Stick A Fork In It

It seems that last call has come around for Baselworld. Long story short, what was once THE WATCH FAIR has  said: "no mas", at least for the foreseeable future.

Remember that warm and fuzzy message that Baselworld was, to quote that other great commentator on the watch business - Kool Moe Dee:

Comin' back, like "Return of the Jedi" ?

Well, apparently not so much. It would seem that the much vaunted 24/7/365 Baselworld Spirit is now nothing more than the wistful memories of a romantic encounter years before. 

Early this morning, news limped into the North Shore HQ of Tempus Fugit that Baselworld 2 - Electric Boogaloo was going to be on hiatus for yet another year, and that Managing Director Michel Loris-Melikoff would be dusting off his resume and pursuing other professional challenges.

Here is the press release, in its entirety:

Press Release: Baselworld relaunch needs more time

Basel 12 November 2021 Baselworld organizers have decided to take more time for the launch of the new concept. Baselworld, scheduled for spring 2022, will therefore not take place. This decision is based on the one hand on the experience gained from the Pop Up Event at the Geneva Watch Days and on intensive discussions with manufacturers and retailers. On the other hand, it takes into account the fact that it is particularly difficult to launch a new concept for a new target segment due to the renewed aggravation of the COVID situation and the associated uncertainty among customers.  "Over the past few months, we have studied in detail our Watches, Jewellery and Gems ecosystem and gained important insights from discussions with major industry representatives," says Beat Zwahlen, CEO of the MCH Group. "The conclusion is that the market exists for a B:B:C platform that brings together medium-sized and specialized manufacturers with independent retailers. But their needs must be analyzed in more detail. This means we need to have significantly more time to get there."  In the coming months, therefore, an interdisciplinary team from the MCH Group will analyze the target segments and, in close exchange with manufacturers and retailers, make a deep dive into their marketing and transaction needs. In this context, particular attention will be paid to the latest trends in marketing and distribution with a view to the post-pandemic period, especially internationalization and digitization. The goal remains to create added value for the community's business in its target markets with the internationally anchored Baselworld brand and innovative platforms.  Due to the cancellation of Baselworld 2022, Managing Director Michel Loris-Melikoff has decided to leave the company and take on a new challenge. Loris-Melikoff had taken over the management of Baselworld in 2018 under difficult conditions and brought it to a successful execution in 2019. In a short period of time, he managed to gain access to the industry and win its respect. He initiated and helped shape the necessary transformation and repositioning of Baselworld. The MCH Group regrets his decision. It thanks him for his tireless commitment and wishes him all the best for his future engagements.

Well, there is a lot to unpack here, but as we say in the mediation game, Baselworld  didn't get here overnight. And unlike what a horny teenage boy might whisper in your ear at the drive-in movie, you don't get a "little bit pregnant".

So let's reconstruct part of the series of events that led us here, shall we?

1.    For the past several years - let's say from 2016 to the final gasp in 2019, Baselworld has been shedding participating brands at an ever increasing rate. The stated explanations were myopic at best. The message was consistently - We at Baselworld are AWESOME, and if you are too foolish to see that, then we never wanted you anyway!

And then...

2.      Swatch Group, en masse, gently explained what Baselworld could do with their fair and the associated expenses. And of course all sorts of platitudes were issued from the fair organizers as to how much better Baselworld would be without Swatch Group! Spacious, well appointed areas encouraging customers, brands and retailers to interact! Well, we waited, and we saw...

Shamelessly borrowed from the worldwide infoweb

Baselworld 2019 already had the stink of death, and eerily resembled a midwestern shopping mall in a once prosperous, now forgotten factory town that was once bustling but now deserted since the factory that employed half the town shut down.

At the final go-round in 2019, you could have literally driven a double-wide trailer through the center of Hall 1 and not hit a thing. No amount of impromptu fashion shows, or Lamborghinis on pedestals managed to change that reality.

3.     Avarice - like a grasping bully, the Baselworld sales team in 2020 attempted to get money from every brand that it could, even when the organizers had already decided to cancel the fair. If you signed a contract (even if you did so the day before the cancelation notice went out) you would be getting regular, sometimes rather menacing communications insisting that you pay up, even though the fair was not going to happen. 

And the result?  Well, let's just say that the people running watch brands don't tend to forget that type of experience. So when the call went out for participants for the next iteration of Baselworld, there were very few takers.

Where are your friends when you need them?

4.    You don't tug on Superman's cape - Rolex, Patek and some of the other big dogs decided that enough was enough, and announced their departure.

And that final group departure effectively sucked all of the remaining oxygen from Hall 1. 

