It’s been the talk of the First Class Watches office ever since the new year began and probably will still be for a long time after the event. The Baselworld event which takes place in Basel on March 22 – 27, 2018. The event dates all the way back to 1917 and has grown and grown ever since, however this year Baselworld has actually decreased with organisers announcing that the event will be cut short by two days, this came along with a few other announcements such as a decreased price for exhibitors in a bid to get more into the event. You can read all about this and what the future holds for Baselworld in this in-depth article by Forbes.
The stats make it sounds like a huge drop in exhibitors could affect the show drastically however this is not the case, figures such as “Exhibitors down 13.3 percent from a year ago” can looks very worrying however there is still 600-700 exhibitors set to attend so far which shows there is still a vast quantity of exhibitors and stalls to attend giving you no reason to not attend and see what this years show has in store.
We will definitely be attending with all of our watch brands having a stall and wanting meetings it is a very busy time of year for us not only at the event but the build up to it and the big rush to get all of the new announced models in stock and onto our website so that our eager customers can be the first to get this highly anticipated watches for 2018. We already know brands such as Seiko, Citizen and Casio are holding onto their new model releases and wont budge even when we tried to bribe them with chocolate and cookies.
Baselworld is always an exciting time not only for watch collectors and brand enthusiasts but also for the tech world, its a fast pace world out there and watches are definitely a part of it. With a huge rise in wearable technology such as android wear in the last year or so this year is going to be the biggest one yet for technology. My manager and I recently attended a Selling Online conference at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry which is handy for us as its right around the corner, the event had a really interesting talk about the importance of technology in businesses and showed a huge growth in wearable technology in recent years as well as a huge increase in AI technology and it will be interesting to see what the watch brands around the world will be able to do with AI in the near future.
Even Baselworld themselves are set to integrate AI into their event with the announcement of Chatbot the AI help assistant which will be placed around the exhibition to assist the public with map, guidance and information as well as medical aid calls and exhibitor information.
Argento Fine Products the UK distributor for Bruno Sönhle will be attending the event this year and they are even offering free tickets for the show, to get them all you need to do is email in and tell them where the brands stand will be and you will be entered. For full information please read this blog post on Watchpro.
There are a lot of brands we are hoping to meet there too such as luxury watch brand Larsson & Jennings who are making this show their debut in a bid to showcase its brand to the world and what a place to do it. The brand is six years old and although they started with a great passion for minimalist watches the brand have recently announced that they must “innovate, upgrade and elevate” with founder Andrew Jennings even joking that they have banned the world minimalist in their offices. He continues to explain that the brand want to break free from this and show the world exactly what this amazing brand is capable of in the world of watch making.
Visitors to the Larsson & Jennings stand this year can expect not only to see us there eagerly waiting in the queue to speak to a representative but also take a look at the three new models they are showcasing which I have put below for you to see. There is a new chronograph watch as well as a pilot watch in a cushion-shaped case which sounds intriguing.
The full list of exhibitors has been announced now however it is being updated daily from what we can tell. It’s a pretty huge list so even though there was initial speculation about the number of stands there will still be many brands attending and a lot of exhibitors to visit.
Maurice Lacroix – Chase your watch
One to look out for is the Maurice Lacroix chase your watch stand, the watch brand has hidden four watches in four cities around the globe for people to find, whoever finds the box first wins tickets to Baselworld 2018. At Baselworld the four winners will have to work together to figure their way out of a shipping container escape room, if they manage to find their way out they will win a Maurice Lacroix limited edition watch each. Pretty exciting stuff right!?
The fourth box city has been announced as London and there has been two clues already however the box will not be placed in the location until the last clue has been released it is only then when you can track it down and compete against London to win tickets to Baselworld and a chance to win a limited edition Maurice Lacroix watch for yourself.
Tissot At Baselworld
Our representative from Tissot visited our store recently to provide us with some brand training and talk about the collections and achievements of the latest brand that we are adding to our portfolio. Tissot have been in the watch industry for over 160 years offering luxurious watches at an affordable price, the Swiss watch brand sold 4 million watches over the last year and has opened 50 new stores around the globe. We also discussed the 18ct Gold High-End Quartz Range and the new additions they are going to be releasing at this years Baselworld, I’ve added some images below however they have not released any more images as they want a big reveal at the show itself.
