If there is a watch lover on your Christmas gift list and you can’t afford to buy them a watch, you can get the next best thing with the Watches and Wonders VIP Pass.
The Watches and Wonders pass, which is being offered online for pre-sale from December 3 to 20 only, includes priority access (if you’ve ever been there and waited in the security lineup to enter, you know this benefit alone makes the pass worthwhile); a dedicated VIP Lounge with complimentary lunch service and refreshments throughout the day; private small-group guided tours of the show; priority access to exclusive product presentations with the exhibiting brands; complimentary parking; and most important of all, swag (a commemorative gift to mark the occasion). The price is CHF 550 or about $620.
Watches and Wonders, held in Geneva, is the key trade fair on the calendar for the luxury watch industry, which now opens to the publc for the final three days (April 5-7)
There are now 60 exhibiting brands, including Rolex, Patek Philippe, Cartier, Chopard, Bulgar, Chanel, A. Lange & Söhne, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Hublot, IWC Schaffhausen, Panerai, TAG Heuer, Piaget, Parmigiani Fleurier, Hermès, Vacheron Constantin, Tudor and Van Cleef & Arpels. It also includes several important small/independent labels, including H. Moser & Cie, Louis Moinet, Speake Marin, Norqain, Oris, Nomos and Ressence.
The show, originally called Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie, started in 1991, with five brands participating. Since the shuttering of the Basel fair after the 2019 show, the Geneva fair was rechristened Watches & Wonders and has become the largest watch show on the calendar.
General admission tickets for the Watches and Wonders public days go on sale February 11. There are also events throughout the city of Geneva during the entire fair (April 1-7), including guided tours, panel discussions, workshops and concerts. This year, most of the events are geared to the younger generation of collectors and watchmaking professionals.
This article was originally published on forbes.com and all figures are in USD.
