Looking Back at the 2026 NYC Windup Watch Fair: Energy, Enthusiasm, and Yes, the Line
Another year of the Windup Watch Fair is in the books, and what a year it was. I’ve probably written or said some version of this a dozen times before, but when we started Windup in 2015, we had no idea what it would become. What started as a small collection of brands in a SoHo storefront has grown to a national tour of events that houses hundreds of brands and welcomes tens of thousands of visitors. You feel the excitement and energy at every stop, as folks return for their third, fourth, or fifth Fair, while others celebrate attending their first watch event ever. That’s what makes Windup special (or so I think). If we’ve been successful at one thing, bringing people together from across the watch community would be it. No pretension. No barriers. Just great people and great watches. I want you all to know, we did this. Not just Worn & Wound – we the community . . . It’s your enthusiasm that made the industry take notice. Thank you for that. But coming off the NYC Fair, you get a sense the growth of Windup has entered a new phase. In New York, Windup sits at the center (along with our friends at WatchTime) of the most important weekend for watches in America. Our two events, both started in 2015, have laid the foundation for a weekend of watches like no other. The phrase New York Watch Week has, unprompted, become part of our collective vocabulary. And brands understand the power of the moment. At Windup this year, over 40 new watches were released, and I’m ...
Fratello
