What We’re Looking for at Watches and Wonders 2025
By this time next week, major trends and topics coming out of this year’s Watches & Wonders event will (mostly) be pretty clear. Ahead of the show, our editorial team has some thoughts on what we’ll be looking for as we approach the watch industry’s major tradeshow. These aren’t product predictions, necessarily (spoiler alert: we already know a lot of what’s coming, and you won’t find us using AI to come up with what we think a hypothetical Rolex or Tudor of your dreams might look like), but what we’re anticipating for the show itself more broadly. Zach Weiss I’m not sure exactly how many years I have been attending trade shows, but considering the COVID gap, my guess is about a decade-a decade starting with the defunct Basel and I’m now about to attend my fourth Watches & Wonders. And, I’ll be candid, I’m not sure what I’m looking for. The show is a lot less about discovery than Basel was. It’s mostly a time to see in person the watches we’ve seen in our emails in the preceding weeks, get some hands-on time, and make some quick impressions, shake some hands, etc. Sure, some tight-lipped brands, like Tudor, give us no advance information. So there always is a little adrenaline rush at 9 am on the first day. But, after that, the cat is out of the bag (cats are out of the bags?). There’s a lot of running around because meetings are set too close and the space is just a bit too big, and there’s a surprising number of people loafing in t...