In today's video, we will have a small recap of the current situation regarding the evolution of watch shows after the downfall of Baselworld and the fantastic opportunity of laying everything back on the table.

We are only a few days away from the first watchmaking related event of the year as the Geneva Watch Days regrouping approximately 15 brands will start tomorrow.

As the consumer behavior and the industry is being hit by major shake-ups as an effect of Covid-19, this is a seminal PRIMETIME edition. The double digit number we all marked with a red pen in our horological calendar for April was -82%. When the world pulled the OFF-switch for Swiss watch exports marking serious repercussions for the industry, we consider how much the Horological ecosystem is susceptible to damage.

In today’s PRIMETIME we will go over some other newsworthy stories of the industry. Naturally this includes a follow up on the Baselworld situation because as predicted it didn’t take long for the LVMH brands, Hublot, TAG Heuer, Bulgari and Zenith to announce their departure from the show.

We will also discuss new product launches as activity is slowly starting again here in Switzerland, but very gently as we don’t want to simply cover these new watches without seeing them in the flesh, proving again the necessity of these physical shows.

Ok maybe "checkmate" is a bit harsh at this stage but seriously what else could happen as Patek Philippe, Rolex, Tudor, Chopard and Chanel decided to pull out of Baselworld and will most certainly drain a few other major players in their footsteps. And all this to create a new show in Geneva, which will occur at the same dates as Watches & Wonder in April of 2021 and this represents a life saver for what was known as the SIHH.

In today’s PRIMETIME, we naturally come back on the big news of the recent days with the cancellation of the two big watch shows; Watches & Wonders (ex-SIHH) and Baselworld. The situation reached a point where these decisions were simply inevitable but what impact will have on the industry, not only the brand side but also on the supplier side. This remains to be seen, but we know for sure that it will leave some serious damage especially for those who were already struggling, probably accelerating the fate of a few unfortunately.

In today's video, we are talking with industry specialists Thomas Baillod and Thierry Huron about the creation of a new tool called the Watch Distributors Directory. The main objective of this tool is to facilitate communication and commerce opportunities between distributors around the world and watch producers, something which may sound simple, but had never been done and is very much needed as they believe as much as we do that we are stronger together.

The current economic climate for watchmaking is already quite complicated but the recent coronavirus outbreak will naturally have severe consequences as the industry has become so dependent on Chinese consumers in the last few years. Find out more about our opinion on the matter.

This 1st PRIMETIME - Watchmaking in the News of the year is a dense one with not only the latest newsworthy stories regarding the watchmaking industry, but we will also come back on some of the main highlights, the most significant new watches, the tops and flops, the main trends and business news of 2019, well a fun recap moment and what can be learned from it.