Everything to Know Before Heading to WatchTime New York
Observer · · g5128581
North America's premier public horology show brings luxury houses, independent ateliers and accessible brands together for three days of launches and conversation. For collectors, it is a rare chance to compare very different kinds of craftsmanship in a single room.
For watch collectors, the third week of October in New York has become a fixture on the calendar. Brand launches, boutique gatherings and collector dinners fill the schedule, with WatchTime New York as the main event. Returning to Gotham Hall from October 16 to 18, the three-day show is arguably North America’s biggest collector-focused watch event, bringing major luxury houses, independent watchmakers and their audiences together under one roof.
The appeal is straightforward. Visitors can try on watches, examine movements and talk directly with the people who make them. For small independents that may produce only a few dozen watches a year, that kind of access can be hard to find elsewhere. For collectors, it’s also a chance to compare very different kinds of watchmaking without spending a week crisscrossing Manhattan between appointments.
This year’s lineup includes more than 40 brands, with Blancpain , Chopard , Piaget , Zenith , Ulysse Nardin and Parmigiani Fleurier among the established names. MB&F , H. Moser & Cie., Voutilainen , Laurent Ferrier , Urwerk and Ferdinand Berthoud give the event considerable weight in independent watchmaking, while Citizen , G-Shock , Oris and Bell & Ross broaden the range of styles and price points.
The show also serves as a significant launch platform. At least a quarter of participating brands are expected to introduce something new in connection with this year’s event, and exhibitors will also bring recent releases and highlights from their current collections. Some watches will be familiar from photographs; others will be making their first appearance before an American collector audience.
For many collectors, meeting the person behind a watch is part of its appeal. Expected attendees include MB&F founder Maximilian Büsser , watchmakers Kari Voutilainen and Stepan Sarpaneva , Urwerk co-founder Martin Frei and RGM founder Roland Murphy , along with Armin Strom co-founders Claude Greisler and Serge Michel and Massena LAB founder William Massena .
Senior executives will be on hand, too, including Bell & Ross CEO Carlos Rosillo , Parmigiani Fleurier CEO Guido Terreni , Oris CEO Rolf Studer and Moritz Grossmann founder and CEO Christine Hutter . Together, they give visitors a chance to hear firsthand what inspired a watch, how it came together and where the company behind it is headed next.
Several brands are saving new releases for the weekend, giving visitors a chance to be among the first to see and try them on. Alongside those debuts, a few recently announced watches are already worth tracking down.
Chopard’s one-of-a-kind L.U.C Full Strike “Día de los Muertos” should be high on any viewing list. Green enamel and white gold form a skull across the dial, with the repeater’s hammers set into its eye sockets and emeralds surrounding the case. Ask to hear it chime: the watch sounds the time on sapphire gongs made in a single piece with the crystal.
At Parmigiani Fleurier, ask for a demonstration of the Tonda PF Chronographe Mystérieux. What first looks like a simple blue-dial watch turns into a stopwatch as its concealed hands separate to measure elapsed hours, minutes and seconds. Resetting it brings the hands back into alignment, hiding the complication once again.
Ming ’s 37.06 Lightning, a collaboration with California watchmaker J.N. Shapiro , rewards a closer look at the dial. Shapiro’s team hand-cuts the guilloché pattern in Los Angeles, and Ming then heat-colors the titanium with a butane torch in Kuala Lumpur. Tilting it under the light reveals the texture and the blues, purples and orange-yellow tones produced directly in the metal.
Kudoke ’s first appearance at the show offers a chance to try its unconventional approach to telling time. The new Kudoke 3 Raspberry uses a three-armed hour hand that moves across separate scales beneath a raspberry-colored upper dial. For something more traditional, seek out Pennsylvania-based RGM’s Model 501-PC Perpetual Calendar, with its white enamel dial, Roman numerals and calendar displays inspired by historic pocket watches.
Citizen’s Eco-Drive Photon is also worth handling to see how its layered dial shifts color with the angle and the light. Created for Eco-Drive’s 50th anniversary, the titanium watch is powered by light, and its movement can run for a year on a full charge.
Friday opens with a VIP cocktail reception from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. General admission runs Saturday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., with brand presentations, activations and wine and whiskey tastings alongside the watches. Event partners include Wempe , strap maker Jean Rousseau , Jefferson’s Bourbon and U.S. Bank Private Wealth Management .
Two morning panels give the weekend a broader collecting focus. Saturday’s “Why We Collect: The Many Paths of Watch Collecting,” from 9:30 to 10:15 a.m., features Büsser, actor and watch designer Aldis Hodge and a special guest discussing how people come to the hobby and what keeps them hooked.
Sunday’s “Neo-Vintage Is Hot. Why—and Where Is It Headed?” runs from 10:00 to 10:40 a.m. Moderated by the renowned collector Jeffrey Kingston , it brings together Paul Boutros of Phillips , Andrea Casalegno of Iamcasa , Subdial co-founder Tim Green and dealer Steven Rostovsky . Coffee and croissants will be served at both panels, which are ticketed separately at $25 each, with proceeds benefiting the NAWCC School of Horology.
WatchTime New York takes place at Gotham Hall, 1356 Broadway. Friday VIP and Saturday admission are sold out as of this writing, but Sunday general admission tickets remain available for $50. Tickets and panel reservations can be purchased through WatchTime New York’s website .