Editor-in-Chief's Letter

Roger Federer at Watches and Wonders GENEVA, in Geneva, Switzerland, Friday, April 17, 2026. The largest watchmaking event of the year bringing together the leading names of the industry from April 14 to April 20, 2026 at Geneva Palexpo. (WWGF/KEYSTONE/Valentin Flauraud) Why the world's rarest watches are performing like an asset class of their own Every spring, Geneva hosts two very different rituals in the same city, weeks apart. The first is Watches and Wonders, the industry's largest trade fair, held this year from April 14 to 20, 2026, at the Palexpo Exhibition Centre, where roughly 65 brands including Audemars Piguet, Patek Philippe, and Rolex unveil the year's newest releases. It is watchmaking looking forward: new movements, new complications, new designs, the industry's best case for what comes next. The second ritual is quieter, and looks backwards instead. A few weeks later, in May, the major auction houses - Christie's, Phillips, and Sotheby's - descend on the same city to sell what collectors already own: watches with decades, sometimes a century, of history behind them. This year, that second ritual broke records across nearly every major house, and showed where the real money is actually going in a market that had otherwise looked flat. Who Shapes This World Behind every auction podium sits a small group of families and individuals…