HODINKEE Podcasts

This week on The Business of Watches, we're getting a preview and history lesson of Geneva Watch Days. Born in the dark days of the pandemic in 2020, it was a new kind of watch industry gathering, that prioritized access and community over exclusivity.

Jean-Christophe Babin, the former Chief Executive Officer of Bulgari, has been there from the beginning. He tells us why Geneva Watch Days started and why it's still needed. We discuss what to expect at this year's event and what the future of watch industry events might bring. 

With some 71 brands exhibiting, GWD has more marques than that other big watch show in Geneva that happens each spring, but it's very different in tone and feel. Using a 'decentralized' concept, brands pay fees based on their size and revenue and the show allows for plenty of smaller, boutique brands to show off their wares. 

Open to the general public, it certainly isn't as glitzy nor as pricey an event as some others. Babin says the entire budget of GWD is likely less than the cost of staging and running a major booth at Watches and Wonders. 

A veteran who has served as the head of LVMH's watch unit as well the CEO of TAG Heuer, Babin has seen the industry through a myriad of cycles, giving him a unique perspective on where the watch sector has been and where it's going.  

 

Show Notes

0:59 Geneva Watch Days website 

2:00 Geneva Watch Days 2020 / 2021 (FHS) 

5:06 Geneva Tourism - Geneva Watch Days 

9:12 Breitling was a founding member of GWD 

10:31 Watches and Wonders 

12:45 How Watches and Wonders Remains Worthwhile For Brands Big And Small (Hodinkee) 

17:16 Geneva Watch Days Agenda / Panels / Symposiums 

19:10 Phillips Geneva Watch Days Auction  For Geneva Watchmaking School 

22:15 Geneva.com 

24:03 Fondation du Grand Prix d'Horlogerie de Genève 

31:18 Ferdinand Berthoud 

32:00 FHS Statistics 

33:40 The criteria for strengthening Swiss made (FHS) 

35:20 Swatch 37:50 Casio mechanical watches 

40:30 Swatch X Audemars Piguet 'Royal Pop' (Hodinkee)

This week on The Business of Watches, Collective Horology co-founder and Chief Executive Asher Rapkin joins us. He brought his lawyer.

While Collective is a Ventura, California-based retailer of independent watch brands, including Armin Strom, Czapek, Fears, Ming and J.N. Shapiro, Sara Albrecht is the chairman and CEO of The Liberty Justice Center. That's the non-profit litigation firm that led the legal fight successfully challenging President Trump's initial round of tariffs all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States. They won, in a surprise decision that ruled the President didn't have the authority to impose the levies that boosted the cost of importing goods to the U.S., including Swiss made watches.  The government is now in the process of refunding the approximately $166 billion businesses paid out.

Of course, the Trump administration found a work-around and immediately slapped on new tariffs and, on July 24, initiated levies of 10% and 12.5% on imported goods, including Swiss made watches. That's the day that Collective Horology and another importer (dealing in exotic spices), filed a lawsuit against the President and various bodies and individuals in the administration including U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer.

Rapkin tells us why his business decided to challenge the tariff laws and take on the President and his government while Albrecht lays out the legal argument driving their case. It's a matter of significant economic importance for U.S. business and the global watch industry. 

Show Notes
0:46 Lawsuit filed by Collective Horology et. al against President Donald Trump 

1:13 Swiss Watch CEOs Plot Next Move As US Tariffs Threaten Industry Sales (Hodinkee) 

2:24 Collective Horology website 

3:42 Watch Industry Cheers Supreme Court Tariff Ruling But Faces More Uncertainty As Trump Vows Workaround (Hodinkee) 

4:57 Liberty Justice Center 

7:28 Forced Labour Section 301 (U.S. Trade Representative statement) 

10:50 U.S. dollar x Swiss franc (Xe Currency) 

11:37 J.N. Shapiro Watches website 

11:50 The Watch Switzerland Can't Make - Karel Bachand (Barrelhand) - Openwork podcast 

14:53 Rolex And Richemont Executives Among Swiss Business Leaders Meeting With Trump (Hodinkee) 

18:31 Swiss-U.S. Trade Relations (SECO) 

20:05 U.S. Court of International Trade 

21:11 Jamieson Greer (Hodinkee)

This week on The Business of Watches, we take stock at the halfway point of the year for watch auctions. Remi Guillemin, Christie's head of watches for the Americas, Europe and Middle East, gives us his take on what's driving the interest of the top watch collectors these days. It's a pivotal time, with the watch auction market setting record sales results at most of the top auction houses despite global economic challenges and geopolitical tensions and conflicts. 

 The last time the market was this hot was in the post-COVID era of 2021 and 2022. Guillemin believes this time is different, and he tells us why references from F.P. Journe and Cartier, and (surprise!) pocket watches, are driving the market these days and how that's a fundamental shift from the hype watch driven boom post-pandemic. He also shows us some of the watches in his personal collection and reveals the grail he's still chasing. 

