Baselworld, the biggest watch and jewelry show in Switzerland was supposed to take place at the end of April – beginning of May. InCompany by Attire Club was once again an official media partner.
Photo: Attire Club
The show had struggled over the last years with attendance, both from clients and brands and now, under the new management, was working hard to win back the hearts of the people from the watch community.
Over the last months, the fair announced many improvements that were being implemented with the goal of offering both brands and visitors a great experience.
Recently, as the news about the new Covid-19 fears spread around the world, the Swiss authorities announced that no public event with over 1000 attendees could take place until March 15th. Even so, the Watch and Wonders fair in Geneva (formerly known as the Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie) announced that it would cancel its 2020 edition, which was scheduled to take place just before the show in Basel. The Geneva Motor Show was also canceled.
Baselworld also announced that it would postpone the show for January 2021.
A statement from the show read:
“For health safety reasons and in accordance with the precautionary principle following the bans of large-scale public and private events issued today by the Swiss federal and cantonal authorities, Baselworld announces that it has taken the decision to postpone the show to Thursday 28th January 2021 to Tuesday 2nd February 2021 (Press Day on Wednesday 27th January), due to concerns related to Covid-19.
Baselworld, which was to be held from April 30th to May 5th, 2020, has taken this difficult decision in close consultation with its partners and the health authorities in charge, in whom Baselworld has full confidence for their expertise and recommendations for the benefit of exhibitors, visitors and collaborators. Following today’s official ban on large public gatherings which meant direct repercussions for the show, Baselworld had no other option than to make a decision as all preparations, in particular, construction in the halls and of the stands was scheduled to commence next week (start March).
Michel Loris-Melikoff, Managing Director of Baselworld said: ‘We deeply regret having had to postpone the event as planned due to the coronavirus, in full consideration of the needs of the watch and jewellery industry to be able to benefit from the platform to develop their business. This decision has been all the more difficult in view of all the positives that have been achieved through listening and dialogue over the last few months, which resulted in new concepts and new solutions, that have attracted exhibitors to return and new ones to sign on. We registered encouraging growth in all sectors; watchmaking, jewellery, the gemstone and pearl trade, as well as in the technical branch.
By postponing the show to January 2021, we have found a solution that enables the industry and all our customers to avoid losing a full year and at the same time reset their calendars for the beginning of the year, a period that is conductive to the presentation of their new products, new trends and order taking. This postponing will also allow Baselworld to continue developing and bringing new formats and solutions as well as improvements to the new concept we propose.’
Bernd Stadlwieser, Group CEO of MCH said: ‘Within the process of the last weeks, I was very impressed by the involvement and trust of all our customers, partners, stakeholders and team, to pro-actively find the very best solution in the interests of the industries. By communicating intensively all together, we were able to work on different scenarios and to jointly decide on the very best one. I would like to thank everybody for their belief in and commitment to our platform.”
While it is a bit of a bummer that BW won’t take place in 2020, everyone does understand that safety must come first. It would have been interesting to see the new changes that the organizers were preparing, but now we’re going to look forward to the 2021 edition, which will have a lot to measure up to.
Fraquoh and Franchomme
P.S. What do you make of the BW cancelation? Which endeavor were you most looking for? Why? Share your feedback, questions or thoughts in the comments below! For more articles on style, fashion tips and cultural insights, you can subscribe to Attire Club via e-mail or follow us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram!