INDUSTRY MATTERS: Why Hands On Horology succeeds where others have failed

After launching Oracle Time magazine in 2013 and turning it into the UK’s number one watch publication, business partners Thomas Pettit and Mark Edwards would have been forgiven for resting on their laurels. Fast forward to 2025 and the duo launched luxury watch show Hands On Horology, aiming to fill the void that’s existed since the demise of SalonQP. Watch Insider’s Daniel Malins spoke to the pair to find out what drives them on, and why their publishing success isn’t enough.

Watch Insider: How would you look back at the first Hands On Horology from last year, and how successful do you think it was? By what criteria would you be judging its success?

Thomas Pettit: It’s hard to not blow our own trumpet really, because for us it was a massive success in a few different ways. First of all, we made sure to get feedback from both the attendees and the exhibitors after the show in the form of questionnaires, and the answers were overwhelmingly positive, which was hugely gratifying for us. 

From an exhibitor level, in terms of brands selling watches, engaging with people, and the organisation of the show, the feedback we had was fantastic. I can’t remember the exact figure, but out of the 40 stands, 99% said they’d want to come back in 2026. So, by all measures, for me it was massively successful. 

We produce the print product for Oracle Time, run the website, the socials, and everything else that goes with running a multi-media news platform, and we used the same team of people. It was very stressful, but a massively rewarding learning experience. In terms of the success from our team as well it was really a proud moment. To see how pumped and excited everyone was after the show made it all worthwhile.

Mark Edwards: It’s amazing hearing the feedback. Some brands even said it was the best event they’d done that year, and they’re doing 10 plus shows around the world, so that was extremely gratifying.

WI: As successful as the first year was, are your ambitions higher for the second edition? Or is it a case of the difficult second album, in terms of prioritising consolidation of the success from the first year?

TP: We want to keep the second edition as similar to the first as possible but keep it fresh. We delayed our first exhibition so many times due to external factors (mainly location and timing). We want to make sure 2026 is just as good. The turnout proved we have the audience. We did it without media partners, and to see such a group of engaged watch lovers really cemented the community of our readership.

We want Hands On to be a luxury watch show. Across Oracle Time we work with the biggest and best watch brands in the world, and we want it to reflect that. On top of that we want brands that are interesting, unique, and a little different. We want interesting complications and techniques in watchmaking that are rare – that’s our focus. 

WI: When you were laying out the blueprint for how it was going to look, did you have a show in mind that you felt inspired by? 

ME: We couldn’t help but be inspired by British Watchmakers Day – it made it all about the collectors and used a great venue with great light. Meeting people from the brands is important too.

TP: There’s always going to be inspiration when you go to all sorts of events. You want to borrow the best bits from all the different events you go to, whether that’s Watches and Wonders, or a car event that you’ve been to at Blenheim Palace. 

A key thing was keeping it simple, because when you work in the industry, you get so caught up about the industry insider stuff that you forget the reason that the event is happening, which is obviously the collector community and the people that are interested in the watches. As long as you create an environment they want to attend, it’s going to be a success.

WI: How much consideration have you given to going down the route that British Watchmakers Day has gone down, which is encouraging its exhibitors to produce limited edition pieces specifically for Hands On Horology?

ME: I actually had a few brands coming to us with that idea more than anything else. A couple of brands wanted to do a limited edition or hold back a key launch for the event to create extra hype. The brands seem to be quite proactive on that front.

TP: There are going to be 40 brands at the show, so they want to create a reason for people to come and see them. Obviously limited editions made for specific shows have been around for a long time, but you don’t want them to overshadow the whole thing. I think some shows are bordering on that. When everyone’s queuing just specifically for that one launch, they might not go and see the other brands, so you have to try and find a balance.

We’re open to all ideas to make it more engaging. Again, it just comes down to the fact that we want to make it interesting for our readers, our community, and a bespoke edition launched at the event can do that. 

ME: And we had a couple of quite successful limited editions at last year’s show, which was interesting. I think three of our exhibiting brands produced limited editions.

TP: Beaucroft, Nodus, and Paulin. They went like hotcakes, they were really fast to sell out.

WI: Presumably this is an area that could grow organically. Three brands doing it last year could become six brands doing it this year.

TP: It comes down to the fact that people want uniqueness in the watches that they own, and people also often want a memento from a specific show from that specific time as well.

