Watches and Wonders 2023: the world’s biggest watch fair opens today

The annual Watches & Wonders trade show is one of the most highly anticipated events for any watch collector – it basically sets the agenda for the whole rest of the year, unveiling the latest releases and innovations from the top brands in the industry. 

This year, the fair kicks off bright and early in Geneva on Monday, March 27th. Brands launching their spring novelties include A. Lange & Söhne, Cartier, Grand Seiko, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Oris, Patek Philippe, Rolex, TAG Heuer, Tudor, Panerai and Vacheron Constantin.

The event will run through April 2nd at the Palexpo convention center, with the final two days being open to the public. As you're reading this, the Hodinkee editorial team is en-route to Geneva to cover the show and all of the major releases.

So far, it’s shaping up to be a year in which many brands are revisiting established classics or recently minted heroes. Just before the show opened to journalists and retailers on Monday, several brands released a multitude of first looks, many of them familiar takes on memorable designs. A. Lange & Söhne revisited its one and only sports model, the Odysseus, and updated it with its first in-house automatic movement. Cartier rendered its Tank Normale anew, including a few complex skeletonized versions. Now that it’s achieved a laundry list of world records for the Octo Finissimo, Bulgari decided to focus on its Octo Roma collection and revealed two particularly elevated tourbillon models. And Van Cleef & Arpels delivered another round of the extraordinary table clocks that wowed the crowds at last year’s fair, which will please any very well-heeled clients that couldn’t get their hands on the $1 million-plus museum-worthy pieces.

There will, of course, be more to come. While Patek Philippe released images of a revamped Calatrava, its other releases (as well as Rolex’s breathlessly awaited new watches) will be shared later.

CEO of the Watches and Wonders Geneva Foundation, Matthieu Humair commented on the event that opens its doors in Geneva today:

‘We wanted to create an atmosphere which really enables visitors to dive into the world of watchmaking, but we also need to let all the participants in the zone express themselves, so our platform has to have this homogeneous atmosphere, and let each maison shine. That's really our intention. We see the different universes of each maison when they enter the different specific spaces of each brand, and we need to give each one the same visibility. So this is very important in the design and the concept, letting visitors go on a circular journey where there's not one brand hidden by another.’