All Tomorrow's Parties

When exhibitions and parties are possible once more, the watchmaking shows will take on very different flavours. We take a look at how we arrived at this state of affairs

- Ashok Soman

Even before the trade wars began and COVID-19 confined us all to our homes, watchmaking was already confronting multiple crises. BaselWorld is now history, but the world’s biggest and most important trade fair is not simply retiring gracefully. Swatch Group struck a mortal blow when it pulled out, staging its own show last year, then a few other brands pulled the plug. Although the fair plodded along last year, the decision by the world’s largest watchmaking group deserves credit for getting pundits, journalists and brand executives to ask if we really need BaselWorld.

The answer is yes we do, but we deserve a better fair. That is an answer everyone can get behind. Historically, multiple WOW editors have extolled the virtues of BaselWorld, giving it its due as the biggest and grandest watch fair. I have now done so twice in the span of two scant paragraphs. Since 2013 though, calls for a “better” fair began to gain traction.

Of course, “better” is open to interpretation and there are certainly outliers who feel watch fairs are irrelevant in the digital age. For the purposes of this story, we will focus here on what “better” means, as far as the brands, the Foundation Haute Horlogerie (FHH) and BaselWorld organiser MCH Group are concerned.