Thomas E. Kern and Patrick Graf, the CEO and Commercial Senior Vice President respectively of Zurich Airport presented the plans for the planned international trading centre, which will be located near Zurich Airport. With its 180,000 square metres of floor space, it will become a focal point for business and lifestyle when it opens in 2018.

Mr. Hayek welcomed the media to the Swatch Lab, an historic building in the heart of Zurich just off Bahnhofstrasse. Some of Swatch’s designers work at the Lab, which also offers an ideal location for special displays and presentations.

Mr Kern talked about The Circle project and showed a short video about its planned development and explained how the space will be used when it opens in 2018. He said that The Circle would not be an ordinary piece of real estate but a “space with true international radiance.” The Airport will, with the addition of The Circle, create Zurich’s second centre with places to eat, shop and stay as well as a conference centre that will accommodate up to 2,300 people.

Stephen Urquhart described OMEGA's future presence at The Circle. He said that the brand’s space there will be used to highlight its innovations and presented a short film showing some of the technological and material breakthroughs that have been introduced by OMEGA in recent years, including the first truly anti-magnetic watch movement, which powers the brand's Master Co-Axial calibres. OMEGA, said Mr. Urquhart, is excited about being part of the enterprising project. “It will be a fantastic platform for our brand and will give us an ideal place to show our latest innovations and our most interesting projects.”

Mr. Hayek then talked about the Swatch Group’s ambition to use the space to introduce the more than sixty professions available in the watchmaking industry. He said, “We would like to use this destination to show young people visiting the airport that they don’t only have to dream about being pilots. They can ask themselves, ‘What other professions are there? What does it mean to be a watchmaker?’” He pointed out that his industry offers a full range of career options for university graduates but also for apprentices. “The strength of our industry and the professions it offers are a fantastic message and this is what we would like to communicate at The Circle.”