Watch Spotting At Watches And Wonders 2024

Walking around in everyday life, you might spot a watch or two. If you’re lucky, you’ll see something interesting on someone’s wrist. Depending on where you live and work, it will likely vary, but these encounters are not exactly common. However, from the minute we stepped onto our Geneva-bound plane, it was clear that this was not the regular crowd. On the contrary, this was the Watches and Wonders crowd, and everyone’s wristwear of choice reflected that. The watch spotting was on another level. A Vacheron Constantin Overseas Everest Chronograph on the shuttle to the plane was the first. Then came an IWC Portugieser Perpetual Calendar on the gentleman across the aisle and a Cartier Baignoire on the wrist of the lady behind him. The list went on. By the time we landed in Geneva, we decided to try to spot and shoot as many watches as we could on people’s wrists.

We’re not exactly breaking new ground here. However, we thought it would be a fun story to put together and share with you. You’ll likely see some familiar faces in the article since many of the folks we asked are friends of Fratello. We’ll let you in on the who’s-who (or, rather, who’s-wearing-what) of Watches and Wonders 2024 and show you some of the best watches worn during the show this year. But let’s start with the watches on some of the Fratello team members’ wrists.

The Fratello team’s watches at WAW ’24

From day one, the Fratello team was tearing up the beige carpet at Palexpo, running to and from appointments, making it (on time) thanks to the watches chosen for the job. As you might expect, most of us followed a minimalistic approach. Not only does having fewer watches with you make the stay in Geneva far less stressful, but we also follow our advice on avoiding customs issues when traveling with watches. Here are the watches chosen by some of the Fratello editors for the week:

We kick things off with Robert-Jan Broer, Fratello’s founder and the man behind #SpeedyTuesday. While in Geneva, he opted to wear his Rolex Day-Date 18238 in solid 18K yellow gold.

Nacho Conde, Fratello’s managing editor, decided to bring his latest watch for a baptism by fire. The Tudor Pelagos FXD is not precisely a dressy watch. Still, he opted to tone it down by wearing it on a black Glomar Explorer strap from Watches of Espionage. It’s the only option out there that can rival the OEM option from Tudor.

Up next, Fratello senior editor Lex Stolk decided to go with his Omega Speedmaster “Broad Arrow” 3594.50. Contrasting the indigo-blue tones of his double-denim look, the brown perforated leather strap is one of our very own. If you’d like to style your watch similarly, you can find it in the Fratello Shop here.

Fratello editor Thomas van Straaten and Dave Sergeant, Fratello’s head of partnerships, were bringing the heat. Dave was wearing the hyper-modern Behrens 20G. Thomas, having launched his brand earlier this year, was proudly wearing his prototype VPC Type 37HW. Throughout the show, the watch commanded plenty of attention from journalists and brands alike. If you want to learn more about the brand, check out the VPC website.

Fratello’s CEO, Timo Holz, alternated between his JLC Reverso Classic Monoface and Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Chronograph. And Gerard Nijenbrinks went neo-vintage with his Ulysse Nardin perpetual calendar GMT (ref. 322-88-91).

Image: Zach Piña

The man behind the lens

Finally, we have Fratello’s photographer Morgan Saignes, tired but happy at the start of day three with his Rolex Explorer 124270 on his wrist. This is the man behind most of the pictures you see in this article and on Fratello in general.

Watch spotting at Watches and Wonders 2024

You’ve seen the watches worn by the Fratello team, so now it’s time to see the wristwear of other notable attendees of this year’s Watches and Wonders fair in Geneva.

Tim Stracke, co-founder and chairman of Chrono24, the largest watch-market platform in the world, was wearing his Vacheron Constantin Overseas Dual Time at the show.

Matt Hranek, founder and editor of Wm Brown magazine, author of watch-enthusiast mandatory reading A Man And His Watch and, more recently, A Man And His Kitchen, was keeping things classy with an impressive vintage Rolex GMT-Master 16758.

Lydia Winters and Vu Bui of This Watch Life podcast wore contrasting vintage and modern watches. On Lydia’s wrist was a vintage open-worked Chopard dress watch that she had picked up just a week before. On Vu’s was a modern classic, the Rolex GMT-Master II 126710.

Blake Buettner, formerly of Worn and Wound, was present at the show, representing his latest project, The Deep Track. This passion project combines his enthusiasm for watches, travel, and other parallel interests (including cars, scuba diving, and mechanical keyboards). On his wrist was the Tudor Pelagos FXD in black.

Camera in hand and ready to take on the show, photographer Zach Piña was wearing his gold Jaeger-LeCoultre Geophysic True Second.

Taking a quick break between meetings, Justin Hast of The Watch Annual, The Rake, and The Watch Journey podcast (among many other projects) was wearing his recently acquired Vacheron Constantin Mercator 43050.

Up next, we bumped into this dynamic trio comprised of Jason Heaton (of The Grey Nato podcast), Andrew McUtchen (Time+Tide), and Jack Forster (Global Editorial Director for WatchBox). On Jack’s wrist, we spotted a lume-dialed Bulova Archive Series 98B407 Oceanographer GMT. Andrew was rocking his titanium TAG Heuer Aquaracer Professional 200 Solargraph on a NATO strap. And finally, Jason was wearing a vintage Rolex Submariner 1680 on a leather Bund strap.

Adrian Barker had on his trusty Explorer II 226570 on a Bark & Jack strap.

Worn & Wound’s Zach Weiss was keeping it classy with his Breguet Classique Calendar Moonphase 3330 in yellow gold.

Tim Vaux was wearing his 1990s Ebel Voyager World Time 9124913 on its OEM strap.

We then ran into the double-wristing Dane that is Kristian Haagen. On his right wrist was a Cartier Tank Must with a black dial (worn on a Forstner bracelet), and on the left was his Rolex Daytona “Patrizzi” 16520.

Hodinkee founder Ben Clymer was sporting a lovely vintage Patek Philippe 2526.

Nadir is a Fratello reader from Dubai, and we bumped into him at Watches and Wonders 2024. On his wrist was his Cartier Santos Skeleton with green elements.

Final thoughts

Well, there you have it, folks — every interesting watch (and the person wearing it) that we managed to snap up while in Geneva. We finish with a notably inexplicable and somewhat mysterious spotting of the new Tudor Black Bay Chrono in pink. That’s just the tip of the iceberg of what you can spot on people’s wrists while walking around Geneva during a major watch fair. We’ll revisit this format next time we have the chance and do our best to bring you even more people and watches.

For now, let us know your favorite watch from the list in the comments below.