On a sweltering evening in June, members of the watch industry and representatives of the media that covers it gathered on Geneva’s Pont de la Machine to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie.
Waiters filled Champagne glasses and passed hors d’oeuvres, weaving through the crowd on the riverfront terrace of the former factory building that now houses the FHH, as the nonprofit industry organization is known.
Inside, guests were invited to visit “Watch Makers,” an exhibition of hands-on demonstrations created by 30 of the FHH’s 35 members, including brands such as Piaget, Ulysse Nardin and Bovet. For example, visitors can listen to the sound of a minute repeater or try to insert a minuscule screw into a bevel.
The organization said the free exhibition, on display until Sept. 7, marked another step in its recent efforts to go beyond the watchmaking training and industry educational sessions that have been its primary programming.
“Notably for the past three years, the FHH has been opening to the public while keeping its B-to-B basis,” Pascal Ravessoud, an FHH vice president, said in an email. “Now we still do both, but we focus on the public.”
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