Officials from Dubai Watch Week will be in town for a pop-up event in September promoting watchmaking and collecting. They say they wonder why there aren’t more homegrown brands in the US.
(Bloomberg) — Dubai watch experts are headed to New York City in search of the next great American watchmaker.
The problem is they don’t have many to choose from.
“Where are the American watchmakers?” asks Hind Abdul Hamied Seddiqi, director general of Dubai Watch Week.
“That’s one of the things we would like to discuss there and hopefully come up with an answer.”
The group will hold a two-day conference in New York starting on Sept. 24, in an off year for the main event in Dubai, which occurs every two years.
The horology show aims to bring together collectors, artists, industry professionals, and neophytes to explore the trends and challenges around watchmaking.
The event comes at a bumper time for the industry: Swiss watch exports reached a near record in July, with the US market growing 13.5% from a year earlier.
There are long waiting lists for the most desirable timepieces. Even stores in Dubai—a destination for luxury consumption—can’t keep up with demand.
“Shops are empty,” Seddiqi says of inventory.
“Whatever we receive goes directly to people on the waiting list.”
The secondhand market, however, has softened since the collapse of crypto prices. Some trophy watches are easier to come by, and prices are falling for several of the most coveted Rolexes and Patek Philippes.
As for why a Dubai-based show that’s all about drumming up enthusiasm for watchmaking might care to make an appearance in the US, Seddiqi says she’s still hoping the country that produced the Apple Watch will find a way to create an elite mechanical brand for enthusiasts.
America, she says, can reach higher than Timex.
“What’s missing is the haute horology,” she says. “Why not come into the world of horology and create really complicated watches?”
Shinola, currently the best-known brand selling mechanical watches out of the US, still uses Swiss-made Sellita movements to power its pieces—which are designed and assembled in Detroit.
The event, in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District, is free and open to the public.
It will feature horologists and industry professionals including Aldis Hodge, Mark Cho, and Christopher Sealey.
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