OPEN SEASON

The world's biggest and most important watch fair gets a little bigger and a little better. As for the watches, they got more than a little precious...

- ASHOK SOMAN

In advance of the first day of Watches and Wonders Geneva 2024, we very reasonably wondered about the watches of Rolex. For example, will Rolex win the day just by virtue of having new models? To begin with, dear reader, you might be offended by this - outraged even. Watches and Wonders Geneva (WWG) is about much more than any one brand so kicking off a tale about the most important novelty showcase of the year as if just one brand mattered is a bit much. That is a fair point, and this story actually encompasses the wider happenings at what is known as Geneva Watch Week, not just WWG, so we appear to be going down an even deeper hole than you might have initially thought. We have an explanation.

This specific story does revolve primarily around WWG; there are multiple parts to the novelty coverage this issue, including The Conversation with WOW Thailand and Malaysia editors. To the Rolex point, your editorial team here has always gone all-in on observing reality; as far as watches go, the reality is that Rolex dominates the mind space of watch enthusiasts and casual observers alike. You need only show up early on day one of WWG, before Rolex raises the curtains on their displays to see how true this is. The crowd is 100 percent industry professionals, journalists or otherwise. This was true in the last years of BaselWorld too and might tie into the rise of social media, but that is a story for another time.

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