Time check
The departure of Swatch Group from Baselworld; New structure at the LVMH watch division; Hu Bing as Corum’s new face and Daniel Craig starring in Omega’s new campaign
The Swiss watch industry may move at a glacial pace, but it isn’t immune to occasional upheavals like the recently announced departure of the Swatch Group from Baselworld, effective 2019.
For the longest time, the industry has organised itself around two annual trade shows: SIHH and Baselworld. Exhibiting brands will present their novelties for the year, retailers will order these new timepieces for their respective markets, and journalists will plan their coverage accordingly. It’s convenient, and the shows are crucial in setting the tone and expectations for the rest of the year.
Changes have been afoot though, and this paradigm is breaking down. A slow market prompted the ostensibly exclusive SIHH to bring additional brands on board in 2016 and 2017, while also opening its doors to the public for the first time last year.
The show will also end a day early from 2019 in response to lower attendance. Meanwhile, Baselworld saw its number of exhibitors halved from 2017 to 2018. The withdrawal of the
Swatch Group (its largest exhibitor) has dealt yet another blow, albeit one that’s widely hailed as a reckoning ‒ Baselworld’s management has long been criticised for price gouging and poor infrastructural support.
The writing’s on the wall: SIHH and Baselworld are losing their relevance. The reasons are manifold, and chief among them is the issue of costs vis-à-vis returns. Case in point: the Swatch Group’s 18 brands had a total budget of CHF50 million for Baselworld, which runs for barely a week. Brands are now seeking alternatives with better returns. Breitling, for instance, held a series of regional events around the world to unveil its novelties instead, effectively relegating Baselworld to a formality that it can soon do away with.
The changing communications landscape hasn’t helped either, what with Twittered attention spans and brands’ desire for maximum oomph with every release. Initially, some brands got the drop on the competition by offering pre-SIHH and pre-Baselworld “previews”. Once everyone started doing this, however, any competitive advantage was lost. So, brands are now moving towards staggering their releases over the course of the year. With less to present at SIHH/Baselworld, why bother exhibiting there at all?
Neither SIHH nor Baselworld is an institution that’s too big to fail, or some sacred cow that mustn’t be slaughtered. What, then?