Game over. The watch and jewellery fair that had been held uninterrupted since 1917 was finished, with MCH Group announcing they were looking into “follow-up formats” for the event. What came next was a litigious struggle between MCH Group and exhibiting watch brands over refunds for the cancelled show, a struggle that saw Rolex, Patek Philippe, Tudor, Chopard and Chanel pull out of the show. These devastating withdrawals paved the way for the death blow in late February 2020.ĬOVID-19 was still in its early stages of spreading across the globe, but after the second-largest watch fair in Switzerland, Watches & Wonders, cancelled their event, Baselworld was quick to follow suit. In 2018 the entirety of Swatch Group (including brands such as Omega, Breguet, Blancpain, Longines and more) pulled out of the show, followed by Seiko, Grand Seiko and Breitling in 2019. Participation by brands at the fair had been dropping for half a decade, with 1500 exhibitors in 2016 down to just 520 in 2019, a decrease that was also reflected in the number of visitors to the show. If you’re a regular reader of Time+Tide, you will have closely followed our coverage of the demise of the world’s biggest watch fair over recent months. This development does beg the question: why would James Murdoch invest in a failing show such as Baselworld? Image: Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for National Geographic But has it been offered a resurrection lifeline by James Murdoch, the son of media mogul Rupert Murdoch? The owner of Baselworld, MCH Group, has announced the investment of 104.5mCHF from the Murdoch-owned Lupa Systems for what is anticipated to be around one-third of the shares in MCH Group.
I/trending 19968 Baselworld gets a $110mUSD lifeline from James Murdoch, son of billionaire Aussie-born media tycoon Rupert Murdoch Nick Kenyonīaselworld, as we know it, is dead.
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