The Business of Watches [008] Hind Seddiqi: The Driving Force Behind Dubai Watch Week

0:00Welcome to the Business of Watches, where horology meets high finance and each ticker tells a story of markets, margins, mishaps, and mechanical mastery. I'm your host, Andy Hoffman, Senior Business Editor at Hodinkee. In this series, we dive deep into the global watch industry, a place where centuries-old craftsmanship intersects with billion-dollar valuations, executive brand strategy, and investor speculation. From Swiss Valleys to Silicon Valley, we trace the movements shaping this uniquely resilient sector. Just how big is the business of timekeeping? Well, some estimates place the entire watch industry from ultra-luxury maisons to smartwatches and microbrands at north of$100 billion globally.

0:51But behind that figure is a complex web of legacy, innovation, and ever-shifting consumer tastes and demand. This is the podcast for collectors, analysts, watch buyers and sellers, and anyone who's fascinated by the intersection of wristwear and wealth. Because if time is money, then money is most certainly time. So let's get down to business.

1:20On this week's episode of The Business of Watches, one of the most powerful women in the horology world. Hinn Siddiqui is the Chief Executive Officer of Dubai Watch Week, the extraordinary gathering of the watch industry that takes place every two years. In just a decade, she's overseen a dramatic evolution of the biennial event that some are now calling the ultimate watch fair. Started as a gathering to educate and inform locals about watches and for brands to learn about Dubai in the UAE, it's become a must-attend show for nearly everyone in the industry. Overseeing it all is Hinn Siddiqui, part of the Ahmed Siddiqui watch retail family empire and in charge of the multi-million dollar budget for the massive fair.

2:16This year, it hosted nearly 100 brands and a record 49 ,000 visitors, a 113 % increase over the previous edition as collectors from around the world descended on the city in November. Her challenge now is to maintain Dubai Watch Week's intimate, candid, and relaxed setting as more brands and visitors clamor to attend the next edition of the True Collectors Watch Fair. A passionate collector herself who has made Dubai Watch Week potentially the best watch-spotting venue on the planet, here's our conversation with Hin Siddiqui.

3:07So, we are at Dubai Watch Week 2025. I am with Hind Siddiqui, the CEO of Dubai Watch Week, who has kindly offered to join us and give us some insight about all that it takes to put on a massive event like this. Welcome. Thank you, Andy. Thank you for having me. It takes a lot. A lot of work, a lot of passion. a lot of planning. And I mean, like I said in my welcome speech, we started the moment we closed Dubai Watch Week 2023. So two years ago. Two years ago. And for 2027, we're going to start to take intent, initial first intent from brands that would like to participate in January just for us to be able to, you know, understand the number of interested brands that want to participate, the number of brands that want standalone booths, and then evaluate everything and see how we can redesign this venue.

4:06Because remember, this is the first time we're on this Dubai Mall Porch Park venue. So behind the scenes, we have a list of things that we know next time we need to take care of. But everybody so far is enjoying and they don't know a lot of behind the scene and the operations of running a site like this. Let's step back for a second, though, and talk about, for those who don't know, what Dubai Watch Week is, what Ahmed Siddiqui is, the retailer here in UAE, and how long the show has been going on and what it is exactly that we're doing here. It's a watch fair. It's a watch fair. It's a watch fair.

4:41It's a watch salon. That was created for watch collectors and watch enthusiasts. So when we created Dubai Watch Week, we had the watch collector in mind while we were designing the event. And we started it in 2015. That's 10 years ago. and we started very small. We had 15 brands participating with us and our focus was purely independent brands when we first started. So yeah, the first edition was purely independent. Purely independent brands. And then we had the masterclasses and then we had our horology forum, which was a first for the industry. You never heard of people from the industry talking to each other before the horology forum existed in 2015.

5:19And then slowly, slowly, we gradually grew to become what we are today, a platform where the watch community can come and gather and unite for the love and passion of watchmaking and of horology. And the pillars of Dubai Watch Week don't include only the participating brands, but also the horology forum, the masterclasses, and the creative hub where the brands can come and showcase and launch or discuss anything they are free to talk about without the control that we have on the horology forum. Right. Today, we have over 99 participating brands, There's 29. 99 participating brands. Yes, 29 of them are new.

