KTDC organises more than 30 international exhibitions each year, bringing together buyers and suppliers in order to help them develop their businesses. This year, the Hong Kong Watch & Clock Fair will bring together around 830 exhibitors from over 20 countries, claiming the title of the biggest watch fair in the world. After the Swatch Group’s withdrawal from Baselworld, it will certainly be difficult to compete with the Hong Kong trade fair in terms of number of exhibitors!

Hong Kong occupies a significant place on the watch world map, it remains the leading global export market for watches and clocks, as well as the main destination for the sales of Swiss watches worldwide (see chart here).

The main export item is battery-powered wristwatches, accounting for 46% of the total exports in the first five months of 2017. Wristwatch exports range from analogue to digital watches, metal to plastic watches, fashion to classic watches, standard to jewellery watches, and novelty to sport watches. From January to May 2017, the major sources of imports include Switzerland (36% of total imports), the Chinese mainland (32%) and Japan (10%).

Hong Kong Watch & Clock Fair 2018

With exhibitors including suppliers of watch parts, equipment and machinery, service providers, packaging producers as well as manufacturers of complete watches, the Hong Kong Watch & Clock Fair is going to present a very different way of hosting this type of event. The well-known “Salon de TE” with its “watch parades” will gather designer collections into five themed zones:

The World Brand Piazza features limited editions and rare timepieces from 13 internationally renowned brands. The brands on display in 2017 included Blancpain, Breguet, Chopard, Corum, DeWitt, Franck Muller, Glashütte Original, Jacob & Co., Jaquet Droz, Juvenia, Montblanc, Piaget and Zenith.

Chic & Trendy features stylish and trendy labels, including ClaudiaKoch (Lebanon), Doxa (Switzerland), Julius (Korea), Tintin (Belgium) and Van Gogh (the Netherlands).

Craft Treasure is the home to hugely popular mechanical timepieces and jewellery watches.

Renaissance Moment is the space for timeless European classics and will host the Swiss Independent Watchmaking Pavilion (SIWP). For the 4th consecutive year, the SIWP offers a great plateform for proud independent Swiss watch brands.

Wearable Tech remains one of the most important spots, showcasing an array of smartwatches with dynamic technology. Garmin from the USA brings the Forerunner 645M, which possesses GPS functionality and storage for up to 800 songs. Users can customise their watches by downloading free watch faces and apps through the Connect IQ™ platform.

With the ambition of stimulating creative exchange in local watch and clock design, the HKTDC, Hong Kong Watch Manufacturers Associations Ltd. and the Federation of Hong Kong Watch Trades & Industries Ltd. co-organise the annual Hong Kong Watch & Clock Design Competition. This competition has attracted a total of around 100 submissions under the theme of “Colourful World” for the student group and “Innovative Craftsman” for the open group. The winners are announced in late August, and winning pieces will be on display during the fair in the Hall 1 Concourse.