No Baselworld – What’s Next For Watch Events?

Discussing the subject of COVID-19, and its impact on Baselworld and the watch industry’s biggest shows!

March 30, 2020

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Today, Anna dives into the subject of COVID-19, and its impact on the watch industry’s biggest shows!

Baselworld 2020 and Watches & Wonders (formerly SIHH) have both been cancelled this year. Rolex, Patek, AP, and other huge brands have closed up shop for the foreseeable future. We know all of this pretty well by now. But what does it mean?

Well, let’s consider the shows themselves for a minute. First and foremost, most fans of these brands (and eligible clients) don’t even get to attend because they’re held in freakin’ Switzerland, not a cheap or convenient trip to make for what amounts to a day or two of being squeezed into a booth with a couple dozen other people, many of whom brands will prioritize for publication purposes, and it’s a bit disconcerting to say the least. Then there’s the issue of the end goal of the shows now – to push content to publications who, in 2020, publish almost exclusively online and on social media anyway. Catching the issue here yet?

So what do brands do with the shows out of the way? It’s simple, really — they consider the shows to be the middle man, and they cut them out completely. They jump right into partnering directly with digital media producers (like us) and put together events that really meet the needs of their core and often ignored base of consumers.