The Business of Watches Podcast: The Organizers Behind The Escapement In Las Vegas And Why They Think It’s Time For A New Kind Of Watch Show

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Is there room for another watch show? Is there demand? Is Las Vegas the ideal place to bring thousands of watch collectors together for a weekend of horological-themed fun, discussion, and entertainment?

The folks behind The Escapement are saying an emphatic yes to all of the above. They’re putting on a new watch event in Las Vegas in 2027 running February 5-7, and they believe collectors and enthusiasts are primed for a fresh, in-depth, and upgraded take on the watch meetup.

Texas-based Neeshu Hajra is an enthusiastic watch collector who has decades of experience in the events business. Now located in the Middle East, Faheem Khan spent most of his career in the energy industry in London and now writes and curates the popular watch-, philosophy-, and psychology-driven Substack blog ScrewDownCrown. He’s also the irreverent voice behind @kingflum on Instagram. Together, they’re planning and organizing The Escapement with help from a few other big names in the industry that we dive into during the episode.

We discuss what makes meetups work and why they had to pull plans to hold the inaugural edition of the event in Abu Dhabi and move to a more conventional location in Vegas, where they hope to attract some 5,000 general admission ticket buyers and 750 VIP ticket clients.

There’s been some skepticism from industry naysayers as to the need and potential of the event. WatchPro’s editor said the original gathering planned for Abu Dhabi gave him “Fyre Festival vibes,” recalling the island music and entertainment party promoted by social media influencers that was the subject of dueling documentaries on Netflix and Hulu detailing its troubled outcome.

During a wide-ranging interview, Hajra and Khan tell us how they’re staging and financing this first show and why they believe the event, with industry notables including Rexhep Rexhepi and Eric Ku slated to speak and with brands attending ranging from Atelier Wen to Biver to Daniel Roth to Greubel Forsey to Lang & Heyne and Ming, will tell brand stories in a fresh new way, making the event a success with further editions for years to come.

There’s plenty of watch business and strategy to discuss, and we hope you enjoy the conversation. Please leave any thoughts or questions in the comments section, and we’ll do our best to respond. Want to subscribe so you never miss an episode? This show is published to the original Hodinkee Podcasts feed, so you can subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or TuneIn.