An Overview of Baselworld 2018

Baselworld has been the go-to place for the latest watches and jewelry for a long time; almost for as long as there have been watches around. Well-located in the town of Basel, Switzerland, close to both the German and French border, the event makes it easy for people to attend from wherever they may come. Many people from all over the world come to Basel each year, from Europe, China, from the Middle East, the USA, Asia and even Africa and Latin America. The event is mostly a B2B event, where brands discuss with potential new clients and with existing ones and present their latest innovations to the press, but it is also an event for those who simply love watches and luxury.

Luxury is the keyword that describes Baselworld best. While there are many established brands present, which are synonymous with luxury, such as Patek Philippe, Graff and Rolex, there are also many up-and-coming brands that exhibit during the event, which, while they might not be as known, have the same goals, namely to create amazing luxury experiences.

Walking through Baselworld is a one of a kind experience: the amount of beauty and richness found at every corner is astonishing. Besides the watches and jewelry section, there is also an entire pavilion dedicated to diamonds, precious stones and pearls, where one can see more glitz and glam that you could ever even imagine.

Besides the organized booths and events, there are many brands and watchmakers who are connecting with potential customers and clients on the halls of the fair or in the cafés and restaurants in or surrounding the Basel Messe, which is the venue where the event is held. And Baselworld truly is the place to launch your business, since it's the place where all the powerful investors and clients are and where the best of the media is present as well.

Baselworld, however, is not just about trade and commerce; it's also about making the world of luxury better. Ultimately, the concept of luxury is about quality and exquisiteness. In this sense, this year, Chopard held two events, one called "The Road to Sustainable Luxury" and a Business of Fashion panel discussion, focusing on the new directions in sustainability in the luxury sector. Chopard is one of the first brands to take strong action towards a more ethical approach to creating luxury items. The "Road to Sustainable Luxury" conference featured Caroline and Karl-Friedrich Scheufele, Co-Presidents of Chopard, Colin and Livia Firth, Julianne Moore and more, who discussed how luxury can be more than expensive and quality items, it can also represent a whole background of ethically-made products. For Chopard, the new direction in luxury is not just about having good products, but doing good. Products should be pure both in carat and in heart. It's definitely great to see that Chopard is taking real steps into making products traceable, even though this is still hard to do. Maybe they can use blockchain technology?

The BoF panel discussion, led by Imran Amed discussed the global goals of the jewelry and watches industry and placed a great emphasis on how business and governments should work together to do good.

The 101 ^st edition of Baselworld was somewhat smaller compared to other editions. In fact, it was a lot smaller. While some people saw it as a bad symbol, the organizers explained that they wanted to focus more on quality than quantity and that having a show that is too large is also too costly. In the end, this can be seen as a great point: luxury is about powerful things in small doses, it's about quality over quantity; but we also believe that having a shorter event overall could be a good thing in the long run. As today there's a strong movement (pun intended) to go toward medium-sized things: medium-sized cities, medium-sized homes, etc.; having a medium-sized event can be beneficial. Most of the business that is done at Baselworld is done over the first days, most launches and events are held over the weekend days and, after four days that are heavily charged, people tend to be tired and to run out of energy. Of course, some can't make it during the first days, which is why it is good that the event lasted for another two more, thus offering the opportunity to finish off any started deals or to complete any collaborations.

The 2018 edition of Baselworld took place right over the weekend when clocks changed and Europeans entered the summer time. This particular detail was of great importance to us, as it showed that, indeed, people have the power to give time shape, a true analogy for quality, luxury watches.

Fraquoh and Franchomme

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We'll meet you at Baselworld 2018!

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