WI: I’d say it’s a decade since [luxury consumer watch show] SalonQP was really at its peak. You guys have enjoyed an excellent first edition, but why do you think no-one has made a success of a UK luxury watch show in the years since SalonQP’s demise? Is there a reason why it’s harder here than it is in New York, for instance, where they have the WatchTime and WindUp shows?

TP: I don’t really know, I guess we’re not really experts in that area. It would all be speculation.

ME: From speaking to brands, I think it’s an investment issue. Something we tried to do with the show was to keep it as simple as possible and keep the cost down for participation. Sometimes with the glitzier events, the costs are a bit higher for brands to take part, and then they don’t feel they’re necessarily getting the return on that larger investment. So, year on year you might be losing brands, and therefore the experience for the guests isn’t quite on the same level. That would be my speculation, partly.

WI: As smooth as things went in year one, there must have been some flapping around going on behind the scenes. You said yourself you delayed the launch of Hands On Horology for years, so what sort of problematic issues can crop up? 

TP: It’s not easy to make it work financially, that’s the reality of it. It’s not easy to put on a show and make a profit. I don’t know whether that’s unique to London or if it’s just something that happens around the world. It’s quite disparate, in terms of the media landscape right now. You have the large consumer titles and YouTubers, influencers, and websites, but there’s not really a media company that owns that [event] space, and that’s what we want to try and do really. We want to be a 360-degree media platform. We’ve got the print magazine, online, social media, the newsletter, and also now events. We also do smaller events for our members on a monthly basis with different brands, and now we have Hands on Horology yearly. We can potentially expand that into some other areas.

ME: The other thing I would say is that the strongest bit of feedback we got from our event was the quality of the guests and the engagement with those collectors that were there on the day. Having really good people turn up who are interested in watches and buying watches, that’s what you have got to try and keep the focus on for a long-term successful event.

WI: That’s where event companies can overcomplicate things I think. Of course, the logistics and the workload and the overall process can be overwhelming, but the actual business model of putting watch brands in a room with watch lovers is pretty simple, right?

ME: It’s something we discussed a lot. You can add all these other elements, you can spend extra on drinks, or entertainment, or talks etc, but ultimately the guests just want to come and get hands-on with the brands and meet them face-to-face. 

TP: They want to get hands on, that’s the key.

ME: Hence the name!

WI: What would growth and expansion look like to you? Would youtake it on the road? Or would you consider something conceptually different?

TP: To be completely honest, we haven’t really reached a decision. Obviously, we have to be a bit tight-lipped about what we’re going to do in the future, but both of those things are options. There’s so much we would love to do, but we’re a small team. We’re an independent company, and we’re limited by resources, so we have to be careful about the steps that we take. Of course, you’ve got to take risks and roll the dice when you can, and we’ve got lots of ideas, but where they actually go is still up for consideration right now. 

ME: There are lots of ideas on the table. Another one is possibly moving to a bigger venue or adding an extra day.

TP: Our focus right now is making sure that this year’s event is as good as it was in 2025. Then we’ll have that platform to build on when we want to. 

WI: With Hands On Horology and Oracle Time, we’ve alluded to the fact that one helps the other, but how disciplined are you with treating the event as purely business? Does it have to make a semi-significant profit, or is it enough if it covers its face, because it actually helps with the whole Oracle Time ecosystem? 

TP: We want it to be self-sufficient. Just being completely candid, without getting into figures, we did break even last year, which was our goal. As a media platform, it’s not easy. You have to diversify revenue streams, and you can’t rely on just subscriptions and advertising these days. You need as many different tendrils in different areas as possible. For us, it is a way of making additional revenue but also complementing our existing product range. 

ME: It does work well on the marketing angle. It’s a nice benefit for our paying members and it helps with our membership growth as well, because people who aren’t members on the day have an opportunity to sign up.

TP: It’s definitely worth noting that point about subscribers. Oracle Time members can come free of charge to Hands on Horology, so that’s the benefit of their subscription. 

WI: Parking the speculation about potential other events that you could look into in the future, how big can Hands On Horology itself get? Is it a case of the bigger the better, or would you feel like it would lose some of its charm and character in the process of expanding?

TP: Well, Mark’s mentioned about going up to a couple of days, and I think if done correctly it can get significantly larger without losing its identity. 

