Jewels & Time 2020: The Changing Face of Watch Trade Fairs

The Watches & Wonders Geneva and Baselworld watch fairs were no exception Not all the brands slated for Watches & Wonders felt bullish about a digital watch fair-of 30 brands, only 19 chose to release news about their novelties for the year The new Watches & Wonders "Fairs" in China also conveniently answer the major question at the heart of this conversation about trade watch fairs: should collectors even care? Su notes, "There is no value for the majority of watch buyers, since they never attend the fair anyway.

The value is only for industry insiders-retailers, media, brands-to see the products in person, but also to meet and talk It's the only time everyone can be in the same place." The new slate of fairs, should they prove successful, might become case studies on how brands can use the fairs to engage the end consumer more directly They are, after all, the end beneficiaries of the retailer meetings and journalist interviews that usually go on at trade fairs.

Whatever form the watch fairs take in the future-digital, physical, or phygital-they won't quite ever be the same again. . Source