5:58And we have three new standalone booths outside. So a total of 13 standalone booths outside. It's quite big. It's getting bigger by the day from 15 brands only in 2015 to this number. It's quite big. And what makes us different is we're a non-commercial platform. So there's no selling that takes place during Dubai Watch Week. But obviously the brands and the watchmakers come here and they meet people. They meet collectors. They meet retailers from around the world and they make business deals. That happens inevitably. It's just the atmosphere is more relaxed and more casual, you know, than any other watch exhibition that happens around the world.

6:36And I've been hearing great feedback from all of them, like walking to all of them, even including the micro brands, which is a section that we have for the first time where we're hosting micro brands and ultra niche brands as well in the same section to Give them an opportunity to participate because usually these brands, our brand exhibitions are very expensive for small, small names. We created this area and it's actually doing really good. Yeah, no, it's quite interesting. And there's a huge gamut of brands here. But as you say, 99 brands, I think Watches and Wonders has something like 50 something.

7:11I mean. And I have a waiting list, Andy. And you have a waiting list. Unfortunately, it's really sad to say because we'd like to accommodate as many as we can, but we still do have a waiting list. And so, you know, obviously it's to celebrate horology, to celebrate watchmaking, bring the watchmaking community together. But, you know, why did the Siddiquis, and this year is obviously the 75th anniversary of the company and being the watch retailer that it is here in the UAE. But why do we do this event, really? I mean, you know, I mean, why is it in your interest to do so? When we first created it, we created it because we wanted to educate the community here in the UAE and in the region about watchmaking.

7:57So we started doing in the early 2000s, we started taking our clients to the manufacturers to Geneva. In Switzerland, yeah. In Switzerland. So we were able to take small, small groups of people. And we used to take them because they used to always tell us, but why are you so passionate about watches? Why do you love watches so much? So we realized that we see and experience things that they don't, which is why we're so in love and like so mesmerized by this industry. So we started to create these small, small tours. And we used to take groups of six, maximum nine people to Geneva to see the manufacturers and to experience behind the scenes and to meet the watchmakers.

8:33And we used to see the change in their attitude and how they used to respect, you know, the watchmaking and the watch brands more and understand why certain watches were expensive or priced at a certain price point. But then we realized, OK, we cannot do this for the entire, you know, population that we have. So we might as well create something that has these elements that help people understand the industry better. and that's how Dubai Watch Week was created and that's why we have the pillars of the horology forum where they can meet and listen to the brands and the CEOs and the opinion leaders in the industry about the industry from business perspective, from what's coming up and all of that and topics of concern as well.

9:18And then the masterclasses for them to see the crafts that happen not only in watchmaking, but we do enameling, we do engraving, we do a lot of classes, even not linked to watches typically or to the watch industry, but in crafts in general. And that's how we were created. To bring the community here, to bring that experience to them. What does it take money-wise to put on a show like this? I mean, 90 brands, how many thousands of people have come through the door? You know, why is it worthwhile to spend so much to make this happen? We, look, the main founder of the event is Ahmed Sadiqi, obviously.

9:57And we used to invest the majority when it comes to building Dubai Watch Week. It's quite a big investment. And a lot of people would say, why would you do that when you're not even selling? You know, what's the point? For us, it's the way to give back. And we know that in the long term, we will have the returns. We will see the return. And we are seeing returns already. But today, we're not the only people investing in building Dubai Watch Week. All of the participants are investing with us. and the booths that are outside are quite, you know, impressive in terms of quality. And with this, there is hefty investments from the brands themselves.

10:29I cannot mention numbers in terms of the brands, but if there are some brands that would like to share with you the cost of their booths, I mean, they're more free to do so. We can tell you the prices that we charge per square meter and all of that. So I don't have them at the top of my head, but then maybe we could send you the pack. What we hear from the brands is we are quite reasonable compared to the other exhibitions that they participate in. Some of them say you're more expansive, you know, it depends where they participate. But for us, we have a standard that we need to maintain. So the brands invest a lot with us as well to build this.

