Ferreras Experiences · Barcelona 2026
Ferreras at the Barcelona International Boat Show 2026
Where time meets the sea.
Ferreras at the Barcelona International Boat Show: a new generation of independent watchmaking among great vessels, Mediterranean design and international eyes.
Ferreras Experiences · Barcelona 2026
Chapter I
Barcelona, the sea and time
The ports of the Mediterranean have a light of their own: low, crisp, slightly golden at the end of the afternoon, able to travel a white hull from bow to stern and return it to the water in long reflections. That light enveloped Barcelona’s Port Vell from 14 to 18 October 2026, during the International Boat Show.
Port Vell is the city’s old harbour, and the name says more than it seems. Barcelona has always understood itself facing the sea: from the medieval shipyards to today’s boatyards, from its commercial tradition to the design culture that defines so much of its identity. Few cities can bring architecture, craftsmanship and maritime life together on a single promenade with such ease.
Ferreras was born in that city and carries its character in its design. Its founder, Fernando Ferreras, conceived the brand as an independent watchmaking house: elegance without ostentation, limited production, quality mechanical movements and a Mediterranean identity that needs no explanation. “Time made art” is its philosophy; “elegance with character”, its motto.
Time, besides, means something different to those who live close to the sea. There it is measured in tides, in departure hours, in distances covered and in the wait for a good weather window. It is a practical time and at once a personal one: the time that organises a crossing, but also the time given to a conversation on deck or to an unhurried afternoon.
That double nature, instrument and experience, is exactly where watchmaking and the nautical world meet. And that is where Ferreras chose to be for five days.
Chapter II
An independent house on an international stage
The 2026 edition of the Barcelona International Boat Show (opens in a new tab), organised by Fira de Barcelona with the collaboration of the National Association of Nautical Businesses (ANEN), brought together at Port Vell 170 exhibitors, more than 300 brands and 226 vessels of every length. According to the show’s official summary (opens in a new tab), the Boat Show received 19,686 visitors over five days, with international attendance from 96 countries and more than 15% of visitors from abroad.
- 19,686
- visitors
- 96
- countries represented
- 170
- exhibitors
- +300
- brands represented
- 226
- vessels
- 15%+
- international visitors
Figures from the organiser’s official summary, referring to the Boat Show as a whole. They are not Ferreras results. Source: Official summary, 18 October 2026 (opens in a new tab).
International visitors came mainly from France, Italy, Germany, the United States and the United Kingdom. The programme included twenty Spanish shipyards, new areas devoted to sustainable innovation and the nautical lifestyle, and ten models nominated for European Boat of the Year. It was, in short, a stage of engineering and design on a grand scale.
On that stage, Ferreras arrived as what it is: an independent Spanish watchmaking house, with limited-production collections designed and assembled in Barcelona. It took part as an exhibitor, with a space of its own in the Port Vell setting, and with no sponsorship or affiliation with the show or with the other brands present.
The decision to attend did not follow a shop-window logic. A show of this scale allows something hard to achieve otherwise: meeting face to face people who share a sensibility for well-conceived objects. That is why the space was conceived as a welcoming, distinguished meeting point, geared to conversation and unhurried presentations, closer to a private salon than to a stand.
A watch is bought with the eyes, but chosen with trust: in whoever presents it, in whoever assembles it and in the story behind it. That trust is built better through conversation than through a catalogue.
Chapter III
Almirante, a piece with a maritime character
If the Ferreras space had a centre, it was the Almirante. The collection, limited to 100 numbered pieces, brings together the traits the house considers its own: a steel case, a gold-finished bezel, an integrated bracelet and an open heart on the dial that reveals part of the movement. It carries a phrase that sums up the piece: “Swiss Heart, Spanish Soul”.
That Swiss heart is a Sellita SW200 automatic movement, semi-skeleton, gold-finished, with an open heart, with 26 jewels in its core and a power reserve of approximately 38 hours. Choosing it was a matter of judgement: the technical foundation rests on a proven solution, while design, finishing and assembly receive all of the house’s attention. Each piece is hand-assembled in Barcelona by its master watchmaker, Diego Rispoli.
The Almirante’s maritime character does not lie in obvious symbols. There are no anchors or helms. It lies in the continuity between case and bracelet, which recalls the unbroken line of a hull; in the legibility of the dial; in a restrained elegance, designed to accompany a deck as well as a dinner by the harbour. The warm gold of the bezel, moreover, converses with the light of the coast.
