Editor’s Note
The cancellation of Baselworld 2020 marks a pivotal moment for the watch industry. As major brands forge new alliances and events, this article explores the end of an era and the uncertain future of traditional trade fairs.
It wasn’t long ago that a watch world without Baselworld would have been unimaginable. Not that everything had always run smoothly since the first fair in 1917—quite the contrary. Yet, Basel was always a fixed point in the industry’s calendar every spring. Until this year, when the event was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic, and subsequently, in April, the big players Rolex, Patek Philippe, Chanel, Chopard, and Tudor announced a joint fair to run parallel to Watches & Wonders in 2021, bidding farewell to Basel. Baselworld, on the other hand, will not take place in 2021 either, perhaps never again. It would be the end of an institution. How did it come to this?
In 1917, it first opened its doors as the “Mustermesse Basel” (MUBA). Among many other exhibitors, 29 watch manufacturers also presented their timepieces. In the 1920s, the first collective exhibition of several watch manufacturers took place, whose success henceforth demanded emphasis. Therefore, in 1931, as part of the MUBA, the first “Swiss Watch Fair” with 70 exhibitors took the stage. Since then, the annual event belonged to the watch scene. Only the name and admission criteria changed with almost beautiful regularity. As a city without chronometric significance, Basel was almost predestined for a fair of this kind. Here, it took place on neutral territory.
Over time, manufacturers from Germany and France got involved. After the MUBA denied them entry, they had to lure buyers to nearby hotels. Because such discriminatory behavior did not suit an industry that sold the majority of its production outside its own borders, there was no way around opening up. In 1972, the access conditions for European countries were defined. Still in the same year, Germany, France, Italy, and Great Britain gave the MUBA an international flair.
The first harbinger of a problem that would lead to the final break 30 years later reached the fair in 1987 with the departure of the SMH Group (Omega, Longines, Tissot, Swatch…). The powerful Biel-based corporation possibly wanted to test more successful marketing forms. This, in turn, led to a closer alliance among the remaining exhibitors.
invited Alain-Dominique Perrin for April 17, 1991, to Geneva. The occasion was the first Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie (SIHH), where Baume & Mercier, Cartier, Piaget, Gérald Genta, and Daniel Roth presented their novelties. As the reason for the departure from Basel, the then Cartier president cited the necessity to provide a worthy setting for exclusive luxury products. And success proved him right. After two years of transition, the complete withdrawal from Basel took place in 1993. The space freed up there was promptly occupied again by SMH. Omega, the group’s leading brand, occupied Cartier’s spot.
In 1995, when more than 200 exhibitors gathered in Basel for the first time, the spring event received the name “Basel 95 – World Watch and Jewellery Fair”. Another blow came in 1999 with the farewell of Audemars Piguet, Breguet, and—for the first time—Girard-Perregaux. Basel, however, impressed with the new building, formally stamped out of the ground within twelve months for around 170 million Swiss francs. In 2000, IWC, Jaeger-LeCoultre, and A. Lange & Söhne gave their farewell performance in Basel. After the takeover by Richemont, the new fair home was logically called Geneva.
After that, Baselworld initially knew only one direction: upwards, with the number of exhibitors and also the turnover. Although exhibitors here and there rebelled against the behavior of the fair management perceived as arrogant and threatened to leave, apparently nothing could cloud the Basel waters.
At least until 2018. Then, Baselworld was once again marked by a frightening erosion of exhibitors. Girard-Perregaux, Hermès, and Ulysse Nardin had migrated to the Geneva SIHH. On the Rhine, the number of exhibitors thus shrank by about 50 percent—to 650.