Sadly, the 2021 watch vintage is already starting to look furiously like 2020. A year of pandemic during which the two biggest watch shows in Switzerland and the world, Watches & Wonders (ex SIHH) and Baselworld, will have had to be canceled.
Shortly after, it was the factories' turn to close their doors to protect their staff from the coronavirus.
And tomorrow?
No one knows exactly when we will be able to consider this health crisis as behind us.
This is why, due to these uncertainties linked to the health context, the Watches and Wonders Geneva Exhibitors' Committee has already taken the decision to
"cancel the physical edition of the show scheduled for April 7 to 13, 2021. . "
Instead, everything will therefore take place online on the watchesandwonders.com platform in order to allow participating Houses to unveil their watch creations of the year.
While the world of salons was already in difficulty, forced to reinvent itself even before the pandemic, it could well end up causing their definitive disappearance, to the grudge of watch brands, their dealers and aficionados.
To read also:
The great watchmaking salons, endangered species?
50 watchmaking houses on a 100ù digital platform
In parallel with this Watches and Wonders Geneva 2021, four legendary houses had also decided to leave the aisles of the Basel show to approach it and to create their own show, in a way, also on the Palexpo site.
Alas, because of this cancellation of the physical edition, Chopard, Rolex, Tudor and Patek Philippe should probably not organize anything in the spring of 2021. “This decision, taken in close consultation with the main players,
appears to be the most responsible in view of the current health context and the uncertainties associated with its development, ”
explains the Watches & Wonders side.
Read also:
Baselworld, the world's largest watchmaking fair, throws in the towel for 2021
As a result of the crisis, the world of Swiss Made had been tearing each other apart for months to find out who would exhibit its new products at what time and in which Swiss city.
This is undoubtedly why the Exhibitors' Committee of the canceled Geneva event
"wishes to invite other Houses, making this digital edition the essential watchmaking event of the year 2021, during which a maximum of fifty representative players. industry will unveil their new creations, their know-how and their respective worlds. "
The big brands of groups such as LVMH (Hublot, TAG Heuer, Zenith, Bulgari), Kering (Girard-Perregaux, Ulysse Nardin) or even the other big names in watchmaking that have already left the aisles of the Basel show (Swatch Group, Breitling, Seiko…) will they join Geneva, if only virtually initially?
La Paix du Temps is perhaps on the verge of being signed, since,
"as regards the physical edition of the show in 2022, the will is to welcome new big names in the industry, according to modalities of the Exhibitors' Committee under a common vision and values. ”
With the stated objective for the 2022 edition of making Geneva the epicenter of time, with the largest watchmaking fair ever organized in Geneva.
Read also:
Rolex, Patek Philippe, Tudor, Chanel and Chopard create their own watchmaking salon
