Watches & Wonders Geneva will be held in Geneva, Switzerland from April 14th to 20th, 2026. Masayuki Hirota, editor-in-chief of the watch magazine "Chronos Japan," has been updating the "Geneva Diary" every year despite his exhaustion, but this year, Chieko Tsuruoka from the editorial department, who is covering the event on-site for the first time, has taken over. She will share the atmosphere of the new product trade fair along with her challenging yet enjoyable (really?) days in Geneva.
Text by Chieko Tsuruoka (Chronos-Japan
[Article published on January 19, 2026]
My first Watches & Wonders coverage in Geneva was an immediate baptism of fire.
I woke up at 4 AM Swiss time on April 14th. Incidentally, I've been to Switzerland twice before for reporting, and no matter how late I stayed up the night before or how tired I was, I always woke up around this time. This lack of sleep was probably one of the factors that drained my energy later on.
Anyway, I had heard that the venue would open at 8:30, so I ate breakfast and headed to the station to catch the 7:5 train.
I transferred in Cornavin and headed to Geneva Airport. During the Watches & Wonders Geneva event, a dedicated desk is set up in front of the departure gates at the airport, so I asked there for directions to the shuttle bus to Palexpo, the venue. It seemed that the previous flight had just departed, so I was told to wait a little before being taken there by minibus.
I spoke to everyone at the desk and the minibus driver in my broken English, saying, "This is my first time at Watches & Wonders Geneva!" Thank you so much for listening with a smile (I did a sliding bow of gratitude).
Then we arrived at the venue. Even though it was only a little past 8am, there was a long line. We ran into the Chronos magazine team, who were staying in Geneva, and exchanged greetings.
While all this was going on, we finally made it inside the venue. Our first destination was the Rolex booth. It was located in a secluded area away from the entrance, and it took us about five minutes to get there, only to find a crowd already gathered.
Because the booth itself was so large, I started looking at the showcases and exhibits that weren't yet crowded, but then visitors with cameras started pouring in one after another. Some people stuck their smartphones in front of my camera while I was still taking pictures, and others pushed me aside to try and take photos... I thought to myself, "Is this the baptism of fire at Watches & Wonders Geneva...!" but I did my best not to be outdone.
Incidentally, for the sake of my own reputation and the reputation of all Watches & Wonders Geneva attendees, including the editorial staff of this magazine, I should mention that this kind of pushing and shoving only occurred in front of the Rolex booth during the entire event, and is not typical of the trade fair. Watches & Wonders Geneva is both a trade fair and a "salon," so the visitors are generally well-mannered.
It was precisely because it was "good" that my head exploded...
After photographing Rolex and looking around the surrounding booths, I headed to Tudor for my first interview at 9am. The booth featured the familiar red and black color scheme also used in Tudor boutiques. I was greeted by Ms. M and viewed the new collection in the press room.
The all-new "Monarch" collection has a different feel from previous Tudor models, and although Tudor doesn't explicitly say so, I felt it was a watch that redefined the "luxury sports" concept. We also covered a wealth of other new watches, including the "Black Bay Ceramic," "Black Bay 54," and "Black Bay 58."
I was so thrilled with Tudor's new watch that I shot a video while the excitement was still fresh. Please check it out if you'd like!
Next, I went to Grand Seiko. The booth's setup, which was linked to the new watches, gave me the illusion of being underwater (perhaps I was tired?). The way the spheres of light flowed randomly up and down evoked the spray and bubbles of a large waterfall, which inspired the new diver's watch "Shio" and the new "Masterpiece Collection."
The upload was delayed until the following day, but I also filmed a video about Grand Seiko's new watches.
Next up was the Jaeger-LeCoultre touch and try session (where you can actually touch the watches). The luxury of having Takahiro Hamaguchi, the brand's product development director, act as interpreter! I got to handle and photograph a number of rare watches that you don't usually get to see, such as the "Master Hybris Mechanica Ultra Thin Minute Repeater Tourbillon" and the "Reverso Tribute Enamel Katsushika Hokusai Tour of Waterfalls Series," and basked in pure bliss. However, around this point, I started to feel my head spinning. Perhaps because I'd never seen so many watches and absorbed so much information in one day, I became confused and feverish.
Even though I was confused, the interview wouldn't wait, so next I headed to the A. Lange & Söhne booth. A gigantic "Lange 1 Tourbillon Perpetual Calendar 'Lumen'" greeted me. A. Lange & Söhne, though not producing many models each year, always puts out some incredible (lack of vocabulary) models. This Lange 1 Tourbillon Perpetual Calendar "Lumen" isn't just a sapphire crystal dial with luminous paint (it is Lange, after all). To make the "Lange 1 Tourbillon Perpetual Calendar" into the "Lumen," they equipped it with a newly developed movement, Cal. L225.1. The movement for the "Saxonia Annual Calendar," which now has a 36mm diameter case, is also newly developed, of course.
Next up is Hublot. The highlight is the "Big Bang Reloaded." As always, they let you enjoy ceramics with a variety of colors, but this time there seems to be a concept to highlight the five patented technologies of the "Unico" movement it houses, and the column wheel at the 6 o'clock position and the backlash-reducing horizontal clutch at the 8 o'clock position are particularly distinctive for their coloring.
Just as we were leaving Hublot, we received some fun photos from the Chronos Japan team...
Gecko → Bulgari → Panerai → IWC
I sat on the sofa to rest my head for a bit (it was already 16 PM, so I had completely missed lunch), and as I looked around, I noticed something cute looking at me...! It was a gecko clock from L'Epée 1839.
I was soothed by the geckos (though their price was anything but cute), and feeling a little more energized, I headed to the Bulgari booth tour. While I couldn't see or photograph the actual watches during the booth tour, I was immersed in the Bulgari world. What I found particularly interesting was the details about the manufacturing of the new Cal.BVF 100 automatic movement, which is featured in the new 37mm diameter Octo Finissimo model. It's a new design, different from the conventional Octo Finissimo movement, but the inspiration for this design doesn't come from the conventional thin Octo Finissimo movement, but from the small, hand-wound movement "Piccolissimo" that has been used in ladies' high jewelry watches. It's an inspiration typical of Bulgari, a company with a long history of working with jewelry.
Having finished my interview at 18:30 PM, I headed straight to the Panerai cocktail party without a moment's rest. Among the many exhibiting brands, the Panerai booth was particularly eye-catching. Upon entering the booth, which was filled with blue, I saw a huge tank-like structure in the center. This was a replica of a training tank that is still in use today and installed at Le Grazie (La Spezia), Italy, where the Italian Navy's COMSUBIN base (Comando Raggruppamento Subacquei e Incursori) is located!
The exhibits inside this tank include waterproof testers from various eras, as well as original timepieces alongside new models, creating a space where visitors can enjoy a journey through time.
After that, I went to the IWC booth to photograph their new watches. Every media outlet was busy taking pictures, and it was difficult to get the models I wanted to photograph, so I waited and took pictures while drinking champagne until 22 PM (because I was offered it...you know?).
I left Palexpo a little after 10pm. It had been a whirlwind day... There were no more shuttle buses, and I was a little scared to walk home down the dark streets, so I took a taxi to Cornavin. It took about 20 minutes and cost around 30 Swiss francs, or 6000 yen. For comparison, if I take a taxi home from Hanzomon, where the Chronos Japan editorial office is located, after working late into the night (ahem), it takes about 40 minutes and costs around 7000 yen.
I didn't get back to the hotel in Annemouth until after 23 PM. I slept like a log, feeling apprehensive about how busy I'd been from the very first day.
