[Watchmaker assembling an Audemars Piguet watch in its Geneva laboratory]
[Large model showcasing the moving complications of an Audemars Piguet watch]
[Bridges over the river Rhône in Geneva]
[Swiss flag flying over a rooftop]
[High street with luxury watch shops]
[Large clock outside JB Blancpain’s Geneva store, the brand deemed as the oldest registered watch brand in the world]
[Piaget watch through shopfront window]
[Piaget signage outside a Geneva shop]
[High street where luxury watchmakers have their stores]
[Jaeger-LeCoultre shopfront signage]
[Omega store signage]
Robert-Jan Broer (interview): “Switzerland is the heart of watchmaking basically and what happened is that there were a lot of farmers in Switzerland and during summer they were farmers, but in the winter they had to find different things so they started making little parts of watches and clocks and become suppliers to watch brands that basically collected all these parts from different farmers or watchmakers or watch part makers in Switzerland, and put them together and then sell them worldwide.”
[Exterior of Rolex store and watches as seen through shopfront window]
[Exterior of TAG Heuer store]
Robert-Jan Broer (interview): “You have Geneva, of course, where some big brands are located like Rolex and Patek Philippe, but there’s more in Switzerland, so there’s also a German part where you will see brands like AWC (Alexander Phillip Watch Company), for example, or you see Omega in Biel, that is also on the border of the French and the German speaking part. So it’s basically, in all of Switzerland, you will find watch companies. So it is really a Swiss thing and not only a Genevan thing.”
[People walking past Audemars Piguet’s laboratory]
[Audemars Piguet 2024 Royal Oak Concept on display]
[Audemars Piguet Code 11.59 self-winding chronograph watch on display]
[Sand timer on display]
[Sundial display]
[Miniature model showcasing how time works astronomically with a small model of Earth and other planets in the solar system]
[Watches and Wonders sign on high street]
[High street visitors looking through shopfront windows]
Robert-Jan Broer (interview): “Besides watches and wonders, you see that in Geneva, it’s very lively around watches. So we have more initiatives around brands introducing their novelties here. So there’s Chronopolis, there’s Time to Watches, and a lot of brands are in hotels, renting conference rooms or just hotel rooms or suites to show you their new products. The ripple effect is that it’s this one week per year that watch journalists, editors, but also collectors and end consumers, they come from all over the world to Geneva to see their favourite watches or to discover new watches from new brands.”
[People drawing on a large “W AND W” sculpture in the city center]
[Jet d’Eau water fountain]
[Swiss flag on a rooftop in the city center]
This script was provided by The Associated Press.