First came London, a symbolic place for watchmaking, home of the Greenwich Meridian. Britain’s glorious horological patrimony provided a fitting backdrop for the first edition of Horology Forum (2018), an offshoot of Dubai Watch Week. The next was held virtually, ostensibly because of the coronavirus pandemic, but also to underscore the power of online platforms in the watch world today.
And then there was New York, playing host to the third overall edition (and second live edition) of Horology Forum. Time seems to work differently here, the city that has a chronometric unit named after it. This is a city that wears its age lightly; no other city of comparable history can claim the same level of energy and sheer human vitality. No other city is as intensely American and simultaneously international. In his 1939 bildungsroman The Web and the Rock, American author Thomas Wolfe observed that “One belongs to New York instantly. One belongs to it as much in five minutes as in five years.”
Five years ago, Horology Forum’s journey to New York began, at the closing of Dubai Watch Week 2017 when Hind Seddiqi, Director-General of Dubai Watch Week, revealed that the event would go on hiatus the following year. In its stead, the organising team hinted tantalisingly, something else was planned for 2018. Within the space of five minutes, the atmosphere in the room went from subdued disappointment to bubbly anticipation.
I remember this because I was there. I have always believed in what Dubai Watch Week is trying to do, because we have the same endgame: broadening the global conversation about watches, bringing this rare passion to more people, and working towards the long-term relevance and growth of the watchmaking world. That “something else” they hinted at turned out to be Horology Forum — Dubai Watch Week’s most popular activity format, consisting of panel discussions with CEOs, industry experts and provocateurs — exported to other cities.
In New York, Horology Forum 2022 took on some of its host city’s characteristic bombast and fearless assertiveness. In addition to the all-time favourite panel discussions, a debate format was introduced, pitting speakers against one another in a duel of oratory skill. Watch industry executives are not generally known for their eloquence under pressure, but the spectacle of Tim Mosso (the resident horological encyclopaedia of WatchBox) and Fiona Kruger (quick-witted Scottish designer and founder of her eponymous brand) verbally sparring over the topic of family-run watch businesses proved that audiences are primed to see real passion and conviction take centre stage in watch conversations.
The panel discussions continued to anchor the activity programme, and just as in London, where British watchmaking was highlighted at Horology Forum 2018, American watchmaking came under the spotlight at Horology Forum 2022. Micro-brands such as Brew Watch Co. were represented, as well as brands towards the higher end of the pyramid such as the California-based wunderkind of movement finish J.N. Shapiro. Longtime friend of Dubai Watch Week, movie star and self-taught horologist Aldis Hodge brought his unique story to the table, giving audiences a different perspective on starting a watch brand as an industry outsider.
At the end of it, we jumped at the chance to speak with Hind Seddiqi about situating Horology Forum in New York, the state of American horology, and the real motivation behind the founding of Dubai Watch Week.
Horology Forum moves New York! It’s a new city for you guys and you’ve added new ingredients into the mix, bringing masterclasses and debates into the programme.
It was something we felt that the New York audiences would appreciate, you know. We didn’t want to do exactly as we did in London. Audiences here are more fast paced, and we thought it was important to include more variety. The debate format is something we've been wanting to do that for a long time, by the way. And we knew that if we were going to do it, it had to be here in New York. And I must say the speakers were very brave to accept this new format. The debates were really my favourite sessions.
And did you ever consider like giving them easy subjects or soft questions? Or was it straight in with the hard questions?
That's what we wanted. We wanted to hit them with the hard questions, let them come up against each other. Right now we’re all too polite, a little worried about offending people. But I think that if audiences understand the purpose of the debate, they’ll see that it’s just a robust exchange of opinions, and it’s not aimed at offending anyone.
Was it always important for you to focus on American watchmaking here? And did you have to read up or educate yourself before committing to this, because in this industry we’re definitely less familiar with American watchmaking than its Swiss counterpart.
Yes, we wanted to find out what's happening over here in that sense. Are there any American watchmakers making history over here that we haven’t heard about? Are there still American watchmakers or American watch brands secretly hiding somewhere waiting to be revived? We did quite a bit of research, we asked our friends in the US media. We wanted to find out why there aren’t more American watchmakers even though the economy is definitely strong enough to support it. There's innovation here, a strong pool of engineering talent, strong consumer market, so why isn’t there more of a watch industry here?
Did you find an answer to that?
No, not really. But I'm hoping we can ignite some discussions, put ideas out there, and get people to start talking about it in the hopes of getting things done. I'm hoping that something comes out of our time here.
One of the best things about any Dubai Watch Week event is seeing someone discover watchmaking for the first time and seeing the passion come alive in them.
That’s exactly what we want, and that's exactly how Dubai Watch Week was born. We [Ahmed Seddiqi & Sons] used to take customers to Switzerland, visiting brands, doing manufacture visits, and we’d see them get fired up about watchmaking in a way that they weren’t before. It’s an addictive feeling! And soon enough, we felt that it wasn’t enough to see a handful of people go through that each time. We wanted more. We wanted to multiply that effect. And that’s how you get Dubai Watch Week.
