Welcome to the business of watches, the Hodeke podcast where horology meets high finance.

We go behind the scenes to talk to the executives making things tick.

I'm your host, Andy Hoffman.

This week, we're taking the temperature on watch fairs, where the watch industry gathers and shows off its wares.

We're talking with the guys behind Cronopolis, a new show happening during Geneva Watch Week,

the time of year that's led by the biggest fair of the mall, watches and wonders.

To kick things off, I'm joined by my colleague H Houdiki's senior editor, Mark Kozlerich,

to talk about the state of watch salons and fairs.

Mark, thanks for joining me.

How are you doing today, sir?

Thanks for having me. I'm great. I'm glad to be here.

Excellent. So look, watch fairs. I mean, you know, you and I have covered a bunch of watch fairs together.

Geneva Watch Days, Dubai Watch Week, and of course, watches and wonders.

Watchfares have been around for a very long time. We can go back to Basel and Basel World,

and they've existed for decades. And I guess that ended sadly around 2019 or 2020. But what's

the current state of watch fairs? What role do they play and why do we still do them?

Yeah, I think watch fairs are a really interesting thing, especially right now.

We've seen in the post-pandemic era that the business of selling watches has shifted dramatically,

especially because of all of the interest in watches.

And consumers seem to be putting a lot more on the interactions between them and

the brands and the watchmakers themselves, the rise of independence, being able to get

face to face with the people that are behind the brand, whereas I think, and I wasn't around

...