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Watch Snob on the Death of Trade Shows

The end of the year is upon us and at such moments, it behooves us perhaps to look at the year gone by, and reflect on the trials and tribulations which have afflicted the watch industry, as well as some of its triumphs.

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In terms of the watch industry as a business, perhaps the most striking development has been the crisis surrounding watch industry trade shows. The first version of Baselworld, the Schweizer Mustermesse Basel, took place all the way back in 1917 and in its heyday it was the trade show for the watch and jewelry industry. Even after the departure of Cartier and some other high end brands to the Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie, which began in 1991, it remained for some time by far the most significant of the two shows, anchored by the participation of Rolex, Patek Philippe, the LVMH Group brands and literally hundreds of others.

Sic transit gloria. Baselworld is now a shadow of its former self. Rolex, Patek Philippe, Chopard and a number of other major brands still participate, but the entire Swatch Group pulled out in 2018, leaving an enormous void — both physical and psychic — at the very center of the main exhibition hall. This year, Seiko and Grand Seiko have both said that they will not return to the show in 2020, and other exhibitors have been leaving in droves as well, including Hermes and Breitling.

Not all is well with the SIHH, either. The Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie is, in fact, no more. Instead, it has been renamed Watches And Wonders Geneva, and from what one hears, there will be a concerted attempt on the part of the organizers to make the Salon — or whatever we are now to call it — into something entirely more engaging for consumers. However even here there are signs of discontent — long-time participant Audemars Piguet will no longer be present, and that most elevated of makers of highly complicated tourbillons, Greubel Forsey, will not participate in 2020 as well.

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There are vague murmurings from both Baselworld and Watches And Wonders that henceforward, it is the customer that should be king, and that increasingly, the shows must not only address the needs of retailers, but also the interests of those who actually buy watches. This is a reflection of a deeper and more profound change in how the industry does business. It is worth remembering that for most of its history, the watch industry did not sell watches directly to consumers; instead, it sold watches through a worldwide network of retailers, of dizzying and Byzantime complexity. Over the last twenty years, however, we have seen many brands gradually abandon this time-honored system and increasingly, direct sales to clients online, and single-brand, brand-owned boutiques, have begun to displace the traditional retail networks.

We now have a situation where instead of two trade shows, there are a number of smaller events — the Swatch Group luxury brands have their own presentations, in Zurich; Grand Seiko will be doing its own presentations in Japan; Breitling and others, including Greubel Forsey, simply do their own world tours to present new products, and many brands have been very open about the unnecessarily high cost of the shows. Equally vocal are many of the journalists, who especially decry the high costs of attendance (it is not unusual in Basel, during the shows, to find hotels and restaurants tripling their prices; nothing says Welcome To Switzerland like good old naked price gouging).

Now, the real question is, what difference will all this make to watch enthusiasts?

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The answer I think, at least for now, is “very little.” Those of us who love watches pay little attention to the shows as shows. They are relevant only because they affect the timing of new product announcements and as the entire industry is beginning, very belatedly, to realize, you needn’t spend millions on a booth at a trade show to announce new products. Even if you believe that it is essential for people to be able to see watches in person, this can be done at a fraction of the cost simply by bringing them to various markets, rather than getting robbed by a trade show once a year; moreover, you need not compete with hundreds of other brands for attention.

It is both hilarious, and rather sad, to see just how out of touch the trade shows and their organizers have become. The world has moved on – and the notion that things can somehow be salvaged with unclear mutterings about becoming more consumer focused give no assurance that Baselworld, Watches And Wonders and the like, can ever recover. These shows for most of their history, specifically rejected the notion of being exposed to the public, for them to somehow miraculously, and in mere months, develop trust with consumers and also the habits necessary to communicate well, is laughable. I am sorry to say so but there it is.

I would be delighted to be proven wrong. I have looked forward to both shows for many years and wish them no ill. But the gravity of their dilemma, is something that they appear to have recognized very late in the game. Nothing, perhaps, makes this clearer than the fact that were the shows to vanish tomorrow, consumers would barely notice — if they noticed at all.

Send the Watch Snob your questions at editorial@askmen.com or ask him a question on the @AskMen Instagram with the #AskMenWatchSnob hashtag.

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Watch Snob, Khareem Sudlow