Should Watch Fairs Persist?

Thanks to the changing dynamics of world markets plus the increasingly expensive costs of travel, accommodation, and fair participation, watch fairs are becoming harder and harder to justify for a variety of retailers, journalists, collectors, and most importantly, the brands. When speaking to each of those categories of people we find different reasons for why watch fairs are less important. Some might point to the decreasing reliance on authorized dealers (AD’s) as brands shift to the boutique model, which completely questions who even needs to view newly released watches.

Still others might highlight the ability to see high quality press photos, videos, and explanations from a brand’s watchmakers instantly upon release, making handling the watches less crucial for those that aren’t in the market for a certain watch (collectors) and those that simply need to know the details to write about the new model (some journalists). I’ve even experienced this over the years as watch fairs have shifted with the influx of new online watch blogs. When I first began writing a decade ago, watch fairs were still the best place to learn about the watches as they were released.

It would take weeks to digest everything that was seen and even longer for the information to fully trickle out into public. But as Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook took over online media, it became easier to share exactly what was happening at the fairs instantaneously. This was the period when watch bloggers and Instagrammers would explode onto the scene because they kept getting exclusives or would make sure to share hands-on photos with the latest pieces weekly or even daily. As a result, if you happened to miss a fair or event, you knew you could follow a few personalities and get a full rundown in short order.

This led to different online publications battling to be “first” to discuss or share new pieces, resulting in some outlets eventually going to all major brands days or weeks before the fairs to photograph and discuss all the new releases and proceed to dump posts covering the entire fair by noon on the first day. For anyone that didn’t have that access, relationship, or ability to travel to everyone individually before the fairs, you were always going to be posting old news because “I already saw that on “X” blog on Monday.”

Marketing matters

These partnerships made some publications very popular, but it also created the impetus for brands to exploit this relationship for artificially positive press. This backfired a bit as people started to become unhappy with brands withholding access or limiting information until after their partners had time to publish their work, but the result wasn’t what one might have imagined. As the digital revolution slowly overtook the watch industry, brands started to become better at their own digital marketing, relying less and less on established print journalists, online bloggers, and the other watch influencers.

This coincided with the shifting sales dynamics of AD’s, boutiques, grey market dealers, and watch flippers so that brands started to want more control over where their watches were sold and how they were marketed. Releases began to happen throughout the year at special brand events and the most important retailers, collectors, and journalists would be flown to the event, maximizing the exposure of the launch for the least amount of money. Why would a luxury event with people flown in from all over the world be a money saver?

Because watch fairs began to become money drains, that’s why. The reason Baselworld is effectively defunct is a long and complex story that involves greed, mismanagement, exorbitant costs, and incredible restrictions, resulting in brands jumping ship as contracts came due for renewal (and a few even before that). That fair has tried to reboot and reinvent itself which many in the industry honestly hoped might work since it was THE watch fair for the industry having existed for over a century, since 1917.

Is this the end?

But the real discussion that came about was this: Do watch fairs even make sense anymore? Having talked with independent watchmakers, fellow journalists, and even some big brand reps, it seems that people have a nostalgic desire for watch fairs but struggle to honestly justify the cost, time, and inefficiency that watch fairs incur. Covid gave the entire industry a reason to reset and reevaluate the need for watch fairs and shift what they could or should be. SIHH became Watches and Wonders as it merged with even more independent brands and the major players that departed Baselworld, such as Rolex, Patek Philippe, and the LVMH group, and now rests as the biggest and most important fair of the year.

But LVMH still maintains its own LVMH Watch Week, and the fall season sees another Geneva-based fair with the Geneva Watch Days, and the SIAR in Mexico City takes place in October. New York hosts a couple rather popular events with the WatchTime New York, a collector-focused event, as well as the more affordable watch fair called the Windup Watch Fair sponsored by Worn & Wound, which focuses almost exclusively on entry level watchmaking.

Another large and exclusive fair is Dubai Watch Week, which is also more focused on collectors and watch passion in general than being primarily a sales-focused event. The relatively new Time To Watches fair – which wisely occurs in Geneva the week leading up to Watches and Wonders – focuses on the smaller independents and associated brands, trying to bridge the gap between the higher end of Watches and Wonders and the dearly departed Hall 2 of Baselworld.

JCK in Las Vegas, a long-standing jewelry and watch show that held up the summer months in the past, now is the main place to experience the jewelry industry after the demise of Baselworld. Even Ireland is throwing its hat in the ring with the 1^st Annual Waterford International Festival of Time taking place in 2022, catering to the truly unique avant-garde independents. But what do all these events say about the future of watch fairs as a whole?

The writing on the wall

Clearly there is still a desire and demand to have them, but the value proposition is changing. The biggest fairs are seeking to replace what was lost with Baseworld but also not to make the same mistakes. It is clear from Watches & Wonders, Dubai Watch Week, WatchTime New York, and Geneva Watch Days that people want more discussions, more learning opportunities, and more insight into the craft and manufacturing of watches. New features at fairs seek to inform more than dazzle, with large investments made for educational and informational purposes.

Gone are the days of debaucherously luxurious late-night parties paid for by major brands, extravagant press gifts just to curry favor, and star-studded presentations that collectors, retailers, and journalists alike would jockey for the privilege of attending, all in the name of trying to sell the next years’ worth of production in one week. While all this still happens occasionally, it seems clear that the fairs have evolved as selling the product happens in a variety of other ways.

When a major exhibition is less financially critical to the success or failure of a brand’s fiscal year, the cost and effort are harder to justify. The balance sheet doesn’t add up, and private brand events suddenly cost a fraction of the price with a similar level of return. But as this shift occurs, the consumer is also getting more informed and demanding, seeking an insider’s knowledge of the watches they are investing in. That means watch fairs that cater as much to the “watch nerd” as they do to the fashion journalist.

My take

I personally see this as the tumultuous years where brands, fairs, retailers, and collectors are all trying to figure out exactly what the industry should be and how to support the rapidly growing demand for luxury watches and access to them. It isn’t just a production problem or marketing problem, but a cultural problem. We no longer live in a world where print publications that take weeks or months to edit are the main outlets for marketing, where a select few journalists provide most of the access to brand information, and where industry trade shows are the most efficient and cost-effective way to sell your wares.

Social media and the internet have changed everything and watch fairs alongside brands are racing to catch up. Some have already folded (Baselworld, SalonQP) or been reborn (SIHH) as something new, demonstrating a resilience and willingness to change. But the watch industry is not known for moving fast and breaking things, so it takes a while to adjust to a historic shift in connectivity, global markets, and wealth distribution.

We are witnessing the industry as a whole trying to answer the question of whether watch fairs as a concept should persist into the future. I would argue they should, for the same reason that watches should persist – they represents thousands, if not millions, of peoples’ passion, skill, and knowledge that have created a self-sustaining ecosystem of watch lovers and watch producers. But we shouldn’t take it for granted that watch fairs deserve to exist, nothing does if it presents no value to anyone.

The demise of Baselworld and shifting sands of watch fair dynamics show that brands understand this as well, and providing value to the collectors, journalists, and industry in general is going to become a priority. No longer can brands and fairs simply try to extract value from the industry to enrich themselves, they need to provide value to the people within it, lest it cannibalize the very people trying to nurture it. Baselworld may have been sacrificed on the alter of change, but the gods may still smile down on us and the future of the industry if they learn to sell passion and innovation instead of glitter and champagne dreams.