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Belles Montres, making the most of leftovers
Exhibitions

Belles Montres, making the most of leftovers

Thursday, 03 December 2015
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Vincent Daveau
Journalist, watchmaker and historian

“When a pretty woman is an hour late, she is really fifteen minutes early.”

Sacha Guitry

“Passion is the spice of life!”

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4 min read

November 27th to 29th in Paris, Belles Montres watch fair opened its doors as part of the Salon de l’Homme. After the attacks on the city, the atmosphere was tense but there was hope of a fresh start and a new dynamic for the show.

The recent tragic events that had shaken the City of Light cast doubt on whether Belles Montres would go ahead as planned. Ultimately the fair did open its doors to a select public, on Thursday October 26th in the evening, for the inaugural cocktail. Fans of watches and men’s fashion were eager for the therapeutic release of an event that was also expected to lift the spirits of browbeaten luxury brands in the run-up to the holiday season. Hence with so much riding on these three days, the curtain was raised, but in a less than festive atmosphere.

On paper, the combination of luxury watches and men's lifestyle made sense.
Present but not correct

The professionals, bloggers and VIP guests who, by early evening, were already crowding the entrance appeared determined to drown their sadness in baubles and bubbly, and put aside the dark hours that had left Paris in mourning. On paper, the combination of luxury watches and men’s lifestyle made sense and, drawn to the concept, there were many who, like Saint Thomas, wanted to see for themselves, unaware of the ordeal that awaited them inside. Entering this Holy of Holies meant first turning out pockets and bags, then stopping off at the cash desk to pay one’s dues. As though additional cashflow was the only way the organisers could keep up the flow of champagne.

We’re often told to trust our instinct, and a rapid survey of what was on display confirmed the old adage. At first glance, the concept of Belles Montres, initiated nine years ago by Alain Faust and reprised in 2014 by French news magazine Le Point, appeared unchanged. The space had been divided up in more or less the same way; the visual identity was as remembered. Even so, certain details prompted raised eyebrows among the evening’s watch aficionados. One cannot return to a place year after year simply out of ritual. In this instance, it took no more than a quick scan of the venue to realise that the amount of space given over to timepieces had been cut by more than half. The watch brands that had quite happily signed on the dotted line to be there might reasonably have wondered, even before the opening night, if they hadn’t been given the wrong floor plan.

Laugh in the face of adversity: such was the mood of the brand directors.
End on a misunderstanding

Laugh in the face of adversity: such was the mood of the brand directors who were there to attend the inauguration, and take the temperature of an event which, in all honesty, does not bear comparison with the Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie or Baselworld. Except that Paris is the capital of luxury. And so in the days before Christmas, it made sense to bring the crème de la crème of watchmaking together under one roof, particularly now that the sector’s seemingly unstoppable economy is beginning to decline. Put simply, every box had been ticked to make this rejuvenated fair a particularly festive moment. Were it not for the endless glitches that had visitors seeing red. Forget about the disastrous organisation of Thursday’s reception where, according to participants, nothing went according to plan; put aside the evidently dismal attendance from Friday evening through to Sunday to focus on the facts.

One might legitimately have expected visitors drawn by one or other of the two themes to grace all the booths with their presence, given their common luxury denominator. In reality, the failure to create any real dynamic meant it was a case of never the twain shall meet. The hipsters, subscribers to total connectivity, did little more than graze the watchmaking booths while fans of finely crafted timepieces made only brief incursions to see the specialists in ties, footwear, sports cars and hi-fi that had set up in the neighbouring territory.

Belles Montres reveals just how much jadedness and routine are the enemies of passing time.

As in Aesop’s fables, there is a moral to this story: Belles Montres reveals just how much jadedness and routine are the enemies of passing time. Watch lovers’ disenchanted reactions and the seemingly endless stream of misfires prove that the deliberately catchall or, depending on your point of view, federating format is no longer suited to the clientele or today’s era. That Belles Montres should have missed its target has nothing to do with the economic climate. The question we should be asking today is whether the show must go on…

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