Dubai Watch Week announced on 30 September a new travelling format called Off the Clock, described as a social and cultural gathering for collectors and watchmakers that will move between cities and events. Its first chapter is scheduled for Milan on Saturday 3 October, for one night only, in collaboration with Milano Watch Week.
The timing places it during Patek Philippe’s Watch Art Grand Exhibition, which is due to open in Milan on 2 October and run until 18 October. For a platform founded in Dubai, the setting carries an echo, since Patek Philippe’s Grand Exhibition series began in Dubai in 2012.
Dubai Watch Week presents Off the Clock as an extension of its Horology Forum. The move takes a format built in the Gulf onto the European watch calendar, and it does so in a year when the platform has given no dates for a full edition at home.
A gathering built to travel
According to the announcement, each chapter of Off the Clock will reflect the city and the event that host it. The emphasis is on people rather than products. In Dubai Watch Week’s own words, "watches may bring people into the room, but it is the exchange of ideas, perspectives and stories that creates a community."
The forum has travelled before. SJX reported a Dubai Watch Week Horology Forum in Hong Kong in October 2024. Off the Clock takes that idea further, with its own name and a format meant to move from one city to the next.
It also keeps the community meeting in a quieter year. Dubai Watch Week’s website lists its past editions and the Horology Forum in 2024 and 2025, but gives no dates for a full edition in 2026. For collectors who know the event from Dubai, a chapter abroad is a way to stay in touch between editions.
Built in Dubai
Dubai Watch Week was founded in 2015 by Ahmed Seddiqi & Sons, under the patronage of Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Chairperson of Dubai Culture and Arts Authority. According to FACT Magazine, it began with about 2,500 guests and drew more than 23,000 to the edition before 2025.
The seventh edition ran from 19 to 23 November 2025 at a new venue, Burj Park at Dubai Mall. Ahead of it, FACT reported that more than 90 brands and more than 50 sessions had been confirmed, and that the keynote would pair Rolex CEO Jean-Frédéric Dufour with Abdul Hamied Seddiqi, Chairman of Seddiqi Holding. That balance of brands and conversation is the one Off the Clock now carries abroad.
Its voice now reaches beyond the event itself. In May, Dubai Watch Week’s editorial platform, the Digest, published "How the Middle East Turned Arabic Dials into a Global Phenomenon". The title alone makes the case that the region now shapes watch taste, not only watch sales. And Hind Abdul Hamied Seddiqi, CEO of Dubai Watch Week, sits on the 24-member jury of this year’s Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève, whose winners are due to be named in Geneva on 7 November.
Why Milan
Opening in Milan places Off the Clock beside a show that shares its Gulf roots. Patek Philippe’s Grand Exhibition series started in Dubai in 2012 and has since been staged in Munich, London, New York, Singapore and Tokyo. Milan is the seventh, and the city will host it for more than two weeks.
The choice of partner matters too. Working with Milano Watch Week gives the first chapter a local host, in keeping with the promise that each chapter will reflect its setting. It also shows a Gulf platform choosing to meet collectors where they already gather, rather than waiting for them to fly to Dubai.
For the region’s collecting community, the symbolism is clear. A platform that began as a single week in Dubai is now taking its name, and its way of bringing people together, to one of Europe’s great design capitals.
What comes next
As a one-night event, the Milan chapter is a first test of the format. Falling on the exhibition’s opening weekend, it gives collectors already in the city for Patek Philippe a second reason to stay an extra evening. Collectors hoping to attend a future chapter should follow Dubai Watch Week’s own channels for the next cities and dates.
For Gulf collectors who cannot travel this month, there is a date closer to home. Mavericks of Time, the independent watchmaking event from Ahmed Seddiqi and Abu Dhabi Retail, is due to bring 24 makers to Space42 Arena in Abu Dhabi on 29 and 30 October.
A watch week that once asked the world to come to Dubai is now taking Dubai to the world. Off the Clock begins small, with a single night in a single city, but it shows that the community the Seddiqi family built at home is ready to travel.
Sources: Dubai Watch Week, Dubai Watch Week, FACT Magazine, Watch Collecting Lifestyle, SJX, Ahmed Seddiqi