Is Watches and Wonders losing its luster when it comes toresonating to the mass market audience in China? In short – Yes.

By its nature, the event is much more of a B2B affair,focused on industry networking, driving sales with AD’s as well as anopportunity to engage with collectors and top consumers through personalinvitation. But there is also an amplification factor of driving engagement ata distance.

Last year we saw that the event drew a lot of interest andattention in the China market. This was likely due to it being the first timeChinese consumers and watch enthusiasts alike could attend.

The narrative at the start of 2024 sees the watch segment inChina struggling, with a cooling of demand highlighted by the 41.5% drop inSwiss watch exports into China. Coupled with significant price drops in thesecondary market, it appears the brand response has been to adopt a wait andsee approach.

Thus, for Watches and Wonders 2024 brands lacked mass marketreleases that resonated with consumers and fewer brands leveraged their Chineseambassadors to attend the event and drive engagement.

The result – 75% less posts on Weibo mentioning the event, adrop of engagement on XiaoHongShu of 12% and a significantly lower number ofnew followers to brand official accounts.

From 2023 data we can see that the event can still be an importantdriver for a brands’ engagement throughout the year – so have brands missed anopportunity?

Not all of them. Some brands still successfully leveragedthe event to the mass market, with brands such as Chopard, Jaegar LeColutre,Zenith and IWC significantly increasing their comparative engagements from theprevious event. In all cases inviting their Chinese ambassadors to the event tobe involved in the wonder (and watches).

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