Up to 150 enthusiasts enjoy these occasional get-togethers: independent watchmakers, brands, groups, their PR teams, co-suppliers, collectors, “world builders”… These gatherings are now an institutional affair.
By Albert-J. de Buttes-LaCôte / TàG Press +41 (News Agency) reporter
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At the Festival d’Horlogerie à Yverdon in Yverdon (September 8-10, 2023), the WatchConnect and Watch Café networks (from JSH and Swiss Watch Passport) join forces for a Saturday morning ” happy few breakfast “
Inquire, private invitations
So, who is behind the influential WatchConnect network, and how did it start? From an informal need to get together initiated by Robert Kitto, an Australian who returned to his continent in 2015, these networking events have become the “Places to Be” during Watches & Wonders or EPHJ fairs.
“We owe this group to Robert Kitto who, when he was manager of the Richard Mille boutique in Geneva, was taking sales courses in Le Locle. While there, he would gather a few friends from the Neuchâtel watchmaking world at the Café du Cerf, whose owner was the well-known watchmaker Stephen Mc Gonigle“, explain designer Matthieu Allegre in Geneva and watchmaker Christophe Waelti in Fleurier, the two “spiritual disciples” appointed by the founder to keep the event going. And they remind us that the first meeting took place on September 27, 2012 under the name “On se voit à Neuchâtel.” (editorial note: Let’s meet in Neuchâtel)
Anchored in this altruistic belief that moves mountains, the two ‘take-overs’, assisted by up-and-coming watchmaker Julien Tixier (Vallée de Joux) and a handful of partners, naturally joined by the Swiss watchmaking journal JSH, recently created quite a buzz: the Fondue evening, set up in the HEAD area of the Time To Watches 2023 trade show, had to turn away quite a few people! It’s in places like these that ideas flow and connections are made…
