SIHH - what is it?

The SIHH in Geneva has kicked off today.. just for those who don't know, the SIHH stands for the "Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie" and it is the commercial fair set-up by those watch manufacturers that are part of the Richemont group, one of the world's leading luxury goods group. These watch manufacturers are for example Vacheron Constantin, A.Lange & Sohne, Roger Dubuis, Piaget, IWC, Panerai, Cartier, and Montblanc. In addition, there also a few "friendly" brands such as Gruebel-Forsey (Richemont is minority sharelholder), Ralph Lauren (who use Richemont group movements) and Girard-Perregaux and JeanRichard (both belong to the Sowind group, of which another luxury good giant, PPR, owns a minority stake) at the SIHH.

Because this fair was so specific but nevertheless important, other manufacturers have set up parallel fairs in Geneva to "catch" the same buyers visiting SIHH, plus some brands have set up individual presence in hotels in Geneva at the same time. The "parallel" fairs are GTE (Geneva Time Exhibition), WPHH (World Presentation of Haute Horlogerie) and Horlogers Artisans d'Art.

In my opinion, GTE is the most interesting "parallel" fair with presence of high-end watches from Ateliers de Monaco, Alain Silberstein, Antoine Preziuso, Aquanautic, Artya, Aspen, BRM (Bernard Richard Manufacture, France), Cabestan, HD3, Ladoire Genève, Linde Werdelin, Louis Chevrolet, Magellan, MCT – Manufacture Contemporaine du Temps, Peter Rebellion Timepieces, Snyper, Steenman Watches, Cargo Titanium, Volna, and Valbray..