he subject of watch fairs is back (assuming it ever went away).

Cast your mind back to the early 1990s. The watch industry and the watch community were blindsided when Baselworld was blown apart by the smell of grilled sausage wafting through the aisles and the departing of the Vendôme (now Richemont) group brands; a move led by Alain-Dominique Perrin for whom Baselworld was more akin to a circus than a fair worthy of the name for top-tier “maisons”.

1991: Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie (SIHH) was born. Watches and Wonders is its direct descendant.

Having written several editorials on the subject at that time, extracts from my interviews of Alain-Dominique Perrin come back to me today. “There’s watchmaking and there’s haute horlogerie,” Perrin commented, implying that the latter was in Geneva, not Basel, which was home to “a multitude of counterfeiters, manufacturers from Taiwan and elsewhere.” “Our customers want to be treated like stars and don’t appreciate the smell of grilled sausages,” declared the then boss of Cartier and lynchpin of Vendôme’s watch business.

Changes afoot with the exit of Vendôme group brands from Baselworld in the early 1990s.

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The schism prompted heated debate within the microcosm and signalled a reformatting of brand and product typologies in a hitherto uniform and apparently homogenous industry. This was a farsighted vision (anyone who knows Perrin will not be surprised): a gathering of prestige and high-end brands (the terminology then in use) in a refined space, supported by a global concept of customer service.

These words resonate louder than ever in the current discourse. In today’s watchmaking jungle, populated by a multitude of brands, everyone has their own idea on customer service, personalised experiences and concierge services.

More than 30 years have passed during which Baselworld has crashed and burned, driven to the brink by arrogant management, while Geneva has become Switzerland’s number-one watch event. In a completely different format, of course.

Whereas global watchmaking in its entirety came under the one Baselworld roof - from Rolex to Kiu Tai Yu, the Hong Kong watchmaker building a handful of tourbillons a year from his kitchen table, from Patek Philippe to Shanghai Watch Factory number 5 -, Watches and Wonders welcomes fifty-some brands in an environment of the kind Alain-Dominique Perrin imagined.

This new fair clearly isn’t the snapshot of the global industry that Baselworld was, the latter having splintered into multiple events with distinct objectives, many held at the same time as Watches and Wonders.

Time to Watches is one such event. Taking place in Geneva, it gathers a smattering of independents and other niche labels hoping to tap into the international visitors in town for Watches and Wonders. Not to mention the brands presenting their wares some in a hotel suite, others in the back room of a brasserie. It’s estimated that between 250 and 300 brands will convene in or around Geneva city centre during Watches and Wonders.

Business resumes in late summer with Geneva Watch Days, an initiative mooted by Jean-Christophe Babin and open to anyone who wants to join. This laidback event draws mainly European and Middle Eastern customers and media.

Every two years, Dubai plays host to Dubai Watch Week, the brainchild of local retailer Ahmed Seddiqi and Sons. This is less a commercial fair in the strict sense and more a cultural experience of watches and watchmaking. With other regional initiatives in development, there is already one, Inhorgenta Munich, which this year attracted some of the mid-range and entry-level brands now deprived of Baselworld and excluded from Watches and Wonders. Its most recent edition garnered a broad and positive consensus.

Ultimately, these various moments and events cover the entire microcosm, but in fragmented form based on the typology, positioning and, of course, clout of the brands in question.

SIHH, now Watches and Wonders, has replaced Baselworld as the global watch event. But in reality the situation is far more fragmented than in the past.

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The crème de la crème at Watches and Wonders; brands on the middle and bottom rungs of the ladder (with regard to price and image) in Munich; niche brands and independents (many just coming into bloom) at Time to Watches; tutti frutti at Geneva Watch Days, the list could go on. Nor is the situation likely to change in any great way, with Nick Hayek recently reiterating his refusal to take part in these “beauty contests”, as reported in Le Temps. We would have been surprised to hear anything else from the head of Swatch Group although certain rapprochements are taking place: it was recently announced that Blancpain, Breguet and Glashütte Original will be joining Geneva Watch Days.

This mosaic is, in fact, a fairly accurate reflection of market forces, between the twenty-some brands which have cornered 90% of the global market, according to Morgan Stanley, and the others scrambling for whatever crumbs are left by way of micro-events, Instagram posts and small investments in this or that happening.

The official line praises the diversity of the watch industry but beneath the surface, it’s a different story. From the established and international names at one end of the spectrum all the way to the sometimes insignificant micro-labels trying to keep their head above water at the other, at the end of the day the world watchmaking landscape is in the hands of a few dozen brands. As for the others, many will never be more than foam on the crest of the wave, sinking almost as rapidly as they emerged.