Back in the day, when I first began venturing around New York City as part of our routine watch event schedule, the main event to attend was the yearly Watchtime NYC event, along with a side visit to the Windup Watch Fair. Now, 5 to 6 years later, the watch scene in NYC has changed drastically, with many new smaller events like Indies NYC, The HYPE, Cellini Watch Fair, and a number of smaller exclusive boutique gatherings and private meetups happening throughout the same week from Oct 15 to Oct 18.
I’d say, after just returning from this years adventure in NYC, this time bringing along my brother with me, and experiencing how the city has been truly transformed for these 2-3 days, we can now officialize the term of “New York Watch Week”. Not only is the city bustling with open door events right in central Manhattan, but you can actually pick out the watch enthusiasts in the crowds of people walking downtown and in your hotel. Many of whom are wearing independent brands, and larger brands like Rolex and Omega equipped with aftermarket straps, they aren’t difficult to pick out from a crowd. These well known events, and the hype of many private watch collector meetups and parties, is now attracting a very substantial number of international travellers.
Watchtime NYC 2026
By far, my favorite event of the year after Geneva Watch Week, is and always has been Watchtime NYC. This year was no different, and if anything, only solidifies my preference for New York City’s most prestigious watch event. The Watchtime event is not large, it keeps the atmosphere very classy and enjoyable, and with an aura of coziness emitting from all the like minded attendees.
During the hustle and bustle of the action packed 3 days, I didn’t take as many photos as I used to, defaulting more to video in order to feed content to our instagram reels and YouTube. Some of the standout watch brand booths that we visited this year were Urwerk, Chopard, Norqain, Schwarz Etienne, Ulysse Nardin and Oris. We also briefly visited the Daniel Roth booth, and had a quick look at their Extra Plat collection, but did not stay long due to overwhelming foot traffic.
Urwerk Exclusive Lunch
We deviated away from the public watch events at times to attend some exclusive invites, including an Oris afterparty at a local grunge bar called Trailer Park Bar in the Chelsea area, as well as an upscale Watches of Switzerland event in Soho. Those were fun, however the most exciting private event we attended was an exclusive Urwerk lunch with co-founder and chief designer Martin Frei at Bondst Hudson Yards, located at the base of the famous Edge Observatory.
The Urwerk lunch included top level watch industry guests such as Jack Forster, Mark Kauzlarich and Tony Traina. We sat down for a very enjoyable Japanese inspired lunch, while talking watches, and enjoying the presence of Urwerks highly limited models including the UR-150 Scorpion and the UR-300 Time Quantum Titanium.
Windup Watch Fair
The Windup Watch Fair is essentially the most accessible event of the lot, well in theory that is, because the queue to get in spanned multiple blocks, wrapping around corners, and with some attendees pitching chairs to rest their legs. Luckily I spotted Tyler Frederick, Citizen Watch brand rep from Canada, and Zach Kazan from Worn & Wound, who both expedited my immediate access to the event with a press pass.
We managed to enter around 12:00pm on the Saturday, and by 12:30pm it was absolutely jam packed inside the venue, to the point of being uncomfortable and impossible to film any sort of stable, useable content. Luckily, we managed to grab a few clips of some standout watches in our 45 minute stay. Some of the standout brands and models we handled included the Christopher Ward C1 Loco Classic, Brew Metric Chrono Taxi, Formex Aria, and a new brand called Monbrey Watches.
Closing Off Another Great Year
At the end of the day, working in the watch industry is about the experiences, and attending these events makes our hobby and business fun to navigate. Our goal by attending these events is not really to capture content, but to network and connect with like minded collectors and enthusiasts, ultimately to bring new and exciting watches into our controlled environment studio where we can spend more time with the watches to write detailed reviews, and capture high quality content for you to enjoy and learn from. It was another successful year in NYC, and we look forward to the next.
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