Product launch event for your new watch, from brief to wrap-up

Let's begin with a brief

A product launch event for a new watch has three audiences within a few days: the press, the retailers and the clients. Luxury by the Lake produces each of those moments for you, from the feasibility study to the wrap-up, in Geneva, Paris, Dubai and wherever the launch travels.

At a glance

What

executive production of watch launches, from feasibility study to wrap-up

Formats

press preview, retailer presentation, client evening, window displays and installations, exhibition of savoir-faire, stand and set-ups around Watches and Wonders

Calendar

Watches and Wonders from 5 to 11 April 2027 at Palexpo; Grand Prix d'Horlogerie de Genève on 7 November 2026; Dubai Watch Week every two years, in November

Pieces

transport, insurance and storage with Pelichet Expositions in Geneva; supervision, joint inventories, locked premises

Where

Geneva, Paris, Dubai, worldwide

Contact

contact@luxebylake.com · 111 avenue Victor Hugo, 75016 Paris · Pelichet Expositions, Route des Jeunes 55, 1212 Grand-Lancy (Geneva)

A product launch event production studio, set to the watch calendar

The watch year turns around a few fixed dates. Watches and Wonders takes over Palexpo each spring, and its 2027 edition runs from 5 to 11 April. In the autumn, the Grand Prix d'Horlogerie de Genève brings the watch world back to town; its 2026 ceremony takes place on 7 November at the Bâtiment des Forces Motrices. Every two years in November, Dubai Watch Week gathers collectors and retailers from the Gulf.

ExpoLog Geneva, a subsidiary of Pelichet Expositions, is the official and exclusive logistics provider of Palexpo, where Watches and Wonders is held, and we produce stands, display cases and hospitality suites around the fair; our Luxury by the Lake page tells the story of the alliance. Many Maisons also launch outside the fairs, with a press preview under embargo, then events in their key cities. We produce both routes, and we plan the second from the first, so that one set can serve several stops.

The formats of a watch launch

• Press preview under embargo: a morning presentation, handling sessions at tables lit for metal and dials, interviews with the Maison's watchmakers and designers.
• Retailer presentation: the novelties, order sessions, and a dinner that gives your partners time with the team.
• Client evening: a seated dinner or a reception, a performance if the Maison wishes, the pieces in display cases or on trays for those who want to try them on.
• Exhibition of savoir-faire: a watchmaker at the bench, movements, archives, shown once or sent on tour.
• Window displays and pop-up stores that carry the launch into the street, built to the drawings of your studio.
• The launch on tour: the same set rebuilt in Paris, Dubai or a winter resort, adapted to each venue.

What the object needs: light, security, handling

A guest reads a watch from a few centimetres away, and we design the set for that moment. Display cases and lighting come from the same drawing: colour temperature chosen for steel, gold or ceramic, glare kept off the sapphire, enough light at the handling tables for a loupe. We draw screens, projections and sound into the set from the first plan, so your guests look at the piece first.

The pieces travel under supervision, with a joint inventory at each handover, in cases packed by Pelichet Expositions. On site they stay in locked premises between sessions, and the Maison's own staff or security handle them during the event if you prefer. We arrange insurance for each stage, from Geneva to the venue and back.

The set is where the object is seen, approached and understood.

Our standards for a launch, counting back from the embargo

1. Brief: the object, the audiences, the cities and the embargo date. We send back our understanding in writing.
2. Feasibility and costing: site visits, technical plan, itemised budget, and a schedule counted back from the embargo.
3. Preparation and delivery: suppliers, permits, build, rehearsal with your speakers, show control on the day.
4. Wrap-up: budget closed, feedback gathered, archives handed to the Maison, sets stored in Geneva for the next stop.

For a launch across a fair, a press day and two cities, a full team works for you: project, creative, production and operations, each with its lead, and one voice for the Maison. For a press preview in a single venue, a single lead holds project, production and technical. When your studio designs the launch, we produce it; when you prefer, we bring in art directors and scenographers from our network under the same project lead.

We apply the principles of ISO 20121: sets designed for several lives, hired rather than built where the project allows, crews on the train, and a CSR report set against your Maison's indicators at the wrap-up.

Product launch in Geneva, Paris and Dubai

Geneva holds the fair and the watch calendar: our luxury event planner Geneva page covers venues and timing around Watches and Wonders. Paris suits a launch shared with jewellery: see our event production studio in Paris page. For a product launch in Dubai, around Dubai Watch Week or on your own date, our corporate events Dubai page covers the season, the venues and the shipping of pieces from Geneva. Our gala dinner planner page covers the client dinners in each city.

Confidentiality and embargo

We sign a non-disclosure agreement before anyone on our side sees the piece or the drawings. Images of a build or an event leave our hands only with your written consent, and we set each supplier's schedule by the embargo date. At the end of the mission, we return the documents to you or destroy them. The work we produce for a Maison belongs to the Maison, which decides in writing what may be shown or said.

Frequently asked questions

How far ahead should we plan a product launch event?

As soon as your embargo date is set, with the fairs that frame it in view. Venues and hotels around Watches and Wonders and Dubai Watch Week fill early, so we begin scouting straight away. We then build the schedule backwards from the embargo, with each supplier's deadline in the technical plan.

Can you produce our launch at Watches and Wonders?

Yes, from the stand to the hospitality suite and the press set-up, with the support of Pelichet Expositions, whose subsidiary ExpoLog Geneva is the official and exclusive logistics provider of Palexpo. If you present in town the same week, we find the venue and time the transfers between Palexpo and the city around your guests' appointments.

Can the same set serve several cities?

Yes. We design the set for several lives from the first drawing: modules that travel by road or air, a lighting plan that adapts to each venue, and storage in Geneva between stops. The second and third cities then reuse what the first one paid for.

How do you protect the pieces during the launch?

With supervision at each stage, joint inventories at each handover, locked premises between sessions and insurance from Geneva to the venue and back. Your own staff or security can handle the pieces during the event, and we organise the route and the timing around them.

Do you design the launch or only produce it?

Both. Often the Maison's studio has already designed the launch, and we produce it to the drawing. For a full project, creative included, we bring in art directors, scenographers and set dressers from our network under one project lead.

What does a launch budget include?

An itemised breakdown: venues, set and furniture, light, sound and video, display cases, transport and insurance of pieces, crews, catering, guest welcome and travel. You weigh one line against another, and each change to the plan comes to you with its cost before you approve it.