11:04But the investment from Siddiqui is quite a hefty investment. And, you know, you said that one of the stated purposes of the show is to bring watchmaking to the population here. Talk about the market in Dubai, in the UAE, and in the Gulf region, and how it compares to the rest of the world and where it is on that journey of maturity. If we think of, you know, perhaps the UK market as being quite a mature market in terms of its understanding and its establishment of watch retail and watchmaking. Look, I think with us as retailers, we also see the numbers of ranking of our boutiques with the brands that we work with.

11:46And most of the boutiques that are with us here at Dubai Mall rank number one worldwide with the brand themselves. Interesting. So it will be their number one performing boutique worldwide. Like single boutique. Single boutique, standalone boutiques. If not, it's in the top five, if not the top one performing. Dubai is a very unique city, you know. It's a very touristic city. The number of tourists we welcome is crazy. And then the number of residents. Two days ago, I was reading an article and they said we have 17 ,000 new residents a month. That's extraordinary, the kind of growth that the city is experiencing.

12:21And of course, and I've certainly experienced and seen it with the traffic and all the construction. Yeah, the traffic has gone crazy. But we understand now because there are 17 ,000 new residents coming and living in Dubai. and the number of high network individuals who are here, the number of businesses that have moved and are established in Dubai as well, whether it's in the tech industry or it's in the business industries and all, it's grown tremendously. The safety, the infrastructure of the city is quite unique. And I think that's one of the things that everybody is looking for. The investment opportunities, the support that people receive from the government to establish businesses and to start businesses over here is quite generous.

13:07So, and encouraging. Low taxes. Yeah, and we have taxes, but yes, they're low taxes. And what's nice is, yes, you're paying taxes, but you're also seeing what the city's doing with the money that it's getting, you know? They're making the city better. They're investing in making the city safer. We're building roads. We're building bridges. We're launching flying taxis. The country is investing a lot in that. So, it doesn't make you feel bad if you're paying taxes. because you know the money is going to good use. And what do you think? I mean, yeah, you said you have close to 100 brands here. What are you hoping that these brands, some of them here for the first time, are learning about this market, about this local market, and about the regional market, and how it differs, and what expectations, and what customers and clients need from brands?

13:58I mean, we want them to start to understand that the region and the Middle East is quite an important market. And it doesn't only host, you know, the locals who live here, but it attracts a lot of international visitors. I was speaking the other day to AP and they were saying they were, their target is to beat Shanghai. Wow. And they beat the numbers of visitors of Shanghai in day two. At the show here, at Dubai Watch Week. At Dubai Watch Week. It's quite a, you were just there. It's quite a spectacular building. It's quite spectacular. And the bet was actually on Shanghai and not on Dubai, you know.

14:31So I was thinking, why are brands still looking down at the region, you know, when we really have the potential, the highest potential of buying, of doing business? So I think the brands are also, many of them understand, especially the independent brands, they know, they understand the importance of the market. and some of them who don't, I hope that Dubai Watch Week is showing them the potential of the region and the potential of even tapping into, you know, high-network individuals who are ready to fly into the country to meet and to do activations with them. Well, I'm surprised and I've certainly noticed.

15:09I was at the last Dubai Watch Week in 2023 and the number of international visitors, this time collector groups, people from outside, not just journalists, but collectors and clients that have come in. Are you noticing that that's really changed this year? And how are you going to sort of deal with that going forward? Because, I mean, you know, because the feel here and the accessibility and the ability to just walk over to Roger Smith or to Rex Shepi and say hello, it's quite different in something. So, yeah, how are you going to control? It's very different. And it's part of the charm of Dubai Watch Week that you can come here and you can see the watchmaker and say hello to them.

15:48and the watchmakers are still enjoying that. So they really like it. They like this interaction. Whenever I get a chance to sit at our LG forum, you know, I look at the wrists around me and oh my God, I've seen watches that are crazy. Like the other day, there was this guy sitting next to me and he's wearing the FP Jordan hand, listening to a panel discussion. I was like, oh, okay, wow. And the same thing I heard from the brands, you know, they're saying, oh my God, the number of amazing watches we're seeing on wrists, we haven't seen, you know, in any other exhibition. So the safety element, It shows you that people are so comfortable and so safe, and they have watches in their pockets as well.

