Intersect NYC 2026: Inside the Independent Watch Gathering in New York

by Brent Robillard

Watches in the Big Apple

Last Friday my wife and I traded gravel roads for gridlines—country mouse goes city mouse. Six hours door to door from rural Eastern Ontario to Weehawken, New Jersey. We checked into the Sheraton Lincoln Harbor, dropped our bags, and within minutes were hustling toward the Midtown West 39th Street ferry. Eight minutes across the Hudson and suddenly Manhattan rose up in front of us like a movie set.

Our destination wasn’t Times Square or a Broadway marquee. It was The Willow Room at The Wilson.

For a few hours that evening, it felt like the centre of the watch world.

An enthusiast at Intersect New York gets hands on with the Strat-o-timer GMT Frontier from Jack Mason — Enthusiasts check out the wares at Intersect New York @calibre321

Friends filtered in from the US, France, Singapore, and England. They also came from Norway and Sweden and all parts in between—brand owners, reps, designers, founders. Most had been in the city less than 24 hours, yet had already crisscrossed Manhattan for meetings with ADs and stops like the newly opened Time + Tide Discovery Studio in SoHo. But in the low light of the bar, with glasses clinking and watches sliding across tabletops, the pace softened. It felt less like business and more like reunion.

Canadian watchmaker Alexandre Beauregard once told me, “The watch adventure is a human adventure.” He was right. You don’t need six degrees of separation in this world. You might not even need two.

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Intersect NYC

That warmth carried straight into Saturday at Lavan Midtown, where Intersect NYC made its long-awaited New York debut.

Intersect—founded by Wes Kwok (Nodus), Markus Walchi (Formex), and Peter Cho (Jack Mason)—has never really behaved like a traditional watch fair. What began in Los Angeles in 2021 as a laid-back end-of-year meetup has grown into a multi-city series spanning Austin, Atlanta, Charlotte, and now New York, with a nimble roadshow format hitting Columbus, Chicago, and Detroit. And yet, the spirit hasn’t changed.

“It doesn’t really feel like a show,” Kwok told me. “We’re just kind of hanging out. It’s more like a watch party than anything.”

He wasn’t exaggerating.

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Collaborative by design

More than a thousand enthusiasts drifted easily between tables, handling pieces typically sold direct-to-consumer and speaking directly with the people who designed them. No velvet ropes. No appointments. Just conversation. The barrier between brand and collector felt intentionally thin.

Walchi summed it up with refreshing honesty: “It’s fun. Being able to collaborate with other brands, becoming friends—that’s really the reason why we do this.” In an industry that can sometimes feel fiercely competitive, Intersect feels collaborative by design.

Intersect co-founder, Peter Cho, of Jack Mason Brand speaks with an enthusiast @calibre321

Wes Kwok cofounder of Intersect and Nodus Watches — Intersect co-founders Wes Kwok (Nodus) and Markus Walchi (Formex) @calibre321

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Cho reinforced that point. Large trade shows can be prohibitively expensive, especially for younger independents. Intersect was built as an alternative—a shared-cost platform where emerging brands stand shoulder to shoulder with more established names. “It’s truly a collaborative effort,” he said.

And you could feel it.

Mike Pearson of Christopher Ward London speaks with watch enthusiasts at Intersect New York — Heated discussions with Mike Pearson, Global Brand Director for Christopher Ward @calibre321

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We’re in this together

The gatherings the night before and after the show mattered just as much as the exhibition itself. Relationships were being formed and strengthened in real time. Releases were discussed, sure—but so were kids, travel delays, shared suppliers, and mutual headaches. It was business, yes. But it was also community.

As Guy Allen of Elliot Brown put it, “We’re in this together. A rising tide lifts all boats.”

Intersect is growing. New cities. Bigger rooms. Larger crowds.

But its real strength lies in staying small where it counts—in conversation, in access, and in that unmistakable sense that, for one weekend in New York, the watch world felt less like an industry and more like a family reunion.