A four-day event showcasing time-pieces of the grandest luxury, latest trend and innovative design. The annual Hong Kong Watch and Clock Fair kicked off on Tuesday.
The world's biggest watch and clock fair shows just how trendy it's become to keep track of time.
This year's event features more than 800 exhibitors from 27 countries and regions.
From the world's renowned luxury brands, to craft treasures, and the chic and trendy, different buyers can easily find their favorite. These specially-designed ring clocks have attracted many people's attention.
"There are three lines. The first line shows hour, second shows minutes, and the third line shows seconds," said Balazs Stemler, Ring Clock.
Exhibitors say this year's buyers seem less than last year.
In August, Hong Kong lost its crown to the US as the top importer of Swiss watches, the first time since 2008. Industry insiders say the downward trend is likely to persist throughout the year, as a result of weak tourist spending and low consumer sentiment.
"The watch companies are very mindful of the impact of the world economy, especially on luxury watches. They are very flexible and adaptive to the market situation. A number of them are moving value chain to try to incorporate more diversity in their watch collections. A lot of Swiss brands are providing middle-price range but still very good quality watches to the consumer market.
And for the HK and Asian brands, they are also trying to take leverage on the technology trend and incorporate technology elements to the watch," said Sophia Chong, assist. executive director, HKTDC.
The smartwatch boom, which began in 2015, is now in full swing. These watches, with functions such as detecting the heartbeat and measuring sleeping time, are popular among the young generation.
"Now the smart watch technology becomes more popular, the increase of popularity have increase out business a lot. Our business for the past few years were very optimistic. We believe as more technology being put into watches, it will have very bright future," said Timothy Hui, sales director, Pure Performance.
The Smartwatch is a sign of current times and future trends. Experts say that these watches are complimentary to traditional watches, but will not take over traditional mechanical watches.