16:23So it's really, the safety element is extremely important. Number one show for watch spotting. Watch spotting, exactly. And the security is very high, but we do it the Dubai way. You know, Dubai always has very high security measures put in place. So everyone is monitored. Everything is monitored. We have a lot of police on site that people cannot see. I don't see them. You don't see them. I don't see a lot of security. Even if you go to the mall, you're not going to see them because that's the way Dubai does things. They want everyone to feel comfortable, but then they need to be rest assured that everything is being monitored by the police, you know.

16:58So they are, they look like civilians. Indeed. And so, you know, that is part of the Dubai experience. You say that security to wear what one wishes and feel safe and comfortable. But not only that, but also the hospitality and the way we're welcoming people, the way we advertise for the event, you know. It's free entry. All you have to do is just go and register and come and enjoy your time. We are monitoring these things. I cannot deny that. We had a little bit of fear by being in this venue, very close to Dubai Mall, because of the number of visitors that Dubai Mall receives during the weekend.

17:34They receive like millions of people in the mall. So we were very worried that, oh my God, how are we going to welcome millions into the exhibition? and how, so we had measures. We had already like plan A, plan B, plan C. How are we going to start queuing? We had all of that put in place because it's a possibility that we will have an influx of people that we cannot accommodate. We have plans in place. And then once we conclude the event, we will have surveys running with the brands, you know, asking them about the caliber of people they met, you know, how they felt. And then we evaluate and then we see.

18:10If we need to become a ticketed event, We will become a ticketed event. You know, we will do whatever it takes us to keep the quality of visitors as well, you know, at the level of expectations from the participating brands. So all of this information we will gather only after we conclude the event. I see. And so, yeah, I mean, if it was a ticketed event, you know, is it going to feel much different? I mean, these are all things to consider. But, you know, we've heard from lots of the panelists and the participants, I mean, Mr. Dufour from Rolex, which was, you know, an extraordinary get, as it were, to speak here.

18:45I mean, you know, why do you think that Jean-Fleur-Ric Dufour agreed to give a presentation and speak on a panel here? And why do people feel so strongly about the show? I mean, you know, François-Henri Benamia, I mean, he's compared you to some other well-known watch shows and said that you're doing it the best and that, you know, that everybody else has a lot to learn. Do you feel you're in, are you in competition with other watch shows? And why, you know, why are watch shows so important? We're not in competition with any watch show. Let me answer this question first. We are the only non-commercial watch show that's happening.

19:26even the copycats who came after us, you know, they are ticketed events and they're selling. If they're not a ticketed event, they're selling. So we're unique in that sense. When we create Watch Week and when we work on the programming for Watch Week, we design it with the collector mindset in our minds and that's how we design. The other event is a business event. It's a B2B event that allows, you know, collectors to visit at the end of the week. It's a very different experience. It's an extremely different setup. And the entire exhibition there is not set up to welcome them and have them experience things the way we are here, open, you know, for people to experience.

20:08Some of them go there, they can't even enter to the booth of the brands. They can only see the brands from the showcases, you know what I mean? So it's completely different. We do not compete and we actually try to collaborate wherever possible. You know, because the industry needs strong platforms to collaborate with each other. We have different mandates, but we're serving the same industry. So in that sense, I don't think we compete. And I hope that they don't feel that we are competing with them because we do things differently. And they're still needed because the industry needs them from a business perspective for retailers, for them to place their orders and for all of that relationship building and networking with your representatives.

20:46So that's there. When it comes to Mr. Defoe, I think we're very lucky not only to have Mr. Defoe's trust and respect, but of a lot of CEOs and brands. And that's thanks to Ahmed Siddiqui and what Ahmed Siddiqui stands for. And the way Ahmed Siddiqui does business with these brands, they respect us, they trust us. And the way we've designed Horology Forum to be a neutral ground where we don't have any, you know, pushing anyone's agenda or anything. We just keep it open and very, very transparent and non-scripted. Right. I think also gives the speakers, not only Mr. DeFour, the comfort that, you know, this is neutral grounds and we can come and see whatever we want and we will not be disrespected in any way.

