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It was the watch event to end all watch events. For five days last week, thousands of watch lovers—buyers and sellers, makers and media, chief executives and celebrities—converged on an urban park in the shadow of the Burj Khalifa in downtown Dubai to celebrate the seventh edition of Dubai Watch Week; the 75^th anniversary of its host, the retailer Ahmed Seddiqi; and the conviction that, even amid punishing tariffs, currency swings, soaring material costs, and other economic headwinds, the luxury watch business is alive and well.

“I’m very confident about the watch industry,” Georges Kern, the CEO of Breitling, said during a roundtable discussion in which he and his fellow chief executives acknowledged that the current crisis has challenged everyone. “Let’s not forget all the emerging markets: India, Indonesia, etc. You have more wealth in the world, the contra reaction to digitalization, you have the certified pre-owned process. A watch is an object of emotion, of pleasure. I’m still super confident about this industry.”

To stroll around Dubai Watch Week’s packed exhibition halls and take in the festival-like atmosphere outside, it was impossible to disagree. Think Watches and Wonders meets Coachella meets the TED Conference, all set against the backdrop of an Arabian sunset. Nowhere else could you imagine seeing Patek Philippe president Thierry Stern, Rolex chief executive Jean-Frédéric Dufour, the footballer Mbappe, the musician and Audemars Piguet partner John Mayer and master horologists Philippe Dufour and François-Paul Journe walking steps ahead of you, surrounded by thousands of eager watch lovers. But it wasn’t all big brands and big names with global appeal. Part of the event’s success was its artful mix of personalities: the most respected names in horology (see above) with young upstart microbrand founders (like Studio Underd0g’s Richard Benc), traditionalists and futurists, the old guard and the new. At Dubai Watch Week, we glimpsed the future of the watchmaking industry and—ask anyone who was there—it sure looked bright.

Below find my chief takeaways from the event followed by overheard comments and quips that caught my attention.

The tension between retail and wholesale channels was a refrain.

For all the anticipation surrounding Dufour’s remarks at Dubai Watch Week, many people felt the only truly substantive thing he said was that Rolex’s 2023 acquisition of the retailer Bucherer was an anomaly. (“Partnerships are how Rolex built their success,” he said. “We became a mix with Bucherer, but we don’t have any intention to grow further than that. It’s a small part of our business.”)

Plenty of brands would say the opposite. Lucas Raggi, chief industrial officer of Audemars Piguet, made clear that the brand’s return to Geneva next year, when it exhibits at the Watches and Wonders trade fair for the first time, is about messaging, not sales. “At a certain point, we thought we could not be absent from the scene,” Raggi told Robb Report. “It’s about the Swiss watchmaking industry. We are playing an important role there, not only us, but also the community of suppliers that are working with us. So we said, ‘We need to be there not as a product presentation platform, but to speak about the brand, to maybe showcase some of the techniques we use to manufacture our products.’”

Karl-Friedrich Scheufele, co-president of Chopard, was equally candid about the brand’s preferred mode of selling: “Our strategy definitely favors retail over wholesale, but I wouldn’t rule out wholesale because in certain instances, clients like to compare, one chronograph to another,” he said during the CEO roundtable discussion. “The challenge is oftentimes the quality of points of sale we work with. And the number of brands [they carry]. The tendency for us is more retail, less wholesale.”

Let’s not forget these conversations all took place under the auspices of Dubai Watch Week, and, by extension, its organizer, Ahmed Seddiqi, a multigenerational retailer with deep roots in both Switzerland and the Middle East. Indeed, during the horology forum featuring Rolex’s Dufour, the other featured speaker was Abdul Hamied Seddiqi, chairman of Seddiqi Holding, who reflected on his early days in the watch business, when he was shipped off to Geneva to work at Bucherer.

