Lewis Cracknell

⌛️24 hours

⏰4am start

🇨🇭70 CHF W&W ticket

✈️£90 flight

🏠£89 Airbnb

💷All in for £240 – if you’re thinking of visiting, it doesn’t have to be expensive 😊

Drive to Birmingham

2.5mile walk to the airport as the sun is rising. Birds singing, foxes running.

Birmingham Airport

Views over the Swiss and French mountains.

Arrived

Sprinter shuttle to W&W, free of charge courtesy of Watches & Wonders. Nice touch.

Arrived at W&W

First stop, Nomos! Right near the entrance. 31 colours for 31 days – it was great to see some of these in the flesh – Tangente 38 date, the special edition from NOMOS Glashütte  (nomos-glashuette.com)

NOMOS

The Tangente – my favourite models from Nomos. I love the innovative date format.

This is their chilli – so vibrant

Then commence the Rolex queue.

Rolex

As you’d expect from Rolex, their exhibit design was impeccable, topped off with this GMT Bezel design.

A clean and minimal welcoming front desk. It surprised me just how brands missed the mark on this. Welcomes, smiles and goodie bags based on your language.

It wasn’t just flashy pieces. Rolex had great references to their history and part making process.

Next IWC, with their fancy exhibition.

IWC

Big fan of the colour scheme of these Portugiesers.

Then to Tudor.

Tudor

Tudor had the best customer experience and engagement on the day I felt. We queued up to be part of the Tudor immersive experience. This is what people in the industry gained access to prior to W&W being open to the public. While we waited, water and snacks were served. A nice touch.

Then onto this incredible exhibition from JLC.

JLC

Next was Oris and their notorious bear.

ORIS

This piece was fascinating. The pro pilot altimeter.

Alongside their usual pieces.

Onto Grand Seiko and their usual inspired watches.

Grand Seiko

This was their white birch.

Then onto Piaget which will go down in history at W&W 2024.

PIAGET

For taking the crown of the worlds thinnest tourbillion watch. This video is a MUST SEE.

Their setting was also incredible.

Then onto the pizza party hosted by Studio Underd0g and Time&Tide – this was a real highlight and topped the whole experience off!

They had pizza models of their series 01 available to purchase.

I got to chat to Richard Benc about my Studio Underd0g and how I use it in my everyday life.

Then bags packed, full of goodies.

In summary, anyone can attend and it doesn’t have to be expensive. As a relatively newcomer to the watch industry, it was not intermediating at all.