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The Fondation Haute Horlogerie’s 11th FHH Forum took place on November 8, 2023, at Maison de la Paix in Geneva. Its theme, “Horology Futurology: Grasping the complexities of a fast-changing customer reality,” framed a discussion of how watchmaking could adapt to shifting global conditions and customer expectations. This was a past, half-day, in-person event—not an upcoming forum.
What the FHH Forum 2023 set out to discuss
FHH presented the forum as a platform for industry discussion and debate. After focusing on sustainability the previous year, the 2023 edition asked how the watch sector could respond to customers in a changing world. The program moved from broad forces shaping business toward practical questions about planning, retail, and customer engagement. FHH’s October 20, 2023 announcement and its official event agenda describe the theme and sessions.
How the program connected global trends to watch customers
Macro trends and business conditions
The opening discussion considered geopolitical, economic, social, and ecological trends and their potential implications for business and watchmaking. FHH named economist and University of Oxford professor Ian Goldin and geopolitics analyst and prospectivist Virginie Raisson as participants; Stephen Dunbar-Johnson, President, International, The New York Times, was listed as moderator.
People, nature, and planning across time horizons
The agenda also addressed humans and nature, and the challenge of balancing short- and long-term business horizons. FHH identified naturalist Bruno David and Inès Leonarduzzi, founder of Digital for the Planet and author of Réparer le futur. Leonarduzzi was listed for a session on business time horizons.
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Customer expectations and engagement
Later sessions turned to customer expectations and how engagement is evolving, with behavioral scientists, retail experts, luxury-industry representatives, and watch-industry participants. The program’s structure treated broad pressures and customer-facing choices as connected questions: changing conditions shape what businesses plan for, while the customer experience is where adaptation becomes visible.
What Deloitte’s 2023 survey added to the discussion
Deloitte’s 2023 Swiss Watch Industry Study, published October 12, 2023, offered contemporaneous survey context for the forum. Deloitte surveyed 75 senior industry executives and 6,045 consumers in Switzerland and major Swiss-watch export markets, including China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Japan, Singapore, Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The consumer findings describe that survey’s respondents, not every watch buyer.
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- In-store experience: 52% of surveyed consumers said they bought watches in stores to touch, test, and try them.
- Executives’ channel expectations: 62% of surveyed brands expected in-store sales to outweigh online sales over the following five years. This was an expectation reported in 2023, not a measured sales share or a current forecast.
Karine Szegedi, Head of Consumer and Fashion & Luxury at Deloitte Switzerland, said in Deloitte’s release: “The electric atmosphere of watch fairs and auctions and experiencing a brand’s spirit in-store cannot be replicated in the digital space.” The figures and quote provide context for why customer experience and engagement featured in the forum; they do not establish what forum speakers concluded. The FHH event materials describe sessions but do not provide a transcript or verified direct quotations from forum speakers. Deloitte’s 2023 study release gives the survey scope and findings.
How to read the later Deloitte figures
Deloitte’s 2025 study is a later reference point, not evidence that the 2023 forum’s discussion or its survey findings were validated. Published November 3, 2025, the eleventh edition reports a survey of 111 executives and 6,500 consumers. Those are figures for the 2025 study, not updated values for the 2023 survey. Deloitte’s 2025 study page identifies that later edition.
FHH’s later education collaboration is separate from the forum
FHH describes its activities through Watches and Culture, FHH Academy, and FHH Forum. The Academy provides watchmaking training and certification, while the Forum is an industry discussion and debate platform. In a separate announcement dated September 17, 2026, FHH and the Gemological Institute of America said FHH Academy programs would be offered to students across GIA’s global campus network, starting in early 2027 with the Watch Advisor certification and open sessions with a dedicated tutor. The announcement does not provide enrollment details. This education collaboration followed the 2023 event and was not part of its program. FHH’s overview of its work and GIA’s September 17, 2026 announcement describe the organizations’ respective roles and the collaboration.
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