A FIVE-PIECE string orchestra was the only thing missing. The other elements of grandeur were firmly in place: cases of champagne were stacked up in the storeroom, plates of sushi were being chilled in the refrigerator, large terracotta plant pots lined the walls and gilded pillars surrounded the indoor garden-style restaurant. It was hard to believe that this was a trade fair; that behind the diplomacy and smiles and handshakes and clinking of champagne glasses, billions of dollars worth of business was underway.
The Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie (SIHH), held every April in Geneva, is also a grand and extravagant public relations exercise, designed to pull in big bucks - most of them Asian - by spending big money.
Some of the top names in the luxury watch business - Cartier, Baume et Mercier, Piaget, Yves Saint Laurent, Alfred Dunhill and newcomer Franck Muller - pooled their resources to invite 7,000 dealers from around the world for a three-day party, all expenses paid.
The refined environment of the SIHH is a far cry from the vast, crowded halls and Formica cafeterias of the long-established Basel watch fair from which Cartier broke away four years ago amid some controversy. The trick then was to get buyers over to Geneva, hence the extravagance.
Piaget's general manager for Hong Kong, Daniel Perel, said the Geneva salon was the haute couture of watches. 'You go to the fair in Basel and you smell sausages and French fries. Here there is champagne and smoked salmon, anything you want.' All the fuss and frills were warranted, said Cartier's president Alain Perrin. The luxury watch industry is a major growth area, even though there are only so many wealthy wrists in the world. Not surprisingly, most of those wrists seem to be Asian. Asia accounted for 30 per cent of Cartier's turnover during the show and its HK$17.7 million 'Polo Clock' was sold to an Asian buyer.
Consider the rapid rise of Franck Muller, the most fashionable watch in Hong Kong and the only brand at SIHH which is not owned by London-listed Vendome. Clearly the organisers knew they were on to a good thing when they signed up Mr Muller three years ago; his stand was one of the busiest in the salon.
