Key Highlights
- 10,450 visitors attended Time to Watches 2026 in Geneva — a 10% rise on the previous year
- 87 brands participated, from established manufacturers to independent and emerging watchmakers
- A Las Vegas-themed inauguration set the tone ahead of the event’s upcoming U.S. chapter
- The festival-format “watchmaking Village” — Garden, Villa, Annex, Lodge and Cellar — confirmed its appeal as an alternative to the traditional fair model
- Next stop: Time to Watches @ COUTURE, Las Vegas, 27–31 May 2026
A New Standard for Watch Fairs
The numbers confirm what regular attendees have sensed for several editions: Time to Watches has found a formula that resonates. The Geneva 2026 edition drew 10,450 visitors — up 10% on 2025 — and assembled 87 brands within its “watchmaking Village” format. That growth is not incidental. It reflects a genuine appetite, among both trade professionals and collectors, for a fair model built around human exchange rather than monolithic booth architecture. The event, founded and directed by Christian Wipfli, has been running since 2022 and positions itself explicitly as an alternative to convention.
The opening night crystallised that ambition. A Las Vegas theme greeted guests just weeks before the event’s next chapter unfolds in Nevada, weaving together two very different cities through a shared commitment to spectacle and connection. The ribbon was cut by a group of dignitaries that included Yves Bugmann, President of the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry, and Daniel Loeffer, Deputy Secretary General of the Department of Economy and Employment of the Canton of Geneva — a combination of official recognition and festive irreverence that defines Time to Watches’ character. Hundreds of guests then carried the evening forward well into the night.
The Village: Architecture Built for People
What distinguishes Time to Watches from adjacent Geneva fairs — including the more institutional Watches and Wonders — is spatial philosophy. The Village is not a grid of booths. It is a living environment with distinct zones, each serving a specific social and commercial function. The Garden acted as the central hub: a meeting ground framed by food trucks, lounge areas, and the Welcome Desk, drawing together professionals and enthusiasts throughout the day. From morning to evening, the atmosphere held energy without friction.
The Villa, the Annex, the Lodge and the Cellar offered quieter, more focused settings for professional meetings and business development. This layered architecture — convivial at the centre, purposeful at the edges — meant that a collector browsing an independent brand’s latest references could share a building with a retailer negotiating a distribution agreement, and neither experience interrupted the other. It is a model that the Fondation Haute Horlogerie and the broader Swiss watch industry have long sought to conceptualise; Time to Watches has simply built it.
Eighty-Seven Brands and the Independent Spirit
The 2026 brand roster spans the full breadth of contemporary watchmaking. Alongside names familiar to the GCC collector — Junghans, Graham, Vulcain, Squale — sits a cohort of emerging independents: DOMINIQUE RENAUD, Krayon, GoS Watches, KERBEDANZ, and Felipe Pikullik, among many others. The sheer variety underscores the event’s founding thesis: that watchmaking’s most interesting conversations are happening outside the rarefied tier of grand complications, in the space where craft, creativity, and accessibility intersect.
Workshops, demonstrations, and content-creation sessions ran throughout the week, turning the Village into a genuinely participatory environment. This is not a fair where a collector stands at a counter, examines a watch under glass, and moves on. The format encourages extended engagement — with the brand, with the movement, and with the wider community of people who care about horology on its own terms. Record attendance at the Geneva 2026 edition is the clearest possible validation of that bet. As Christian Wipfli put it: “These are moments of connection, where watchmaking is experienced at its most human.”
Las Vegas Next, Geneva in 2027
The Geneva chapter closes; the Las Vegas chapter opens. Time to Watches @ COUTURE runs from 27 to 31 May 2026, targeting professionals from the North American market — retailers and media, primarily — and continuing the expansion of a format that began in Switzerland. The U.S. edition broadens the event’s geographic footprint and signals a clear intention: to make the watchmaking Village a genuinely international model, not merely a Geneva fixture. For brands operating across multiple markets, the dual-edition calendar creates two distinct windows for trade conversation within a single year.
For collectors and watch professionals based in the GCC, the trajectory of Time to Watches warrants close attention. The event surfaces a tier of independent and mid-market watchmaking that sits alongside — rather than beneath — the grand manufactures. Brands that define their identity through authenticity and craft, rather than heritage alone, are finding an audience here. Visit timetowatches.com for the full brand list, media gallery, and updates on both the Las Vegas and Geneva 2027 editions.
Why It Matters
Time to Watches 2026 marks a measurable shift in how the watch industry chooses to gather. Record attendance, a broadening brand roster, and a second international edition in Las Vegas confirm that the festival format is not an experiment — it is a direction. For collectors across the GCC who value discovery and dialogue as much as prestige, this is the fair worth following.
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