“I started at 16 with my father—he sent me to Geneva,” Seddiqi said. “At the time Mr. Peter—this was 1973—was in charge of Rolex in the Middle East and he arranged everything for me. My first day in Geneva, it was very, very cold. I was working in the cuckoo clock section at Bucherer, cleaning, just showing the way to the cuckoo clocks. I was the only one speaking Arabic. They let me greet kings, princes coming to Bucherer. Then I worked at Patek [Philippe]. I met the grandfather of Thierry [Stern] and his father and now we’re working with the new generation, Thierry and Adrien [Stern].”

He may as well have been having a private recollection with Thierry, who was sitting in the front row. It was a potent reminder that Patek Philippe remains a supporter of multi-brand retailers—notably, at Wempe in New York City, where the brand will reportedly be expanding its footprint as Rolex pulls out of the boutique to open a mono-brand flagship on the same avenue.

Succession is a thorny topic for independents.

When you’ve built your brand on the strength of your own name, and all that it implies about the quality of your timepieces, what do you do when it’s time to retire? While many of today’s hottest independent makers are young enough for succession to be a far-off concern, those who established the category some 20 to 25 years ago are grappling with that question now, mostly in private.

Max Büsser, founder and creative director of MB&F, is one of the few tackling the issue head on. Two years ago, the watch entrepreneur told Robb Report he was already considering his heir apparent. In Dubai, he introduced the Berlin-based designer Maximilian Maertens (yes, another Max!), who joined the brand as an intern in 2017 and now is being groomed to take over as creative director.

“No, I’m not dying,” Büsser said. “It’s just that I really would like to spend the next 10 years taking a big step back [to spend more time with my daughters]. But it’s still going to take a certain amount of years where I clearly still have to hook my nose in and out.”

Maertens said he started out as a conceptual designer working on everything from lamps to chairs, and that before his internship at MB&F, he had “zero knowledge” about watchmaking. That, in many ways, was the point, at least for Büsser, whose avant-garde creations have always reflected a desire to break from tradition. “In the beginning, it was really beneficial for us both that I didn’t have any idea because I had this fresh perspective and I didn’t have this narrow mindset of, ‘This is possible, this is not possible,’ or ‘This has been done, or this hasn’t been done,’” Maertens said.

The first watch that Maertens is co-creating with Büsser comes out in 2026 (“The first spark came from Max, and then he gave me the opportunity to do whatever I wanted,” he said.) More to come!

Vertical integration is a challenge.

Dubai Watch Week was a platform for consumer-facing brands, but one of the underlying concerns animating conversations between collectors and watchmakers, and watchmakers and their suppliers, focused on issues behind the scenes: chiefly, how the supply of parts would affect delivery times in the new year.

“In 2026, I will increase production of certain parts that are difficult to find and to deliver,” Jean-Claude Biver told Robb Report as he showed off his namesake brand’s new Automatique Lavender Jade model. “Today, we are sometimes late because a screw is missing. If it requires a certain investment, I will do it. I want to be independent of certain suppliers. Not to increase turnover—we invest to be more independent.”

During the CEO roundtable, Audemars Piguet’s Ilaria Resta echoed Biver’s concerns. “We forgot that in the last few years, we’ve seen an explosion of excitement for clients to buy and then this decline. Our suppliers have been living a bit of a different story. They see orders going up, then one day going down. If we don’t align the supply chain, if there are casualties on their side, there are casualties on our side.”

Even brands with a high degree of vertical integration, such as Chopard, still rely on suppliers. “And if that chain breaks, the entire industry is at stake,” Scheufele said. “The other big issue for us is craftsmanship—we must continue to transmit knowledge and motivate young people to join the industry. In our group, we have about 50 apprentices. Everyone has a responsibility.”

The Middle East is the watch-world’s new nexus.

When it comes to the luxury watch industry’s global markets, “America is the center for turnover, for power,” Biver said, but the buzz is all about the Middle East. The resounding success of Dubai Watch Week’s 2025 edition, its first in the Burj Park location, certainly highlighted that.

Take it from journalist and watch world man about town Nick Foulkes: “The best thing to happen to the watch industry in the last ten years, @dubaiwatchweek was created out of nothing by @hind_seddiqi,” he wrote on Instagram. “I must admit to having been slightly skeptical at the beginning. I was wrong. This year @rolex ceo Jean Frederic Dufour opened the event with a lively debate with @hamiedseddiqi (not something one sees every day). With such a curtain raiser DWW really deserves to be called the Woodstock of the watch world.

