In light of both Watches & Wonders and Baselworld 2020 being cancelled last week, Bulgari has now taken the lead to call for a small showing of brands and their novelties in Geneva, from April 26-29.
Called Geneva Watch Days 2020, the event was unveiled by Bulgari CEO, Jean-Christophe Babin on the 2nd of March on the RTS (Swiss National Television) TTC broadcast. Babin shared that already several brands have signed up to be part of the show, including Breitling, Gerald Genta, Girard Perregaux, MB&F, Ulysse Nardin, De Bethune, Urwerk, and of course, Bulgari themselves. Several others, including Chopard and H. Moser Cie. are in the midst of finalizing their participation.
Babin’s approach is that, rather than housing all of the brands under a single roof, for Geneva Watch Days, participating brands will individually take up show spaces at some of Geneva’s best hotels to meet with press and clients.
Each brand will appoint a Steering Committee, which will be responsible for securing the best show locations and hotel rates. They will also have to work side-by-side with the “State and City of Geneva and relevant institutions to guarantee the maximum safety and sanitary protection for participants,” as stated in the press release concerning Geneva Watch Days.
Collectively the brand committees will, however, work towards the GMT Magazine party and B2C activities, which will gather the crowd together for two evenings. The brand committees will also be in charge of inviting their own press and retailers of interest, primarily targeting those from the European markets. Bulgari themselves, will cover the other world markets in a series of local showcases as of April.
Between then and now, should additional brands wish to be a part of Geneva Watch Days, the Steering Committees will be tasked to make the due selection.
Babin was further quoted on businessoffashion.com to have said that in 2021, he would be happy to return to either Baselworld or Watches & Wonders in January if the choice was there. He also added that he is not considering the LVMH Watch Week for 2021, given that it would be counterproductive to hold yet another watch fair over the month of January. “But it could be that LVMH Watch Week returns in September,” he said.
