This week, the bad news for Baselworld just keeps rolling in. LVMH’s watch brands have officially announced that they will be leaving the fair and will instead likely show their products in Geneva alongside brands like Rolex, Patek Philippe, and the participants in Watches & Wonders Geneva, in April 2021.
It’s hard to believe that it was only this past Tuesday when Rolex, Patek Philippe, Tudor, Chanel, and Chopard announced their departure from Baselworld. Part of that announcement was that the five brands will be showing their products in April 2021 at a new watch fair, organized in partnership with the Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie (FHH), to run concurrently or adjacent to Watches & Wonders Geneva (formerly know around these parts at SIHH). In our HODINKEE Radio first take on the news, we speculated that the fate of Baselworld might be in the hands of LVMH, who could either depart altogether or take control of the show. It appears that they’ve made their decision. After Tuesday’s news, Baselworld’s organizers quickly responded to the brands – we will keep you updated if such a response is released fake Patek Philippe
It’s worth noting here that Bulgari had already pulled out of the 2020 edition of Baselworld, and we reported on the move back in February. At the time, LVMH’s constituent brands seemed to have different approaches. Bulgari withdrew citing both the then-nascent COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting impacts on world travel, as well as their own success at LVMH’s new Dubai-based event that had just taken place in January. At the same time, Stéphane Bianchi, TAG Heuer CEO and president of LVMH’s watch division, emphasized the brands’ commitment to Baselworld in a statement released by the fair, saying, “The Watchmaking Division remains committed to Baselworld in 2020. We believe in the importance of a major event for the Swiss watch industry and look replica watches uk forward to a successful fair, both in terms of image and sales, for our three Maisons.” So what changed?
