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Anders Modig Davin

This November saw the fourth edition of Dubai Watch Week, a public event which attracts watch aficionados from around the world. The venue – the shiny, black marble plaza of Dubai International Financial Centre, one of the world’s top 10 financial hubs – features pavilions and pop-up restaurants for one of the global biennial celebrations of horology, Dubai Watch Week.
Not only are 44 watch brands – ranging from big houses such as Breitling, Grand Seiko and Bulgari to independents such as Armin Strom, Moritz Grossmann and HYT – showing mechanical marvels in a fair-like setting, but the event shows an industry gathering can be completely open to the public while offering initiated horology forums, workshops and debates increasing knowledge on all levels.

“We also want to allow young people to understand watches. This is a non-commercial event, because we want everybody to feel welcome and not be intimidated,” said director general of Dubai Watch Week Hind Seddiqi, who expected around 15,000, visitors, more than double the previous edition.
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As watches are nowadays released throughout the year, Vacheron Constantin, Hublot, Ressence and MB&F were among the brands launching new models during Dubai Watch Week. Many of these are limited editions aimed at the region, very appealing to established local collectors. Within hours of their release, the 10 square and nine round steel watches made by H. Moser & Cie in collaboration with the Seddiqi family – bearing Moser’s hallmark no-logo top-quality fumé dials – were sold out.

The theme of Dubai Watch Week 2019 is Innovation and Technology, and as the case often is, the most surprising innovations were to be seen among the independents. With the futuristic H5 HYT has taken another step in blending mechanics and the fluidic retrograde hour system. A cam is added for exact precision in the pressure of the bellows – in the end a polymeric relationship between watchmaking, space technology and medical technologies. Moritz Grossmann looked back into the history books, replacing the rotor of its Hamatic watch with a contemporary version of a guitar pick-shaped hammer, the look of the original automatic winding systems from the late 18th century. However this German brand’s contemporary version has kept only the outline of the shape, thus revealing the mechanical movement.
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The current watch industry is dominated by four titans – Rolex, Patek Philippe, Audemars Piguet and relative newcomer Richard Mille, which will soon celebrate its 20th anniversary. Of the four, Rolex has been the only one present at Dubai Watch Week, showcasing the Submariner, which first saw light of day in 1953. Alongside this, Rolex is also exhibiting an exclusive vintage Rolex collection that belongs to the family of Ahmed Seddiqi & Sons, the region’s most important watch retailer which backs the wholly non-profit Dubai Watch Week.
The four titans are also extremely sought after in the market for pre-owned watches. This exploding market segment is represented at Dubai Watch Week through The WatchBox, a two-year-old company which expects to turn over US$200 million in 2019.

“WatchBox carries a lot of brands, but 50 per cent of the pre-owned business is Rolex, 25 per cent Patek Philippe, 5 per cent AP and Richard Mille – and the rest is all other brands combined. The big change in the pre-owned market is that authorised retailers like Bucherer, Tourneau and others are entering this field,” says WatchBox founder Danny Govberg. “Clients want a safe way to buy pre-owned, they want a warranty, and when we are talking modern pre-owned watches – made after 1983 – the clients often want them to be in mint condition. My opinion is that pre-owned watches in the future will cannibalise on new watches and it will dwarf the new market,” said Govberg.
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No wonder Ahmed Seddiqi & Sons has partnered with Govberg for a joint venture in DIFC Mall. Hind Seddiqi could, however, see a slight cooling off of the social media-fuelled interest in some vintage models, including the Patek Nautilus and AP Royal Oak.
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One of the Horology Forum panellists was quantum physicist Michael Biercuk, who wore an A. Lange & Söhne Lange 1 Perpetual Tourbillon. Representative for a growing watch clientele of venture capitalist-backed technical entrepreneurs, Biercuk described the taste in Silicon Valley and on the tech scene in China. “They like very exotic and unusual watches like MB&F, Richard Mille, Laurent Ferrier, HYT, Urwerk and Lange Zeitwerk. I ran into Jack Dorsey, CEO and co-founder of Twitter, at an event the other day, and he wore a Cartier Crash. We talked about watches for a while – anything like that wouldn’t have happened a while ago,” said Biercuk.

“Singapore has a similar ecosystem,” said Charris Yadigaroglou, head of communication for MB&F, which released the LM 1010 Palladium with a green dial during Dubai Watch Week. “The big lifestyle change is how we are much more relaxed in terms of appearance. Thus clients want watches that you can put on in the morning and wear until you go to bed at night, whatever situation you will be in.”
“I call this huge trend from beach to tux,” said Govberg. “People must be able to wear the same watch – on the beach, for tennis, by the pool, on a boat, getting married – and of course, the pre-owned and new sports watches in steel with integrated bracelets are very suitable for this.”
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Dubai Watch Week welcomed big brands such as Rolex and Grand Seiko but also featured independent watchmakers and attracted about 15,000 visitors


Dubai Watch Week welcomed luxury brands such as Rolex, Bulgari, and Breitling but also featured independent watchmakers and attracted about 15,000 visitors


How Breitling, Bulgari, Vacheron Constantin and other luxury watchmakers made their mark at Dubai Watch Week 2019

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Dubai Watch Week welcomed big brands such as Rolex and Grand Seiko but also featured independent watchmakers and attracted about 15,000 visitors

Dubai Watch Week welcomed big brands such as Rolex and Grand Seiko but also featured independent watchmakers and attracted about 15,000 visitors