The 2024 Geneva watch truthful opened on Tuesday amid slower demand in China for fancy Swiss timepieces and timid shopper spending throughout the board on luxurious objects.
The Watches and Wonders salon, which runs till April 15, sees 54 main watch manufacturers show their newest creations, together with Rolex, Patek Philippe, Cartier, Chopard, Hermès and Chanel.
The 2020 downturn brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic was rapidly reversed by what monetary analysts referred to as revenge shopping for, with customers forking out with financial savings accrued throughout lockdowns.
Nonetheless, the expansion in Swiss watch exports has slowed, with exports up 7.6 per cent in 2023, having risen 11 per cent in 2022 and 31 per cent in 2021.
“We’re seeing an general slowdown,” stated Karine Szegedi, the buyer trade lead in Switzerland at auditing agency Deloitte.
Peek into the biggest personal jet on the earth, the US$400 million Boeing 747-8i
Peek into the biggest personal jet on the earth, the US$400 million Boeing 747-8i
“The clientele is extra cautious,” she informed us, with consumption in China and Hong Kong having “not returned to pre-Covid ranges”.
This slowdown just isn’t affecting all manufacturers equally. Probably the most high-end names, like Patek Philippe, depend on a really rich clientele who should not significantly uncovered to the vagaries of the economic system, that means these manufacturers have continued to develop.
Rolex unveiled six new watches for 2024
Whereas no new mannequin strains have been introduced, the Geneva-based watchmaker stated it’s striving for “harmonies of supplies, colors and textures” on this yr’s variants of tried-and-true favourites.
A gray and black bezel GMT-Grasp II; new variations on the basic Day-Date; a departure from final yr’s conservative brown and black choices for the Perpetual 1908; dozens of diamonds for the Daytona; a quick new bracelet for the Sky-Dweller; and at last Rolex’s final dive watch, the Deepsea, in 18-karat gold.
From mixing metallic finishes, to contrasting supplies like diamond and mom of pearl, the model is taking a comparatively understated (for Rolex, at the least) strategy than in recent times.
