BASELWORLD 2019 PRESS DAY

Baselworld 2019, the world’s largest watch and jewellery trade fair, has today opened to members of the press to showcase the world’s newest collections and designs. It is expected that like in previous editions the show will attract thousands of visitors and members of the press.

This year a host of innovations and exclusive brands are on display, including Rolex, Patek Philippe, Chopard, Chanel, LVMH with Bulgari, Tag Heuer, Hublot & Zenith, Breitling, Gucci and many more.

A new dedicated area called Les Ateliers has been added in Hall 1.0, where independent watchmakers will present their creations.

Hall 1.2 has been completely redesigned to accommodate the Show Plaza, a new and spectacular 180 degrees catwalk with multiple LED screens where jewellery will be staged in innovative ways.

Video News Release (VNR)

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• GVs Exteriors and interiors Baselworld 2019
• GVs products on display at Baselworld 2019
• ZENITH, GVs and close ups of new products
• Interview with LVMH Group, ZENITH CEO, Julien Tornare (in English)

“2019 is a huge year for Zenith, we have not only been celebrating our 50^th anniversary of El Primero all over the world, but we are today presenting the evolution of the Defy LAB, the Defy inventor, which is a revolution in Swiss Watchmaking. “

 “It is very important to present new technology at an event like Baselworld because we need to show the whole world that not only the brand but the industry is very dynamic and moving forward. I think we should never repeat the past, we should use our past to build the future.”

“What I strongly believe is today many people are talking about the millennials what is true we need to work on the future clientele. I believe the millennials are not running away from luxury but what they really want is substance, today they spend a lot of time on the internet, social media, that is part of the new world, a lot of fake a lot of speed news, but still they need to attach themselves to something concrete and I think it’s very important that a brand shows dynamism, innovation, creativity because that’s their world goes fast and we need to move forward.

• PATEK PHILIPPE, GVs and close ups of new products
• Interview with PATEK PHILIPPE President, Thierry Stern (in English)

“The trends are to have the finest watches in the world but I think we are not the only ones to believe in that, but if you look at the Fair this year and all the new models that we have you will see that there is quite a wide different type of watches. At Patek we are not only willing to focus on one watch, we are willing to focus on many types of watches.

“For the ladies market in the past it used to be more so with the quartz movement today the difference is that the ladies are very knowledgeable also, they understand the watches and they are also willing to have a beautiful automatic movement inside the watches.”

“For the men’s versions I would say we are coming with different types of it, but the focus will be more on complicated watches. We have seen that for all those years the demand is really coming now for complicated movement.”

“The feeling today that there is a lot people that are between 25 and 40 years old we really enjoy fine watches and we are also willing to show that Patek Philippe is only a watch for your father or grandfather it is also a watch that it looks very beautiful and it is also a watch for the younger generation. “

• PICCHIOTTI, GVs and close ups of new products
• Interview with PICCHIOTTI CEO, Guiseppe Picchiotti (in English)

“Worldwide Basel is by far the only really dominating show around the globe in comparison to other shows in America, in Italy and in Hong Kong. It was and still remains the leading jewellery show, no doubt.”

“During the last five or six years, eight years perhaps people are actually demanding or asking for less ostentatious jewellery, a little bit somehow casual to be worn easily, maybe everyday and they want their money employed in a nice way.

“We are adapting in a sense that again we are trying to make the jewellery not so classical not so serious not so traditional as in the past. We are trying to be a little bit softer and to be easily worn by young people specially.”

“Well, BREXIT is quite a difficult question because nobody knows what is going to happen, one thing is sure, we talk to some customers they say no compromise, no commitment at all because let’s wait and see, because at this moment nobody knows what is going to happen, it is difficult to give an answer.”

• CHOPARD, GVs and close ups of new products
• Interview with CHOPARD Co-President, Karl-Friedrich Scheufele (in English)

“The year so far has been quite good for us and of course as every year we are very excited about Baselworld and obviously very curious how we will finish off in seven days from now.

“There is a consolidation going on in the industry and Baselworld had to adapt and has to adapt to become more digital of course as well but I think there is nothing to replace the networking opportunity that all have in Baselworld every year.”

“Geopolitically speaking we have a simmering trade war between the USA and China we don’t know how this will end up of course we are looking at unsolved BREXIT and a few other issues but this has been happening last year as well but nevertheless last year we finished off with a plus so we remain cautiously optimistic.”

• Interview with MCH-BASELWORLD, Managing Director, Michel Loris-Melikoff (in English and French)

ENGLISH

“What we do to improve Baselworld we work on a better Baselworld so we had a lot of talks and surveys with our other clients interviews and finally what you see here in 2019 but also in the next years is the result of all these discussions”

“Baselworld is today a B2B platform, Baselworld is becoming an experience platform that means that Baselworld is not only a platform for B2B, for retailers but it should become a platform for collectors or for consumers, for retailers or for journalists, for influencers, for all this community that is fascinated by this industry, we don’t talk only about watch industry we also talk about jewellery industry, gemstone, etc etc, so this community needs a new platform and it needs a new platform because with the digitalisation our habits change and as our habits change the marketing change and now is up to us to change as well.”

FRENCH

Le futur de BaselWorld doit s’imaginer être une plateforme d’experiences, cela veut dire que nous ne nous adressons plus exclusivement aux detaillants mais aussi au grand public, cela veut dire que BaselWorld veut etre attrayant pour les collectionneurs, pour les clients, pour les journalistes, pour les influencers, pour les detaillants, les acteurs de l’industrie et nous-mêmes …. Toute cette communaute a besoin d’une nouvelle plate forme, et encore plus dans un monde qui se digitalise, nos habitudes changent, et comme nos habitudes changent, le marketing change, et maintenant c’est aussi a nous de changer. C’est un evenement une fois par an, mais pendant les autres 51 semaines, cette meme communaute doit aussi pouvoir communiquer par internet et par tous les moyens digitaux que nous proposons.

BaselWorld reste LA plateforme, LA PLATEFORME pour cette industrie.