Show Notes

0:36 Remi Guillemin (Christie's website - scroll for bio) 
1:00 Auctions: The Five Results That Actually Mattered, From The Spring 2026 Auction Season (Hodinkee) 
3:08 Luxury Watch Sales at Auctions Drop 13% After Post-Covid Surge (SwissInfo/Bloomberg) 
5:17 Revealed: A unique Audemars Piguet monopusher chronograph wristwatch unseen since its manufacture in the 1930s (Christie's) 
5:49 Recent Daniel Roth Auction Results at Christie's 
10:48 F.P. Journe Tourbillon Souverain Reference T 
14:37 Private Sales (Christie's) 
17:23 Tiffany Blue Patek 5711 
18:37 Cartier London Crash  
20:42 Zuckerberg Wears $900,000 Watch To Announce End Of Meta Fact Checks (Bloomberg) 
23:40 The A. Lange & Söhne Little Lange 1 Moon Phase With Gold Flux Dial (Hodinkee) 
29:36 Krayon Anywhere (Hodinkee) 
30:34 Patek Philippe Reference 130 in steel (Hairspring) 
35:15 French Soccer Legend Zinédine Zidane Talks Watches And Why He's Offering His First Cartier To A Special Charity Sale

This week on The Business of Watches, a breaking news story, of sorts. Our friends at Worn & Wound have acquired Lorier Watches. It's a story of success for the New York-based boutique brand that started way back in 2017 with a mission to make vintage-inspired watches, designed to be worn every day, at an approachable price. In a way, it's a tale of too much success. 

Lorier co-founders, the husband and wife team Lauren Ortega and Lorenzo Ortega, struggled with the rapid growth of the small company, and the inability to meet demand for their products took a toll on the two-person operation. They considered winding up the brand, as it were, but a talk with Blake Malin, the co-founder of the well-established content, retail, and watch event company Worn & Wound, also based in New York, set them on a different path. 

The acquisition of Lorier is the first time Worn & Wound has acquired a watch brand. Malin and Lorenzo Ortega join us to talk about how the deal came about and what's next for both Lorier and Worn & Wound. Though Ortega spent his formative years in Geneva until he was about 18, it's a decidedly American business story in the watch industry. 

Show Notes: 

1:11 A New Chapter for Lorier 
1:48  Handsome Mechanical Watches For Less Than $500? Look No Further Than Lorier (Gear Patrol) 
3:00 Worn & Wound 
3:39 Windup Watch Fair 
6:10 Grand Central Watch collaboration 
8:02 The Lorier Hydra SIII (Hodinkee) 
11:05 Windup Watch Shop 
23:30 Art Deco vs. Art Nouveau (Rise Art)

This week on The Business of Watches, we're talking to the leader behind one of the strongest turnaround stories in the industry in recent years. Guido Terreni joined Parmigiani Fleurier as CEO in January, 2021 from Bulgari and has overseen a dramatic transformation in the design, style, and fortunes of the brand founded by master watchmaker and restoration expert Michel Parmigiani in 1996, with backing from the Sandoz Family Foundation.

Under Terreni's guidance, Parmigian Fleurier has been transformed. Striving to convey the concept of "private luxury," the brand has released a series of surprising, elegant, technically innovative, and yet restrained timepieces under its Tonda PF and Toric model lines. 

The brand has done nothing less than reimagine and reinterpret classic complications, including the GMT and, most recently, the Tonda PF Chronograph Mysteriéux, which stole the show, for many, at this year's Watches and Wonders. 

In a wide-ranging conversation, Terreni unveils the philosophy behind the brand's discreet aesthetic and the structure behind its manufacture and organization. We discuss retail, production, and design concepts aimed at taking Parmigiani Fleurier to the next level in the hyper-competitive luxury space.  

Show Notes: 

1:05 The History of Parmigiani Fleurier (company website) 
1:38  Global Impact of the Collapse of Lehman Brothers (Harvard Business School) 
3:00 Early Parmigiani Fleurier And the Enduring Appeal Of Overbuilt Watches (Hodinkee) 
8:12 That Time I Wrote That 'Swatch Group' Was A Dumb Name, And What Happened Next (Hodinkee) 
16:42 Tonda PF Collection (company website) 
19:02 Hands-On: Parmigiani's New Tonda PF GMT Rattrapante Is The Understatement Of The Year (Hodinkee) 
23:50 Quiet Luxury (EFL) 
28:10 The Rise And Fall Of The Hype Watch (Hodinkee) 
31:08 Tonda PF Minute Rattranpante 
31:18 Tonda Chronograph Mysteriéux (YouTube Monochrome) 
41:39 Brand retailers 
49:36 Toric Collection (company website)