21:35But it also seems that the brands here, I mean, they don't get to just say their talking points and give their marketing message in the presentations and discussions. I mean, you want, it seems you want to foster, you know, real discussions, real important topics of interest about the industry. 100 percent. That's why we created the forum. And when we first created it, it used to have themes, you know. So the first theme was transmission of knowledge and the importance of how are we going to foster more young talents to enter into the industry? How can we have more watchmakers in the industry?

22:05So different topics. Today we go broader and we also tap into industries outside of watches so that to see how we can learn from these speakers as well and from these other industries. We do have the creative hub where they're more than welcome to push their marketing agendas. And that's usually a paid session. So the brand would pay to book that session to do that. But all the panels of RLG Forum are very strictly monitored by us. We receive a lot of pressure from participating brands saying we are participants, we've been with you for years, you've never invited us to speak. We say you're more than welcome to suggest to us, you know, if there's a topic you think that we should tap into, we should consider.

22:44If, you know, you can send us the biography of your speakers that you would like to propose, and then we sort of pick and choose who can speak and who can't speak. Because if we don't do that, the importance of the forum is going to dilute, you know, and then the conversations change. and then we launched the first CEO roundtable that you kindly hosted and agreed to. And like I told you, when we're having lunch, we chose you before we chose the speakers or before we chose the CEOs because we needed a moderator who can run this conversation and who understands the business of the watchmaking and of the industry.

23:20And then when we picked and chose the CEOs, we wanted to also bring CEOs who were CEOs somewhere else, not only in the watch industry, you know, to show how someone like Elaria, someone like George Curran, who had backgrounds, you know, outside of the watch industry, how do they add value when they join the watch industry, you know? And I think you did great by running the conversation. People who have missed it can watch it on the YouTube channel. Thank you for the opportunity. The conversation was really engaging. We did get phone calls of, oh, we heard this is happening. Can our CEO, you know, the PR teams, can our CEO be on this table and all of that?

23:55So we said, yes, maybe the next one. But for this, it was the first time. And I really want to thank the four CEOs who participated, you know, Elaria, Mr. Karshoffle, George Kern and Julianne for accepting. You know, in the maybe five years I've been covering this, I've not seen a sort of interaction in a, you know, a CEO roundtable like that, sort of unstructured. Yeah, and each of them has a different perspective and each of them has their own challenges that they're, you know, trying to resolve. And hopefully by discussing together, you know, they get to tap into the mindsets of other CEOs and maybe learn a few things to help them implement in their own brands.

24:37Exactly. Because, yeah, I mean, it is a collective industry. If the industry doesn't work, you know, together collectively, that's when it's going to run into problems. So can you tell, I mean, specifically how many thousands of people are you getting in here every day? Let me open our dashboard and tell you what's happening live at the moment. Yeah. I mean, you know, 100 brands, five days. So we've already crossed 40 ,000. Amazing. Yeah. So that we beat our 2023 numbers by far. Our target used to be 3 ,000 visitors a day. On day one, we already had more than 7 ,000 visitors. Day two, we had 8 ,000 visitors.

25:19Day three, we had 10 ,000 visitors. And yesterday, we had 11 ,000 something visitors. And we're not only monitoring who is entering to Dubai Watch Week, but also how many visitors are going to each booth. I see. So that we know which booth performed better and why. Is it because of the location they're based in? Is it because of the experience? Is it because of the marketing and communication they've done? And then we share this feedback with the participating brands and we say, listen, your booth was ranked number one, number four, number six. And if we feel that there is no interest for these brands, we will not offer them the space again.

25:57No, that's interesting. Because we have to design it for the visitors to come and enjoy. Exactly. And so you have to make the cut. We've already been very strict asking people. So when we send you the document with the pricing of the booths and all of that, you'll see that there are criteria for participation. And the important things is you have to be either a first time participant or you have to come with a new launch or a new collection or a new limited edition, or you have to come with a new experience. because the visitors don't want to see the same thing they've seen before. The journalists don't want to listen to the same things, you know, and the same launches that they've seen before.