Editor’s Note
The cancellation of Baselworld 2021 marks a historic break in a tradition dating back over a century, underscoring how the pandemic has accelerated profound shifts within the watch industry. This article examines the fair’s decline and the changing landscape of global watch exhibitions.
For the first time since 1917, there will be no watch fair in Basel in 2021. Even the war had not led to its suspension, but the Covid-19 epidemic has accelerated its decline. In 2016, the Baselworld fair welcomed over 145,000 visitors from a hundred different countries for its centenary edition and brought together 1,500 brands. In 2021, it will simply not take place. Its slow loss of momentum has been accelerated by the coronavirus crisis, to the benefit of Geneva, which will host many of the world’s greatest watchmaking houses next February.
It was actually only in 1973 that the first “European Watch and Jewellery Fair” took place in Basel, renamed over the years to “World Watch and Jewellery Show” and then “Baselworld, The Watch and Jewellery Show”, as befits a luxury target. But it is precisely luxury that has ended up leaving the city. After announcing the postponement of its 2020 edition to January 2021 due to the pandemic, MCH Group, its organizer, has not found the magic formula to compensate for the recently announced departure of its core elite exhibitors from Hall 1, the heart of luxury watchmaking: after the departure of the Swatch Group, then of major names such as Hermès or Dior, it was in recent weeks that Rolex, Patek Philippe, Tudor and Chopard, quickly followed by the quartet of brands from the LVMH group (Bulgari, Zenith, Hublot, TAG Heuer), announced they would regroup in Geneva, alongside the thirty or so renowned exhibitors from the other major annual Swiss watch event, Watches & Wonders (formerly the Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie), also cancelled in April 2020.
Michel Loris-Melikoff, head of Baselworld, says he is “working with exhibitors and visitors to clarify and lay the foundations and options for new platforms.” The century-old fair is therefore not yet definitively a thing of the past.
Indeed, while Geneva will now host many renowned manufacturers in February 2021, many major brands and independent watch companies now find themselves deprived of visibility to customers and watch enthusiasts in 2021, such as Chanel, Bell & Ross, Oris, Frédérique Constant, but also the giants of Japanese watchmaking that are Seiko, Citizen or Casio.
