The 15th session of the Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie, in Geneva, has just ended.
The “Cité de la Haute Horlogerie”, as it was defined by Franco Cologni at the inauguration evening (on Monday 4th April, the Salon being open to its guests as of Tuesday 5th April), ended on a superlative note, with respect to its visitor numbers, the turnover generated and the new products presented.
The 2005 session was a major vintage both in terms of quantity and quality. The completely revamped architecture, in the form of an “ideal city” taking up over 24,000 sq m of floor space, particularly seduced the many visitors.

Some 11,500 guests were welcomed, including 1,100 journalists from all over the world, demonstrating the strong appeal of Fine Watchmaking worldwide.
Over and above the increased number of visitors(+ 15 %), SIHH nevertheless remains a private, high quality and exclusive event, only accessible to professional guests of the exhibiting Fine Watchmaking brands. These figures should therefore not be validly compared with events such as BaselWorld which target a much wider audience.

The 16 brands that traditionally reveal their recent production at SIHH – Audemars Piguet, Baume & Mercier, Cartier, Girard-Perregaux, Piaget, Vacheron Constantin, members of the Salon’s steering committee, A. Lange & Söhne, IWC, Jaeger-LeCoultre, JeanRichard, Officine Panerai, Parmigiani Fleurier, Roger Dubuis, Van Cleef & Arpels, guest brands as well as Alfred Dunhill and Montblanc – all expressed their satisfaction at the end of this showcase week.

According to initial information provided, order-taking was particularly high, thus auguring well for 2005 which, unless international unrest or a major event were to occur before the end of the year, should break all previous records.
(For more details on turnover made by the different brands, certain brands will be transmitting them directly to the press).

In terms of geography, considering the origin of visitors, it is noted that Europe, even if in a difficult economic context, maintains its strong position.


Year after year, it is observed that European customers are always the same, making up a loyal circle, an almost “family” customer base that constantly renews its orders.
Moreover, increasingly strong interest from USA is observed and - a more recent phenomenon - from Brazil and Mexico.
There is also considerable interest from East European countries.
As for Asia and Japan, we are currently witnessing a genuine “boom”.

At the peak of Fine Watchmaking, technical innovations and the most previous new products often reached record prices, particularly for unique pieces and limited editions.
Everywhere watchmaking creativity, technical performance, research in materials, refined craftsmanship and stylistic vigour combined to produce a particularly innovative and refined range of products.
All new products exhibited will be gradually delivered after SIHH until the end of the year. The real success of SIHH will be judged in view of these final results.

Locally, the City and Canton of Geneva should be satisfied with the tremendous economic knock-on effect of the Salon and its induced turnover. Hotels and restaurants were all full during the week of the exhibition. The SIHH is now a major international event that punctuates the life of Geneva. After the Motor Show, it is the major event of the year.

The “Cité de la Haute Horlogerie” will open again on 3rd April 2006 for its 16th year.


Source: SIHH

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