Dubai Watch Week and Christie’s have announced new developments on the first international chapter of the Horology Forum.

An original concept created by Dubai Watch Week, the fourth edition of the forum will be held in collaboration with Christie’s on September 11-12 in London — home of the Greenwich meridian and a hearth of cultural exchange. 

The forum is a coveted intellectual space that enables riveting discussions between leading watch curators, pioneers, authors, collectors, brands and industry professionals. This year, guests will be treated to a concentrated programme of events that captures the spirit of the Horology Forum, which has become Dubai Watch Week’s trademark event since its inception.

Dubai Watch Week and Christie’s will be hosting more than 20 speakers, including legendary industry icons such as Pascal Raffy, visionary owner of Bovet 1882; Roger W. Smith OBE, British watchmaker and master of The Daniels Method; Lucien Vouillamoz, cofounder of the intrinsically fluid and innovative brand HYT; and Fiona Krüger, founder and designer of Fiona Kruger Timepieces.

Raffy, who has been credited with restoring the House of Bovet to its former grandeur after he became the unique owner in 2001, is a prominent member of the speaker lineup at the Horology Forum. Contemporary horology notably owes him the introduction of the Amadeo system enabling the conversion of a timepiece into a table clock, a pocket watch or a reversible wristwatch — and to do so without any tools.

This edition of the Horology Forum is expected to attract a number of prominent figures from the community and we look forward to exploring British timekeeping heritage tied in with Christie’s extensive expertise in the world of horology.

— Melika Yazdjerdi, Dubai Watch Week Director

Smith is a long-anticipated panellist. Inspired by a visit by Dr George Daniels in 1987 to show his iconic Space Traveller pocket watch at his horological college was the moment that Roger W. Smith embarked on a seven-year quest to master The Daniels Method, learning all 32 trades of the British watchmaker to become worthy of collaborating with the great master himself. Having established the Roger W. Smith studio in 2001, with its unswerving ethos to only craft watches by hand, to a peerless standard of horological excellence.  

Attendees will experience Vouillamoz’s nuclear physicist mind while hearing fromt the inventor of the groundbreaking fluid technology used by horological luxury brand HYT combining fluids and mechanics in a wristwatch to indicate the time. A colored liquid documents the recent past; a transparent fluid indicates the foreseeable future. Their meeting point is a meniscus, aka the now.

Krüger, artist and disruptive designer, will engage in the forum with the same passion she has for her raw, eccentric designs and pioneering tactics that has skyrocketed her to the forefront of the contemporary watch industry scene. As the owner of Fiona Krüger Timepieces, an independent watch brand founded in 2013 and boasting notable collections such as The Skull and the Chaos Collection, Krüger maintains a background of excellence and creativity, developing designs for other creative haute horlogerie brands including Speake-Marin, Fabergé and a co-creation with Swiss clock manufacturer L’Epée1839.