The Art Of Time-Keeping: Inside The Dubai Watch Week 2025

Making its first appearance in 2015 like a beautifully improvised overture, Dubai Watch Week created a hollow where the often-guarded world of luxury watchmaking suddenly felt open, curious, and wonderfully human. The brainchild of Ahmed Seddiqi has since grown into a biennial constellation point for the watch world, and a meeting ground where collectors, craftsmen, and brands drift naturally into conversation.

With over 90 brands orbiting a single idea — that horology thrives when creativity and connection collide — this year’s 7th edition doubles as a 10th-anniversary celebration, layering a decade’s worth of stories, innovation, and shared passion onto an already dazzling gathering.

And because the week is never content with being just beautiful displays, the programme brings a lineup of delightfully hands-on experiences. Masterclasses range from the art of lume painting with Wristcheck, crafting your own ring from Norwegian heirloom cutlery, to “Unlocking the Cosmos,” a meteorite-themed dive into materials that have literally fallen from the sky. Its journey is also deeply connected to the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) inspiring missions all over the globe.

The Horology Forums add another layer, tackling interesting topics like the rise of Labubu dolls in a luxury-centred world, cracking the psychology behind collecting, and even a playful exploration titled “The Great Clock Adventure.” It’s unexpected, clever, and refreshingly un-stuffy — exactly the spirit that makes Dubai Watch Week so irresistible.

Listed below are a few of the many talents being presented at the face of the show.

1) Louis Vuitton Escale

Louis Vuitton brings pure visual poetry to Dubai Watch Week with two limited-edition Escale models that turn ornamental stones into miniature worlds of colour. These new timepieces spotlight the House’s rare mastery of stonework, pairing vibrant turquoise and richly veined malachite with the precision of high horology — each variation limited to just 30 pieces.

What makes them truly magnetic is the seamless, monolithic ring encircling each dial, carved from the very same mineral at its centre. The 40mm case is complemented by platinum lugs, bezel, caseback and crown — a noble, understated frame designed to heighten the natural brilliance of the turquoise and malachite. It’s Louis Vuitton at its most artistic: bold materials, meticulous craftsmanship, and a sense of wanderlust rendered in colour and texture.

2) Daniel Roth Tourbillon Platinum

Daniel Roth arrives at Dubai Watch Week with a creation that feels both archival and forward-looking: the Tourbillon Platinum, a direct homage to the iconic 2187/C187 from 1988. It’s a tribute to Roth’s favourite complication and to the quiet, obsessive precision that defined his earliest work in haute horlogerie.

This exclusive edition stands apart with its deep anthracite grey dial — a modern, moody contrast that breathes new character into the brand’s classic tourbillon architecture. The platinum case carries a commanding presence, echoing the weight and gravitas of Roth’s early designs, while the brand’s signature double-ellipse case shape acts like a bridge between past and future. 

3) Gérald Genta Gentissima Oursin

Gérald Genta adds a cosmic twist to Dubai Watch Week with two striking new 41mm Gentissima Oursin models, each crowned with a dial hewn from blue or green meteorite. These pieces expand the collection’s already daring material palette, infusing it with colours that feel almost otherworldly — shimmering, textured surfaces that echo the stones’ celestial origins.

Since its 2024 debut, the Gentissima Oursin line has celebrated the Earth’s most spectacular natural materials, moving effortlessly from the soft blush of pink mother-of-pearl to the brooding intensity of smoky anthracite, the fire-laced brilliance of opal, and the velvety darkness of onyx. They’re dramatic, playful, and richly tactile — timepieces that carry the quiet thrill of wearing something shaped long before our world even existed.

“’NOT JUST A WATCH SHOW’ is what I read in big bold letters when I entered the arena of Dubai Watch Week 2023 and rightly so.! Yes, there were watches, new launches, and even a few new brands, but to me Dubai Watch Week is now a time-travelling, watch-loving community that reunites the watch world in the most welcoming format,” says Karishma Karer, The Hour Markers.

It’s a rare thrill — part stargazing, part horology — and fully the sort of hands-on magic that makes Dubai Watch Week unforgettable.