“How big could it get?” is not something we’ve ever thought about. Maybe a week-long watch festival? I don’t know! There are also other great events coming out as well. In the UK, you’ve got London Watch Week and some other events going on, so the landscape is changing and that’s something we’ve got to keep our eye on.

ME: It will always be more of a consumer fair vibe, like the WindUp model. One thing I’ve found from speaking to brands quite often is they think you can have too many brands at these types of shows, which can have a negative impact. So you have to have that fine balance. Whether one day we move to a bigger venue that fits 60-70 brands, I don’t know. That’s one route I’m thinking in my head, but I don’t think we’re talking about hundreds of extra brands or a week-long type of affair.

TP: There has to be the curation of the brands, you don’t want to just say “Yes” to every brand coming along.

WI: But how difficult do you find that in reality? 

TP: It’s probably one of the biggest challenges.

ME: The demand is high for this year with brands, so it’s about selecting the ones that we know our readers and guests will engage with, and that we know will bring something to the show.

TP: Speaking in the office, we try and think about which brands are doing cool stuff, which brands are creating exciting watches. From a marketing perspective, we try to keep our finger on the pulse, in terms of what is cool. It’s difficult because there are all these different areas of watchmaking. You’ve got the high-end independents; you’ve got the small, agile micro brands, which seem to be democratising some crazy complications and unique materials; you’ve got the mid-tier, which are desirable in their own way. So, it’s really difficult to curate the show and keep brands that are interesting.

WI: As an independent media company, in some respects you can take a long-term view on things, as you’re not facing pressure from shareholders. On the other hand, as you said yourself, if you want to become a millionaire, don’t go into watch media! So in practice, how difficult is it to stay as true to your desire for a perfectly curated show as you’d like? I mean, everyone’s got a plan until they get punched in the face!

TP: To be honest, that’s where Mark and I benefit from having such a strong partnership. I am a little bit more of an idealist, and then Mark’s perhaps more of a realist, in terms of the sales figures and costs. It creates a nice balance.

WI: On the subject of your Yin and Yang partnership, how did it begin in the first place? What is it like to work with each other? What infuriates you about each other and what works really well?

TP: We met at work. We both worked in advertising sales for a now defunct publication and Mark was my boss back then, or sales manager. We felt like we were putting in a lot of graft, so we wanted to do it for ourselves and that’s what spawned Oracle Time. For the first four to five years we were finding our feet. However, over the past eight years we feel the product has really come into its own and we have built a great team.

In terms of our partnership, it works pretty well. The main thing is that we trust each other and trust each other’s judgement.

ME: We’ve got quite defined roles as well. Tom spearheads a lot of the creative side of the business: the content, the social media, the video content, all of those channels. And I’m more focused on the business and commercial side. So we don’t really clash over too many things.

TP: It’s also a benefit because we both have an understanding of those other areas. Although I’m editorially/creatively minded to some extent, I do have the experience of having worked in sales and knowing what it means to need to hit a target. Mark obviously is close to the creative side, so whether we’re shooting watches in the office or having editorial meetings, we’ll work closely on that as well. 

WI: Just touching briefly on Oracle Time, rather than the event, to what extent do you try to adapt to the modern media landscape? I’ve seen media companies that don’t embrace change at all, but I’ve also seen companies trying to be all things to all people, and before you know it they’ve lost the magic that was there.

TP: I think you’ve got to be constantly evolving, in terms of your processes. It’s understanding as well that we’re not experts on this, we’re only trying to figure it out like everyone else. It’s not something we really have managed to grasp completely. For me, the watch magazine, we want to keep that the same. We don’t want to mess with that format because we always have believed that a tangible print product fits beautifully with people that love collecting wristwatches. We don’t ever want to lose that, but we will leverage that publication using the platforms that we think are the most forward facing, whether that’s Instagram, or utilising new infrastructure in terms of how we’re taking subscriptions.

ME: What’s been really positive for me, and I’m sure Tom, over recent years is seeing the organic growth across all the platforms. The print magazine subscriptions and our memberships are going up year after year. We’ve got a really good team: our writers, social media team, content creators, photographers, videographers, the web developers – they’re all really good at what they do. And if you look at our stats across the board, whether it’s Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, or web stats, it’s all going in one direction.

WI: Finally, what date is this year’s event?

TP: The 13th of June 2026 is the date. We locked that in as early as we could.

ME: And the full brand roster should be online by the end of January, when we should be able to announce everything officially.