The Europa Star 80th anniversary party was a huge success. Everyone had the greatest time catching up with old friends and making new ones. Look for the pictures on the Europa Star website in the next couple of days.


Europa Star 80th Anniversary Party - more photos to follow

The fair is starting to wind down now. The crowds have thinned out and the halls are a little easier to get to now. I am heading down to the SIHH in Geneva this morning to see the brands from the Richemont Group and many others.

Here are some final thoughts on this year's BaselWorld, including some trends I have seen:

Trends - big is still hugely popular. Red gold is leading the way for many brands and red gold and black has been a popular combination. Useful complications, rather than flashy, crazy complications for complications sake, are in vogue. Popular colours on watches at BaselWorld include white, orange and chocolate brown. In ladies, diamonds are really strong.

Several brands this year have followed Hublot's lead and developed all black versions of their watches, but the best one in my mind is the new Bell & Ross BR01-94 Phantom, an all black carbon finish chrono. In addition, Bell & Ross introduced a limited edition BR01 Tourbillon, to great results. According to the brand, 50% of its business is now in BR01, which gives you an idea of how successful it has been.


Bell & Ross BR01-94 Phantom

Bulova is doing extremely well, gaining market share and introducing great new product that fits into its multi-brand strategy, starting with Caravelle then going to Bulova, Wittnauer and Accutron. The brand has some diamond watches for around US$200 that really surprised retailers.

This is Rado's 50th anniversary year, but for Roland Streule, President of Rado Worldwide, he's looking towards the future, not the past. “For me, the 50 years is not important,” he says. “We wouldn't make an advertisement now and put 50 years to honour ourselves, that's not Rado. We are not looking backwards, we are looking towards the future and we are shaping that future.”

One brand I was very impressed with is H. Moser, which has a line of classically styled but very technically advanced mechanical watches. Finished beautifully, this brand could really take off if handled correctly. I wish them all the best.