FHH Academy Partners with GIA to Offer In-Person Watch Education in the U.S.

The FHH Academy, created by the Foundation Haute Horlogerie in 2014, offers online courses on watch fundamentals, culture, heritage, and technical topics. The program is available in 11 languages and reaches participants across roughly 20 countries, with a mix of entirely online content and select in-person offerings at FHH's Geneva headquarters.

FHH announced a partnership with the Gemological Institute of America (GIA), a long-established authority in gemology founded in 1931 that operates campuses and training programs worldwide. The collaboration enables FHH to run an in-person pilot program at GIA's flagship campus in Carlsbad, California. According to the announcement, this is the first time GIA has allowed outside trainers to teach on its campuses.

The partnership expands FHH's ability to deliver face-to-face training in the United States, an influential market for watches. It also opens an educational bridge between the watch industry and the jewelry trade, giving jewelry professionals—such as those working in auction houses and luxury retail—direct access to structured horology education. For FHH, the move follows a pattern of increasing activity in the U.S. through events and outreach.

• Location and audience: The pilot at GIA Carlsbad gives FHH a physical foothold in the U.S. and access to GIA's student and professional networks. That includes people already building careers in gems and jewelry who may want formal horology training.

• Instructional model: Historically, the FHH Academy's distinguishing feature has been its online, multilingual curriculum. This agreement introduces a new hybrid element by combining online offerings with certified in-person sessions at an established educational institution.

• Institutional first: GIA's decision to host external trainers is presented as unprecedented for the institute. That change could make GIA a venue for cross-disciplinary training beyond its traditional gemology focus.

Pascal Ravessoud, Vice President of the FHH, described the collaboration as an experiment and framed it as part of the FHH's strategy to expand who hears about watches and where horology education is delivered. He emphasized reaching audiences outside the immediate watch ecosystem.

The announcement describes a pilot program but does not specify course titles, schedules, enrollment procedures, or certification outcomes tied to the GIA-hosted sessions. It also does not detail whether the arrangement will extend to other GIA campuses internationally.

The FHH–GIA partnership adapts the FHH Academy's established online curriculum into an in-person pilot at GIA's Carlsbad campus. The move targets U.S. expansion and aims to connect watch education with jewelry-industry professionals, using a respected educational venue that has not previously hosted outside trainers.