Presenting it at Port Vell made sense because of that affinity, but above all for a practical reason: a watch must be seen on the wrist. During the Boat Show its prototype was presented, and visitors could discover it up close, judge its proportions and talk with its founder about each design decision. It was also there that the collection’s first private allocations were formalised.
Excellentia, a second expression of the house
Beside the Almirante, the space showed the Excellentia: one of the first expressions of Ferreras’s character, with an automatic mechanical open-heart movement and a classically inspired design, with Roman numerals and a black leather strap. Placed side by side, the two watches offered two readings of the same philosophy: watchmaking as an object chosen for what it says about its wearer, and not for the size of its name.
Chapter IV
Youth as the expression of a vision
One fact became evident from the very first moment: Ferreras was, by a wide margin, the youngest exhibitor at the entire show. Fernando Ferreras was 27 during the Boat Show, and his presence at the head of an independent watchmaking house stood out. It was no anecdote or minor circumstance, but the visible expression of a brand that has chosen to present itself from the outset with character, ambition and a clear vision of what it wants to build.
The context lends that difference even more meaning. An international boat show brings together prestigious shipyards, companies with decades of experience and brands that have turned excellence into a form of permanence. Arriving on that stage with a young house demands more than enthusiasm: it demands judgement, discipline and the composure needed to hold one’s own in an international conversation. The shark that identifies Ferreras stands for precisely that attitude: character to move forward, ambition to aspire to the very highest and a clear vision never to lose one’s course.
Ferreras has not come to occupy a space provisionally. We have come to stay; to turn every collection, every calibre and every encounter into a proof of consistency. Youth is not presented here as an excuse, but as a conscious energy: the will to learn from tradition, to work with rigour and to raise a distinct identity until the Spain brand is placed on the international map of independent watchmaking. That purpose takes time, but also resolve. And Ferreras has chosen to pursue it with its eyes on the long term, with the ambition that the house’s name be recognised beyond our borders for the quality of its pieces, the singularity of its design and the seriousness of its commitment.
“Tradition is not built by proclaiming it. It is built piece by piece, decision by decision.”
That vision has a long horizon and an international vocation. Building an independent watchmaking brand is not a seasonal project: it demands coherent collections, careful assembly, firm decisions and years of accumulated trust. That is why Ferreras presents itself with the sobriety of one who knows the distance still to travel, but also with the assurance of one who has resolved to travel it to the end. Each piece is a statement of intent; each appearance, an opportunity to show that Spanish watchmaking can converse as an equal with the great houses of the world.
If Spanish watchmaking is to renew itself, it will do so like this: with houses that respect the craft, practise it with rigour and dare to speak with a voice of their own.
Chapter V
From Barcelona to Doha: a vision that draws international interest
Among the most significant visits to the Boat Show was that of a television crew. Fernando Ferreras was interviewed during the show for Marine Magazine, a programme of Alkass Channel (opens in a new tab), the channel group based in Doha, Qatar.
Who Alkass Channel is and what Marine Magazine is
Alkass Channel was founded in 2006, operates eight channels and broadcasts across the Middle East and North Africa, according to the official sources of the group itself and of the State of Qatar. Its programming is mainly sports, and within that framework sits Marine Magazine, a slot devoted to international water-sports shows, yachts and boat equipment.
That an independent watchmaking house from Barcelona should attract the interest of a television crew specialised in the nautical world has a strategic value that does not depend on a figure. It places Ferreras before an audience interested in the sea, yachts and the sector’s shows, and confirms that the relationship between watchmaking and the nautical world is not merely an idea of the house.
What the interview is and what we do not yet know
It is worth stating the limits. The interview forms part of the press coverage of the show; it implies no sponsorship or commercial collaboration between Ferreras and the group. Alkass Channel’s coverage area is broad, but the real reach of this interview has not yet been quantified and its broadcast date has not been confirmed. Once publishable material exists and the rights have been confirmed, it will be added to this page.
It was not the only sign of interest. Other media and communication teams approached the Ferreras space during the Boat Show. The house prefers to speak of them once there is something published to link to.
Chapter VI
The value of encounters
The philosophy of the Ferreras space was simple: present the pieces calmly. Open cases, a pair of presentation gloves, a box of watchmaking components and some tweezers, a table and time to talk. Nothing that would interrupt the conversation.
The visitors came from varied backgrounds: watch enthusiasts, industry professionals, contacts from the business and nautical worlds, people passing by out of curiosity. The conversation often began with the object. How it weighs, how the bracelet articulates, what is seen through the open heart, why one gold finish and not another.
