Geneva Watch Days: A new watchmaking event in the heart of Geneva
Launched at the initiative of several major luxury brands, the Geneva Watch Days will take place from 26 to 29 August next with the full support of the State and City of Geneva. The event will be the only major gathering for the watchmaking community in 2020 after the cancellations of Baselworld and Watches & Wonders following the health crisis linked to Covid-19.
Thought as a decentralized and self-managed multi-brand event, the Geneva Watch Days will not take place in a centralized location but rather in the Hotels of downtown Geneva as well as in the Boutiques and Watchmaking Workshops of the participating brands.
This event will bring together a diverse set of brands with very different profiles, which will allow retailers and media who will be travelling to Geneva to discover many new products.
Among the 17 participating brands we will find: Bvlgari, Breitling, De Bethune, Gerald Genta, Girard-Perregaux, H. Moser & Cie, MB&F, Ulysse Nardin and Urwerk as well as Artya, Bovet, Bucherer, Czapek, Ferdinand Berthoud, Louis Moinet, Maurice Lacroix, Reuge who have officially joined the event.
The 4-day programme will include meetings with the different brands, multi-brand dinners, as well as exhibitions that will bring together retailers and the media in strict compliance with the recommended sanitary measures. According to Jean - Christophe Babin, CEO of Bvlgari, "The decentralized format of this unique gathering of watch brands will allow us to be safe. In addition, we have put in place strict hygiene rules for all participants and visitors. No risks will be taken. Bringing together the entire Swiss watch industry in one place is a major and unique opportunity to rekindle the flame of the watch industry that has been slowed down in recent weeks. "
Hardly impacted by the health crisis, the watchmaking world can no longer hide the fact that it must reinvent itself. The Geneva Watch Days will provide an opportunity for brands, retailers and the media to plan the future of the watchmaking world, although the preparation for 2021 promises to be complicated.
While MCH, the owner of Baselworld, is slow to communicate on the follow-up to be given after the postponement of the world's most important watch exhibition and the shape of the Geneva Watches & Wonders exhibition is still unknown, new initiatives are emerging, announcing different dates and venues. This represents a major turning point in the Swiss watchmaking landscape and undoubtedly heralds the new tempo that the brands want to set for the years to come. There is no doubt that Geneva, "the cradle of the Swiss watch industry and the art of precision", will be able to take advantage of this new paradigm and adapt it to the post-covid reality.
The M.P. Berthoud Agency supports this initiative of the Geneva Watch Days and is always on hand to help brands improve their visibility.
