Watches and Wonders Geneva 2026
- Gen de Art
- 42 minutes ago
- 3 min read
Where a City Becomes a Stage and Time Itself Takes New FormIn April 2026, Geneva will once again welcome the world, yet this year the invitation feels more like an awakening. From the 14th to the 20th
In April 2026, Geneva will once again welcome the world, yet this year the invitation feels more like an awakening. From the 14th to the 20th, Watches and Wonders Geneva will unfold as its most expansive, multifaceted edition to date—a moment in which the city’s centuries-old watchmaking heritage converges with a renewed global energy. A record sixty-six maisons will gather, forming a constellation of tradition, innovation, and creative daring. Among them, the arrival of Audemars Piguet stands as a defining moment. The historic manufacture from Le Brassus, still guided by its founding families, joins the salon for the first time, adding a new gravity and brilliance to the event’s already luminous landscape.
“The 2026 edition of Watches and Wonders Geneva marks a turning point in our desire to set Geneva as a leading destination. Our ambition is to offer a genuine city-wide cultural program that goes beyond the Salon. We want to provide visitors of all generations with a rewarding, entertaining, and diverse experience”, says Matthieu Humair, CEO of the Watches and Wonders Geneva Foundation. It is a vision in which the salon exceeds its role as a gathering of brands and becomes instead a living organism—an urban performance where craftsmanship and imagination animate the streets, museums, and institutions of Geneva itself.
This year, the salon expands not only in scale, but in spirit. The Carré des Horlogers, home to independent watchmakers and the guardians of experimental craftsmanship, grows to accommodate an even broader spectrum of voices, while the Mezzanine welcomes a renewed ensemble of creators, giving rise to unexpected juxtapositions and dialogues. Established maisons and emerging innovators stand not in hierarchy, but in harmony, each offering their distinct interpretation of time.
The LAB programme, dedicated to the future of watchmaking, opens its doors in a new and unprecedented way. For the first time, start-ups, research institutions, and visionary creators from around the world have been able to submit their projects through an open call. Those selected will present their ideas within the salon, sharing them with industry leaders, collectors, and future partners. It is an evocative gesture—an acknowledgement that the timepieces of tomorrow may emerge from places not yet illuminated on the conventional map of watchmaking.
Watches and Wonders extends beyond the salon’s walls, flowing into the heart of the city. Geneva’s museums, ateliers, galleries, and cultural institutions join in a shared choreography of exhibitions, nocturnal events, workshops, conversations, and youth-focused initiatives. The celebrated Thursday evening festivities return, inviting the public to encounter watchmaking in a different light—more intimate, more atmospheric, more alive. A newly introduced shuttle service effortlessly links the main salon with the “In the City” programme, transforming Geneva into a single, continuous experience.
Across its seven days—four reserved for professionals, followed by three open to the public—the event promises not simply a presentation of timepieces, but a meditation on time itself: its artistry, its mechanics, its emotional resonance.
Watches and Wonders Geneva 2026 becomes a place where tradition meets the avant-garde, where history converses with possibility, and where the craft of measuring time takes on the texture of poetry.
