After Hong Kong and Seoul and before the Cité du Temps in Geneva and SalonQP in London, the travelling exhibition of the GPHG 2105 started its most important foreign stop-over at the heart of the first-ever Dubai Watch Week, of which the GPHG Foundation is a co-organiser together with the big local retailer Ahmed Seddiqi & Sons, and with the support of the Edmond de Rothschild group. While the City and Canton of Geneva support the Grand Prix in its home town, the Dubai authorities are also involved at the top level in this watch event, whose vocation is above all a cultural one*. The department of culture supports it officially, while the inaugural cocktail party on Sunday evening was held under the patronage of his Highness Sheikh Mohamed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum. Another sign of high-level interest is the involvement of some of the region’s most emblematic companies, such as Emirates and the Dubai Mall. During the press conference, the spokesperson for the Emirate defended the watchmaking craft of small independent brands and the growing role of Dubai as an exceptional place to discover it.
The organiser of the Dubai Watch Week and a representative of the third generation of the Seddiqi family, Hind Seddiqi* mentioned her family’s close links with watchmaking and the non-commercial aspect of this week of promotion of fine watchmaking, as well as her pride in bringing together 57 exceptional speakers who have come to share their passion with VIPs from the region throughout the week. Even though Aurel Bacs (Phillips), Jean-Claude Biver (LVMH), Edouard Meylan (H. Moser & Cie), Pierre Jacques (De Bethune) and Stephen Forsey (Greubel-Forsey) regularly travel to Dubai, they can rarely be found there together, while Philippe Dufour is visiting for the first time! Hind Seddiqi chose to organise the Dubai Watch Week at the Gate Village in the Dubai International Financial District, renowned as much for the quality of its visitors as for its restaurants and art galleries. Artspace, Cuadro, Empty Quarter, Farjam and Opera have all played their part in the Dubai Watch Week, showcasing a particular theme. WorldTempus visited the Opera Gallery, which is hosting the GPHG exhibition.
Swiss ambassador in Dubai
When the 2nd art (painting) and the 3rd art (sculpture) meet the 12th art (the art of measuring time) in Dubai, Switzerland can never be far away. In fact, the director of the Opera Gallery in Dubai is Swiss, and specifically from Geneva, and he naturally gets enthusiastic when he spots a fine Swiss watch on the wrist of his customers. It is hardly surprising, therefore, to see a huge smile on the face of Sylvain P. Gaillard, who has taken great care to arrange the twelve monolothic red and black showcases between the works of art he displays. Even with 500 square metres of space on two floors, the individual locations had to be thought out. The watches in the Ladies’ category take pride of place as the first showcase to greet the visitor. The diversity of the watchmaking creations with their compact content is in tune with the variety of paintings and sculptures by artists as different as Iceland’s Katrin Friedricks, China’s Kang Yong-Fen and Gully and Gérard Rancinan from France. Découvrez cet espace avec notre galerie exclusive ici.
*read our interview with Hind Seddiqi later this week