Michael Balfour contacted UK trade friends to ask the question.
Some of their answers are unexpected.

We all know of course that BaselWorld is the biggest and best of all international watch, clock and jewellery fairs. But I decided to ring around and try to reach for reasons, based upon intense personal experiences, and beyond cravings for bratwurst and the fun and wicked ways of evening visits to the exhibitors’ Village, just why this great opportunist festival is a must.
Each of my friends is aware already that the BaselWorld organisers are expecting about 100,000 visitors (including the general public) to inspect their choices from over 2,000 booths, mounted by about 45 countries. And that about 3,000 journalists from almost every country in the world will be roaming over 160,000 square metres of exhibition space (including a wide range of ever-welcome and always busy refreshment areas), seeking out the new, the original, the trends, the overall moods within the different sections. As usual, they are Watches, Jewellery, Related Brands, and National Pavilions.

The shrewd
Many visitors are old hands. One is shrewd, ebullient independent retailer Marcus Margulies: “Having been a regular visitor for almost 40 years, I enjoy looking for new brands that I believe would fit alongside some of the world’s most extraordinary watches that are available from my Bond Street store, Marcus. I aim to have a varied and vast collection under one roof that I consider to be unique, and the Basel fair usually inspires me. Recent finds, now exclusive to Marcus, include Hublot and other selected outlets. Others that I have uncovered in recent years include Greubel Forsey, Hautlence, Urwerk, and, more recently, Ikepod.”
Robert Vander Woerd runs his elegant, large watch retailer E.P. Mallory in Bath. He tells me: “For over thirty years I have been visiting the Basel Watch Fair, and every year it never disappoints. This year, an interesting variety of reasons will make it even more important for me. The challenge today is to maintain the consumer’s interest in the appeal of mechanical watches. Innovation by manufacturers will drive watch consumers to original new products, and it is these suppliers I will seek out.”

The distributor
Franz Le RosÉe has been exhibiting in Basel for more than twenty years for Breitling, for which he is the UK distributor, which celebrates its 125th anniversary this year. “Ah yes, do you know, I really enjoy BaselWorld. I look forward to it every year, but we have reached the stage when I do not expect to meet any new customers.” But Stephen Reece-Raybould, more precariously, is an independent watch distributor, and handles Perrelet: “I am confident that Baselworld 2009 is going to be a memorable event. The energy and the atmosphere, the friends and the colleagues all getting together with one aim in mind will be just what the industry needs to blow away the cobwebs. The business is changing, evolving more quickly than ever, and I wouldn’t miss being there for anything. I’ve reserved a front-row seat and can’t wait for the performance to begin.”
No doubt UK chain retailers will be represented in force, but an official spokesperson for the dominent Aurum Group (Goldsmiths, Signet, and Watches of Switzerland) declined to offer specific comments: “They just felt giving any comment as to why they were attending Basel or what they were looking for whilst there, might reveal too much about their strategic buying plans for next year.” Perhaps I should not be surprised. They are controlled by the financially troubled Icelandic Baugur Group, which is allegedly in administration.

The innovative
Fresh ideas always abound at BaselWorld. A very good one is in the briefcase of Jason Holt, founder of Holition: “I will be showing an exciting new technology to key people. It allows a prospective customer to ‘try on’ watches without them physically being in the shop. For example, you could interact with the latest Hublot without it being on your wrist, but you are seeing yourself in real time wearing that watch. This is a step-change that perhaps the high-end watch market has been waiting for.”
It would appear he does not need a press agent, which is what James Massey, of Finch and Partners Ltd, is: “I have the opportunity to present my clients and their new product launches in a controlled environment to the key watch journalists from around the world in a very short space of time. I have the opportunity to talk to twenty or thirty journalists a day on a one-to-one basis, which would take months if I was to try and organise this back in London.”
John Goodall is in Basel this year for two good reasons: “I am the UK representative of the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry, a specialist watch journalist and UK editor of two international publications. For the F.H. I try to help Swiss manufacturers find new UK distributors, and of course our distributors to find new watch brands to market. I provide market information, which sometimes brings me problems with counterfeits. This is at least my fortieth year here, so I do know my way around among the brands.”




Trying on a product which does not exist. This system offers the possibility of demonstrating virtual products directly ontot the client’s wrist either online, at events, or in-store.


The dealer & clockmaker
Justin Koullapis is a London watch dealer, and comments: “I find that watches are only part of the story. Here I can meet people who make a difference in our industry all in one place, I revitalise old associations and make new ones.” Justin is also technical editor of the British Horological Journal, and so his presence here at Basel happily does double duty.
Bob Bray is a clockmaker who runs Sinclair Harding. He will always be at Basel because he bought his company from Mike Harding in 1995, who said: “If you do not exhibit at Basel, then don’t even think about buying my company!” “I find that some years here I get a full year’s work, and some years nothing, so I suppose it is always a flag-waving exercise. I always meet nice people and old friends, and it’s good to have a couple of weeks out of England to relax!”
Jason Holt is also the founder and chairman of Holt’s Academy of Jewellery, which grew out of R. Holt & Co. in Hatton Garden: “Apart from the latest CAD/CAM technology, I deal in gems, and here I am able to meet vital contacts and source needed gemstones. Also, in these uncertain times, I get to see and feel what is happening in our industry. Last year I found a German supplier of high-quality necklace clasps, which are not available in the UK. Our clasp business has subsequently gone up by 300%, thanks to BaselWorld.”
Garrard in London has recently appointed Stephen Webster as its creative director. His own jewellery company is “extremely proud to be the biggest jewellery brand showing at Basel. It has taken over 20 years to get where we are, and, in short, nothing compares with being here each year.”

The journalist
Ken Kessler is one of my own, a journalist: “If we’re honest, there’s no need for the press to go to BaselWorld as far as information-gathering is concerned: watch brands send us their press kits well beforehand. But it’s impossible to put a value on ‘face time’ with the manufacturers and one’s colleagues. It’s only at Basel that I get to crack open a bottle of wine with Michael Balfour, buttonhole Philippe Dufour, or catch up with Anselmo Grimoldi from Milan. And that’s more important than some of the product launches, meeting people in the know. As they say, knowledge is power.”


Source: Europa Star April-May 2009 Magazine Issue