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Dubai, the watchmaking mecca
Events

Dubai, the watchmaking mecca

Thursday, 17 November 2016
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Christophe Roulet
Editor-in-chief, HH Journal

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4 min read

Why change a winning formula? The second annual Dubai Watch Week, hosted by retailer Ahmed Seddiqi & Sons, is again an opportunity to delve further into high-level watchmaking in a non-commercial environment. Thirty brands have travelled to Dubai to meet their public.

The Swiss are out in force in Dubai! For five days beginning November 15th, the city is flying the colours of Swiss watchmaking as 30 brands line up under the banner of Dubai Watch Week. Even the Dubai Mall – one of the venues for the event and the world’s biggest shopping mall with 80 million people coming each year to its 1,200 stores and 200 restaurants – is embracing the concept. The event is organised by Ahmed Seddiqi & Sons, a top-tier retailer in the United Arab Emirates with a portfolio of some 60 brands carried by 65 points of sale. Its name was prominent along the “avenues” of this cathedral of consumption, where shoppers, as well as schoolchildren hurrying to the aquarium or ice rink (in 30°C heat), can’t miss the gigantic posters of watches which, like sphinxes, flank each side of the Mall’s monumental entrance.

Dubai Watch Week 2016
Dubai Watch Week 2016

The Mall is the setting for two exhibitions taking place during this Dubai Watch Week. The first, “24 Hours in the Life of a Swiss Cuckoo Clock”, has been put together by Geneva School of Art and Design, and takes an irreverent look at this enduring symbol of Swiss folklore. Already presented at Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie in Geneva earlier this year, the eighteen clocks on show caught the attention, during the inaugural visit, of the Seddiqi family, unaccustomed to such a representation of time. From here, visitors seeking reassurance as to the unwavering values of horology can make their way to “The Mastery of Time”, curated by the Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie (FHH). It traces the development of timekeeping instruments, from the first portable sundials to modern-day masterpieces. The Seddiqi family contributed to this exhibition with the loan of historic timepieces from its own collection that were specially created for some of the Middle East’s foremost political figures.

Dubai Watch Week 2016
Dubai Watch Week 2016
A growing market

Exhibitions such as these – and that includes a showing of all the winners at the recent Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève – are a prominent part of the Dubai Watch Week agenda for a reason. From the outset, the organisers have chosen to make this a non-commercial gathering intended to (better) explain the specificities of the profession, and in doing so give horophiles the means to understand what makes a superlative watch. The programme for the week includes a series of master classes where a watchmaker talks the audience through a calibre and reveals some of its secrets. Elsewhere, experts from the FHH are leading hands-on workshops to take apart then reassemble a mechanical movement. There is also a series of panel discussions on topics as varied as the evolution of a brand, the challenges of a retailer and the creative economy. A new initiative this year, brands are able to present watches or collections which they have developed especially for the occasion, and which are destined for the Emirates market. Lastly, some twenty mini booths welcome both “established” names, such as Baume & Mercier, Bulgari, Chopard, Hublot, IWC and Panerai, and independent watchmakers including Moritz Grossmann, Romain Gauthier, MB&F and Manufacture Contemporaine du Temps.

Dubai Watch Week 2016
Dubai Watch Week 2016

Another distinguishing feature of Dubai Watch Week, which also finds its natural home at several contemporary art galleries inside the Dubai International Financial Centre, is that brands don’t send their “second fiddles” to spread the good word. Far from it. Chief executives and independent watchmakers all make the trip, happy to share with their peers and meet the people who wear and admire their watches. It’s no secret that some hope their presence will further their wish to be represented in the region by Ahmed Seddiqi & Sons. Others take advantage of the week to host select gatherings with collectors, if only to keep the spark alive. Either way, everyone plays ball… perhaps because the Emirates are one of the rare destinations for Swiss watch exports to have continued to grow throughout this year, gaining 1.5% to join the United Kingdom, thanks to Brexit (+4%), and South Korea (+5.7%).

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