favorite, and I have had several vintage Polerouters in my collection) and the Cabriolet (because a friend was enamored with it and wanted to buy one). We also got to go hands-on (quite literally) with some of their limited edition gemset pieces, including the Disco Maxi Couture Ruby-Heart, and as a person with a deep appreciation for both gem-setting and stone dials, I was suitably impressed.

After my friend's order for the Cabriolet was secured, we headed up to the rooftop of the private apartment building where UG was exhibiting, and got some epic wristshots.

URWERK, who has a workshop that hosts clients in Geneva’s Old Town, chose to do a fun, mostly informal ‘Tea for Two’ event, where attendees were invited to come hang out with the brand’s master watchmaker Felix Baumgartner and chief designer Martin Frei to just… hang out and have high tea. Many tea sandwiches and scones were served, alongside freshly bundled tea that is probably among some of the best I’ve ever tasted. (My apologies to any Brits who may be reading this.) We got to handle and try on the new UR-150 Golden Scorpion, and check out the gigantic space-age tricorder-esque UR-1001 Amadeus, a completely bonkers pocket watch rendered in titanium that is hand-engraved by German engraver Florian Güllert, all while enjoying delightful conversation with Felix. (A shout-out to Yacine, the phenomenal person who keeps all of URWERK’s communications and scheduling in perfect synchronization.)

Among my favorite visits to brands at this event was MB&F. I managed to completely mix up which day I was supposed to be there, so while I showed up on time for my appointment, it was off by a day. But what a fortuitous mistake it was, because while I was visiting, I ran into @nycwatchguy, a collector I know well, and the Grönefeld brothers, who walked in while I was in the middle of my appointment. I got hands-on with the latest M.A.D. Editions M.A.D.3, a collaboration with Vincent Calabrese that is, not to put too fine a point on it, SO COOL, due to its wandering jump hour complication that rotates around the vibrantly colored dial. It comes in two dial colors: a deep, saturated pink which was reserved for the Tribe and friends of the brand, and a dark blue that was available via a raffle, which the M.A.D.Editions team puts on for each release in an effort to distribute a limited number of pieces fairly to the extremely large group of potential customers who want one. There’s always more to come from the slightly mad minds at MB&F, so stay tuned for what’s next.

Those who know me know that I often customize my manicures for watch events, and Geneva Watch Days was no exception. I showed my nail artist the MING x J.N. Shapiro 37.06 Lightning in advance of the trip, and because it's pretty much impossible to create a guilloché effect in nail polish, we made an adapted version that matched the dial colors with a different effect on top inspired by the guilloché pattern. We obviously took some photos of the nail and watch pairing, but the star of the appointment for me was seeing the brand's 57.05 Comet, a worldtime complication that answers the perennial question: how do you compensate for the time zones that do observe daylight saving time without disturbing the ones that don't? Their answer: a bezel system that accounts for DST that's patent-pending.

One of my favorite British brands, Fears, launched their first perpetual calendar just before Geneva Watch Days, and though I had seen it before on the brand’s founder’s wrist, it was a joy to see it in all its glory at GWD. As a bonus (for me), they were just on the other side of a little courtyard from MING, so it was like ping-ponging between two groups of friends. The perpetual calendar itself, designed by Fears’s senior design manager Lee Yuen-Rapati, is an exercise in balance and elegance, and I was happy to see it get a warm reception from attendees of the show.

Raymond Weil hosted a rooftop cocktail party focused on their women’s watches. Along with the spectacular views of Lake Geneva, we enjoyed canapes and champagne, and some very much needed chilled spray bottles of Evian, essential for beating the 33C Geneva heat. Brand CEO Elie Bernheim and watch industry fixture Eleonor Picciotto gave a talk about Raymond Weil’s focus on women’s watches, and the attendees got to try on the entire current collection.

The talk of the whole show was the Bvlgari collaboration with legendary avant-garde watchmaker Vianney Halter. Though I didn’t get a chance to see it in person, so many of my friends did that I felt like I was there by osmosis. The watch combines Halter’s unconventional approach to timekeeping displays with Bvlgari’s Octo case shape, resulting in a mesmerizing timepiece that has collectors chomping at the bit to score one, even though it is completely sold out.

While in Geneva, one must experience things outside of the watch shows, whether it’s a visit to an independent watchmaker’s workshop or a dinner at a different independent watchmaker’s restaurant.

We paid a visit to Xhevdet Rexhepi's workshop, where Xhevdet himself walked us through the space and treated us to a hands-on look at his inaugural timepiece, the Minute Inerte, a jumping, or dead-beat, minute whose second hand turns in 58 seconds before pausing at 60 for 2 seconds at each lap, while the minute hand remains inert and jumps instantly by one minute when the second hand restarts at the changeover to the new minute. If you ever get your hands on one, hold it up to your ear to hear the audible moment when the minute jumps.

All of these watches can work up an appetite, so we went to F.P. Journe Le Restaurant, where we enjoyed a four-course meal with some exceptional service from an incredible hospitality team (who were all wearing a limited-edition F.P. Journe Élégante "Le Restaurant" with a red dial, natch). Prior to my party arriving, I enjoyed a glass of the wine made for F.P. Journe by Chateau Seguin. When my dining companions arrived, they chose a fantastic wine that was not on their extensive printed wine list, recommended by the sommelier. (Pro tip: ask them if they have anything that's not on the list. They often do.)

The meal was phenomenal. It was the perfect combination - complexity of flavor, but not an overwhelming amount of richness, as can often happen at a fine dining establishment. The chef, Dominique Gauthier, came out at the end to inquire about our enjoyment of the meal, and all four happy diners concurred that it was amazing. And for dessert? My friend obtained the elusive desk clock that is rarely available only at the restaurant.

These are, of course, just a few of the highlights; with 71 exhibitors, countless attendees, parties, dinners, auctions, and everything in between, it would take more time to tell the stories than I spent at the show. It’s definitely worth attending, especially as a collector, as it is explicitly set up to be a more collector-friendly experience than something that is primarily industry-focused like Watches & Wonders. Perhaps I’ll see you there when the show returns in 2027.