The late November news that, after extensive renovations, one of Geneva’s most storied brasseries, the Bavaria on Rue du Rhône, was reopening as F.P. Journe Le Restaurant came just weeks after Breitling had cut the ribbon at its second Kitchen, also in Geneva. Around the same time as these updates to the city’s restaurant scene, Omega was in New York for its Planet Ocean exhibition at The Chelsea Factory in Manhattan. Prior to that, in September, Jaeger-LeCoultre brought its Golden Ratio Musical Show to London. For the inaugural evening, with the Thames as a backdrop, Tokio Myers was joined by musicians from the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra to perform the symphony he had composed to accompany a digital projection onto a cascade of water.

In early December, Audemars Piguet unveiled the fruit of its collaboration with American rapper Travis Scott’s record label, Cactus Jack, with a limited-edition Royal Oak in brown ceramic. In October, Richard Mille threw open the doors at its St. Martin flagship, transforming a former restaurant on Singapore’s famed Orchard Road into a lifestyle destination modelled on Prohibition-era speakeasy bars. As for Chopard, on November 15 the brand welcomed the first guests to its 1 Place Vendôme hotel in Paris. The five-star establishment boasts fifteen rooms, including ten suites, and was entirely re-imagined by renowned designer Pierre-Yves Rochon.

This non-exhaustive, though no less eloquent, list of autumnal examples confirms that selling watches today must go beyond the transactional. Since last year, Watches and Wonders Geneva, which has turned the Swiss metropolis into the world capital of watchmaking, hosts an entire programme of citywide events that focus on watches and watchmaking but from a fresh angle and in a fun, relaxed atmosphere. Today’s (luxury) watches must be an invitation for the customer to become part of the brand’s world, and what better way than through exclusive, immersive, memory-making experiences. Forget the power of the internet, the novelty of the metaverse or the convenience of online shopping. This is about personal connection, physical presence and engagement.

After Covid, when the internet was a means of survival, traditional distribution networks have reclaimed their place in this segment of the market. Brick-and-mortar stores, where those valuable first contacts are made, have acquired strategic importance. Why else would the world’s number-one watchmaker acquire one of the world’s foremost watch retailers in the industry’s most talked-about deal? By taking over Bucherer and its over 100 doors for an estimated CHF 5 billion, Rolex (with just one directly operated store, in Geneva) enters retail in a big way.

The majority of M&As in 2023 took place downstream, at the selling end of business. A telling example is the launch, in November, of The 1916 Company. A merging of WatchBox, a secondary market platform since 2017, and the American retailers Govberg, Radcliffe and Hyde Park Jewelers, this new brand currently operates some twenty stores and lounges in the United States and worldwide. As for Watches of Switzerland, the London-listed company this year opened 25 new doors, expanding its network to more than 200 locations. The company expects to double sales to more than £3 billion by 2028.

For the brands themselves, any expansion focuses on their own networks ahead of third-party retailers. As the economy moves down a gear, subsequently slowing Swiss watch exports, brand-operated stores yield the best results not just financially, but in terms of image and prestige too, as pinpointed by The Mercury Project in its December report. In its latest industry study, Deloitte describes a boom in the number of mono-brand store openings in 2023, for example Chopard, H. Moser & Cie. and IWC in Shanghai, Jacob & Co. and F.P. Journe in New York, Panerai in Seoul and Cartier in Basel… not forgetting Breitling which has opened more than two dozen boutiques since 2021. As for the financial aspect, Richemont’s results for the six months to end September show that sales in its directly operated network grew 9%, outpacing sales to multi-brand partners and franchise partners. Over the same period, Richemont opened 27 new boutiques, bringing the total number of directly operated stores to 2,366. They now account for 69% of group sales versus 52% in 2019. The customer is king and watch brands are innovating with new ways for them to wear their crown.