Trying on a watch is an essential part of the decision. Photographs inform, but they do not replace the experience of seeing how a case sits on the wrist, how the bracelet moves or how the dial changes with the harbour light. That light, at that hour, is hard to reproduce in a studio.
It is a way of understanding presentation that moves away from impersonal selling. What is sought is that whoever takes a watch home knows its story and the people who made it possible.
At the close of the show, the outcome was discreet and satisfying: the first private allocations of the Almirante were formalised and an Excellentia piece found its owner. But what Ferreras values most about the Boat Show are the conversations: the contacts with enthusiasts, businesspeople and professionals of the nautical sector with whom the dialogue can continue.
Other occasions of the house, on land and at sea, can be found in the archive of Ferreras Experiences.
Chapter VII
Watchmaking and the nautical world: two disciplines, one sensibility
Precision as a way of finding one’s bearings
For centuries, knowing the time at sea was a matter of safety, not comfort. A navigator could calculate latitude by observing the sun, but longitude required knowing exactly the time at a reference place and comparing it with local time. A few minutes’ deviation on the clock could translate into dozens of miles of error in position.
That demand drove, throughout the eighteenth century, the development of the marine chronometer, whose most cited example is the work of the English watchmaker John Harrison. Navigation and precision watchmaking grew, to a large extent, together.
From the marine chronometer to the wristwatch
It is wise not to confuse eras or functions. A marine chronometer was a navigation instrument, housed in a box and mounted on gimbals so that the ship’s motion would not disturb its rate. The watches Ferreras assembles today are mechanical wristwatches for personal use; they are not marine chronometers and do not pretend to replace them. What they inherit is an attitude: treating time as something to be measured with rigour and understanding a mechanical movement as a small work of engineering.
Industrial design: hulls and cases
A yacht and a watch seem distant objects, yet they share design problems. Both must resolve the relationship between form and function, work with materials that withstand use, hide considerable technical complexity beneath a serene surface and age well. The lines of a well-drawn hull and those of a well-proportioned case obey the same discipline: removing the accessory until what remains is necessary.
The aesthetic language of nautical-inspired watches, with legible dials, robust cases and metal bracelets, is born of that functional sobriety. It is the terrain in which the Almirante moves, and also the one that explains why a watch of this kind feels at home on a deck.
The Mediterranean, discretion and personal expression
The Mediterranean has its own way of understanding luxury: closer to lightness than to ostentation, more interested in the quality of materials than in displaying them. In that realm, a luxury object works as a form of personal expression that is recognised without being announced. It is noticed on the wrist of whoever wears it, sometimes only when one is close. It is the discretion that Ferreras sums up in its motto.
Collectors and shipowners
Those who own and command vessels tend to appreciate well-resolved objects: engines, instruments, fittings, woods. They share with watch collectors a curiosity about how: how it is made, who made it, how long it took. It is a natural affinity, not a commercial promise. Not every boating enthusiast collects watches or vice versa, but both worlds immediately recognise the value of a well-made detail.
Limited, numbered editions such as the Almirante and the Excellentia speak to that sensibility. Each piece has a number, and each number, a story.
Chapter VIII
An identity that continues to take shape
Barcelona was the origin; watchmaking, the language; internationalisation, the horizon. That might sum up Ferreras’s journey to this Boat Show, and the one it wishes to follow.
It was not its first encounter with the nautical world: it had already presented the Almirante at the Port of Blanes. Taking part at Port Vell reinforced the house’s interest in that universe and in building relationships with international clients. Ferreras wishes to keep forging ties with shipowners, businesspeople, industry professionals and people who share that sensibility. There are no agreements to announce; there is a will and a path, to be travelled with the same patience with which a watch is assembled.
In that direction sits Ferreras Atelier, the house’s creative arm, open to selected private projects: unique pieces and private editions conceived with whoever commissions them, always within what the craft makes possible.
The essential does not change. A house is known by its pieces, its aesthetic judgement and the quality of its relationships, and all three are built slowly. Ferreras aspires to this without haste and without renouncing ambition.
The Barcelona International Boat Show was not merely a stage on which to present our watches. It was an opportunity to share the vision that inspires them.
Because time, like the sea, takes on a different dimension when it is lived with character.
Ferreras · Barcelona
Time made art.
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Two ways to continue: the collection that presided over the Port Vell space and the house’s creative arm.
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