Professional Jeweller will launch a special annual watch review within its publication WatchPro in June to highlight the best watches of 2011 in partnership with buyers’ association The Houlden Group.
Watches of the Year will feature the top 10 watches in 10 key categories including Style Setters, Design Greats, Covetable Collectables and Cool Classics. The winner in each category will be bestowed the honour of WatchPro Watch of the Year for 2011.
The project’s guest editor Caragh McKay, renowned watch editor for The Daily Telegraph and The Spectator, as well as contributing writer for QP and GQ magazines, will select and profile watches that, in her expert opinion, will make a massive impact with retailers, high street buyers and collectors.
Watches of all styles and price points will be reviewed from the most visible watch brands in the UK and from this year’s key shows, including SIHH and BaselWorld.
Professional Jeweller and WatchPro editor-in-chief Rachael Taylor said: “Watches of the Year will become the most comprehensive and authoritative review published in the UK this year and is a hugely exciting concept for the UK watch industry.”
The magazine will run the project in association with the Houlden Group, the UK and Ireland’s longest established jewellery and watch buying organisation that has a huge influence in shaping the UK watch market.
Houlden Group chief executive Stuart Laing said: “The Watches of the Year 2011 report is set to be the most informative and comprehensive publication of its kind so we are thrilled to be associated with it. Houlden Group members are some of the best and most experienced watch sellers in the UK so it made perfect sense for us to partner with Professional Jeweller on this venture.”
WatchPro Watches of the Year will be distributed to the full subscriber database of Professional Jeweller and WatchPro – reaching 5,500 jewellery and watch retailers, brands and service providers. WatchPro is the UK’s only dedicated business magazine for the watch industry and launched within Professional Jeweller magazine in January 2011.
In addition, Watches of the Year will be a major online event within Professionaljeweller.com, which consistently attracts more than 35,000 visits per month. “We expect that when WatchPro Watches of the Year launches online that, as we have seen with similar projects that we have run, the traffic to our site will double in the following month,” said Taylor. “We expect that watch fans within the industry and beyond will be spending time reviewing the wealth of trend reports and picture galleries that this exciting project will generate.”
WatchPro Watches of the Year Categories
• Ones to Watch: the standout pieces of 2011 and trend drivers
• Style Setters: the fashion leaders
• Sporting Greats: the key sports models
• Technological Greats: the key innovations
• Design Greats: the avant?garde pieces
• Covetable Collectibles: key limited?editions
• Under £1,000: hot for the high street
• Cool Classics: the latest versions of benchmark models
• Showstoppers: dazzling jewellery pieces
• New Names: upcoming brands
