It felt oddly inevitable when the Fondation Haute Horlogerie (FHH) finally brought its Watch Summit to New York City. After years of quietly expanding its cultural footprint beyond Switzerland, the FHH chose October 17, 2025 to cross the Atlantic, setting up high above the Hudson at Glasshouse Chelsea.
Nearly 300 collectors, journalists and industry insiders gathered for a day that was part symposium, part reunion, and entirely alive with conversation. The FHH’s 20th anniversary became a chance to celebrate both what fine watchmaking has been and what it might yet become.
Ambassador Niculin Jäger, Switzerland’s Consul General in New York, opened the proceedings with a reminder of the enduring link between Swiss craft and American curiosity. His words captured the mood: this wasn’t a Geneva export; it was a cultural handshake, a dialogue in real time.
FHH Vice Presidents Pascal Ravessoud and Aurélie Streit; Ambassador Niculin Jaeger, Consul General of Switzerland (Image Credit: Alex Merillou)
The day began with “Ushering the New Age of Luxury”, moderated by NYU Stern’s Professor Thomaï Serdari, who introduced the crowd to the “mille-feuille theory”: a vision of luxury built in delicate, discoverable layers. Jean-Emmanuel Biondi of Deloitte brought data; Patrick Pruniaux of Sowind Group offered pragmatism; and Revolution’s own Wei Koh gave the room poetry. “Younger collectors,” he said, “fall in love with watchmakers who intentionally regress through industrial times and try to fabricate everything by hand.” In that single line, he summed up the generational mood — a hunger for craft over convenience, depth over dopamine.
Patrick Pruniaux, Co-founder, Chairman and CEO of Sowind Group, Jean-Emmanuel Biondi, Head of Fashion & Luxury, Deloitte Consulting US, Tracey Llewellyn, Global Editorial Director Revolution, Wei Koh, Founder of Revolution and The Rake Magazines (Image Credit: Alex Merillou)
Next came “Today’s Evolving Luxury Consumer”, led by WWD’s Kathy Lee . The panel featured Austen Chu of Wristcheck, Malaika Crawford of Hodinkee, fashion designer Todd Snyder, and collector Johannes Huebl. Their verdict was blunt: the rules of luxury have changed. “The younger generation doesn’t really care about brand names anymore,” Snyder observed. Transparency, education and emotional storytelling have replaced logos and lineage. Luxury, in 2025, is less about price than perspective.
Malaika Crawford, Editorial Director Hodinkee Magazine, Austen Chu, Founder and CEO of Wristcheck (Image Credit: Alex Merillou)
Kathy Lee, Johannes Huebl, Malaika Crawford of Hodinkee, Austen Chu of Wristcheck and fashion designer Todd Snyder (Image Credit: Alex Merillou)
The afternoon shifted to history — or rather, how it’s bought and sold — with “The Rise of the Secondary Market”. Craft + Tailored’s Cameron Barr steered a conversation between Paul Boutros of Phillips Auctioneers, watch collector Georgia Benjamin, and James Lamdin of Watches of Switzerland Group. They traced how pre-owned and vintage watches have transformed from niche to necessary. “The fastest way to learn about watches,” Boutros said, “is to come to an auction house — to see a hundred watches across brands and eras, and to talk.” Few places reveal authenticity and condition quite as ruthlessly as a saleroom.
Cameron Barr, CEO of Craft + Tailored (moderator), Georgia Benjamin, Collector & Content Creator, James Lamdin, Founder, Analog:Shift; Vice President of Vintage & Pre-Owned Timepieces of Watches of Switzerland Group, Paul Boutros, Deputy Chairman and Head of Watches, Americas for Phillips Auctioneers (Image Credit: Alex Merillou)
Finally, “Myths and Misconceptions in Watchmaking” closed the day with humor and honesty. Hodinkee’s Tim Jeffreys moderated a panel featuring his colleague TanTan Wang, Ines Hatzmannsberger of Nomos Glashütte, and James Kong of Fleming The conversation turned to storytelling, and how easily fact and folklore blur in horology’s echo chamber. “Many people think Glashütte is a brand,” Hatzmannsberger laughed. “It’s actually a town.” The line landed perfectly as a reminder that even the most precise industry thrives on a little misunderstanding.
Tim Jeffreys, Deputy Editor of Editorial, Hodinkee (moderator), Ines Hatzmannsberger, International Communication, Nomos Glashütte, James Kong, Fleming, @waitlisted, TanTan Wang, Editor, Hodinkee (Image Credit: Alex Merillou)
Between panels, the FHH Academy made its own news with the launch of a new consumer certification, Watch Advisor — the first level of a three-stage program designed to open the doors of horological learning to everyone. “Our mission is to share watchmaking knowledge everywhere, with everyone,” said FHH Vice President Aurélie Streit. It was the day’s quiet triumph — education elevated to culture.
The evening before, “Watches and Culture: A Talk with New York” at the Swiss Institute had set the tone: relaxed, creative, inclusive. That same energy carried throughout the Watch Summit is proof that fine watchmaking, for all its heritage and gravitas, still beats to a very human rhythm.
In the end, the FHH’s New York debut wasn’t a Swiss institution showing off abroad. It was an industry learning to listen to collectors, to culture, to the next generation. If Geneva is where watchmaking keeps its time, then New York reminded it how to keep its pulse.