“I was lucky enough to have lunch with Hind sadly we had to skip coffee because she had to go and greet the Emirates’ ruler who had heard about the event and decided to pop in for an impromptu royal walkabout.”

If Dubai is where watchmakers and watch lovers come to see novelties and schmooze, Qatar and Saudi Arabia are the money. Sotheby’s is now preparing to host its first Collectors Week in Abu Dhabi Dec. 2-5. On the 5^th, a complete set of Patek Philippe’s legendary Star Caliber 2000 pocket watch, each one in a different precious metal, is going on the block there with an estimated sale price of more than $10 million.

What We Overheard

Rolex chief executive Jean-Frédéric Dufour on the birth of the brand’s certified pre-owned program:
“The idea came from the United States,” he said. “We noticed in some points of sale, the No. 1 brand was Rolex and the No. 2 brand was Rolex secondhand. By having such a level of business without being sure there wouldn’t be an issue was maybe a little bit dangerous. People need to trust what they buy. There is nothing worse than feeling betrayed when you bought something expensive.”

Jean Arnault, Louis Vuitton watch director, on why patience and consistency are the keys to brand building:
“Rome wasn’t built in a day. Journe, arguably the greatest living watchmaker today, was making his watches for 15 to 17 years without any recognition whatsoever and between 2000 and 2017, no one really cared. Then people started getting excited and thanks to that, the whole craziness for independent watchmaking started. But 17 years of consistency— he never changed his designs, or his philosophy, he remained true to himself. Look at Rolex—the same thing. From what I understand, they look a minimum 10 years ahead. They can say, ‘Ok, we’ll take a hit just to stay true.’ Arguably the greatest independent watchmaker ever, they look ahead 50 years in some cases.”

Jean Arnault on the timepieces that ignited his passion for watchmaking:
“There are two watches that got me into watchmaking: the Patek 3448 perpetual calendar automatic and the Patek 2523 World Time—I think it’s the most beautiful watch ever made in the history of watchmaking. I have immense respect for Patek.”

Richard Benc, founder and creative director of Studio Underd0g, on the role of hype in watch marketing:
“Mine was a true passion project. If I said I’d wanted to come to market with a watermelon-themed column wheel chronograph, I think quite a few businesspeople would have said, ‘That’s a non-starter.’ When I started my business, I came to market with a few hundred pieces. Demand was well above that. That created scarcity, more of a luxury flavor—scarcity in that I could only assemble and afford so many watches. That’s changed over time. Now I look to two playbooks: the luxury playbook and the hype playbook, and I try to find that balance.”

Rexhep Rexhepi on the watch that made him want to become a watchmaker:
“My first watch that I wore was a Swatch. After that, what made me realize, or give me this emotion that really made me start to believe this is what I want to do, was a Patek Philippe. I got the chance to have on hand the 10 Days Tourbillon 5101 and this gave me an emotion that even with my watches today, this one I remember. It made me realize that whatever happened in my life, I want to do something that gives me this emotion.”

Kevin O’Leary, chairman of O’Shares ETF Investments and Beanstox, and host of ABC’s Shark Tank, on why he collects watches:
“I’m a dial guy. I don’t care what the piece costs. I wear one watch on each wrist and go through six pieces a day, two in the morning, two in the afternoon, and two at night. What do I pair with them? There was a $299 Timex sitting beside a $1.2 million Journe living together in the same box and they’re in love. It’s about the dial. And if you’re that way, you collect in a different way.

“The best thing about a piece is it starts a conversation. If you collect a lot of watches with great dials, you will meet a lot of people and they’ll say, ‘What the hell is that?’ A woman on a flight said to me, ‘How do you tell time with that? It looks like scrambled eggs.’ You don’t need to tell time; it’s a piece of art.”

Kari Voutilainen on the wait time for his newest watch, the KV20i
“Ten years.”