And what then remained? Nothing but broken dreams and the unpleasant odor of a bargain priced cologne, flamboyantly labeled: 

"Baselworld Sprit!"  

Basel Is The New Lausanne...

Hi Boys and Girls!  Let's hop in the WABAC Machine and travel to those thrilling days of yesteryear, and go waaayyyyy back in time to...

Courtesy of the Rocky and Bullwinkle Show

May 22nd or so, 2020! 

Now I realize, that was a long, long time ago, but if you scrunch up your eyes real tight and concentrate, you might recall that the brain trust behind BaselWorld decided that the city of Basel  was the culprit, and if they changed the name from BaselWorld to Swiss Watch Week, and moved it down the road to Lausanne everything would be "New and Improved!"

Courtesy of CBS

Which now, in hindsight, appears to be about as well-thought out as New Coke was back in 1985. 

Apparently Basel was toxic (high priced hotels, less-than-friendly tram conductors yelling at Japanese and Chinese visitors - in German, and $12.00 sausage from a street vendor across the street from Hall 1). 

Well, apparently now Lausanne is so last month! The shot-callers decided that, in fact, Basel is a GREAT location, and they would change the name again!  And HOURUNIVERSE was born!

      HOURUNIVERSE: IT'S WE TIME!  

I have to be honest, I had to double check the calendar this morning to make sure it was not April 1st, but no, there is a website and everything. So straight from the Bureau of Not-So-Great Ideas, here is the press release just as I received it -

MCH is creating a new concept for a global platform for the watch, jewellery and gemstone industries: HOURUNIVERSE.

Two months to listen, analyse, identify; and create. An innovative platform to meet today's needs. To unite and support a whole community that wants to regroup, make a new start and is receptive to change. Open, modern, experimental, inclusive, user-friendly, interconnected, the MCH teams have put all their expertise and the feedback and input from customers and other stakeholders into giving birth to a new platform concept. An extended ecosystem   Live and virtual, active all year round, benefiting from the latest technologies for content, and for networking, the new platform is dedicated to players in the watch, jewellery and gemstone industries, but not exclusively. The new concept is a B2B2C meeting point that places the customer at the heart of its focus, reversing the order of the past. The entire platform is thought out and designed around the customer. This applies to all players of the distribution chain, traditional and online retailers, including those of the CPO (certified Pre-Owned).  Flanking them, the platform will build an extended ecosystem with watch, jewellery and gemstone brands, developers of new solutions in distribution, marketing and points of sale, and other players of the industry. A global, varied, interconnected, unified world. A 365 platform, with an annual live meeting Named HOURUNIVERSE, the platform will be digitally active throughout the year and will host an annual live show.  A community platform that creates bridges between buyers and sellers and all the players in the industry, it is also a place that encourages exchanges, information-sharing, content creation, reflection through talks and conferences that also provide visibility for brands and their products.  In April 2021, the community will meet at HOURUNIVERSE in Basel, Switzerland. The show will be aligned with the watchmaking events in Geneva, in the best interests of the international community which will only have to travel to Switzerland once a year. The show will reinforce contacts thanks to new tools, the creation of content, a maximum of Touch & Feel experiences, as well as moments of conviviality, networking and fully integrated events. Along with this new customer-oriented approach, a new competitive hospitality concept will also be an integral part of the packages proposed, and those associated players of Basel life will not be exempt from this involvement. The detailed concept of HOURUNIVERSE will be unveiled late August in combination with the start of marketing.   HOURUNIVERSE: IT'S WE TIME!

I can only assume that they have not read Tony Bourdain's seminal memoir on the restaurant business - Kitchen Confidential. While it does focus on the restaurant business, it is quite pertinent to the (sorry) shit show that is currently unfolding at MCH. I refer you to Mr. Bourdain's thoughts on what he referred to as: 

Owner's Syndrome and Other Medical Anommalies -

...when business drops, or fails to improve, he panics, starts looking for the quick fix. He thrashes around in an escalating state of agitation, tinkering with concept, menu, various marketing schemes. As the end draws near, these ideas are replaced by more immediately practical ones: close on Sundays...cut back staff...shut down lunch. Naturally, as the operation becomes more schizophrenic - one week French, one week Italian - as the poor schmuck tries one thing after another like a rat trying to escape a burning building, the already elusive dining public begins to detect the unmistakable odor of uncertainty, fear and approaching death. 

Now for the less cynical of you out there, A Blog To Watch has an exclusive interview, so if you're looking for a sweeter take on this slow moving train wreck, I suggest you head over there.

What to say? Well, I think that MCH is really not living in reality. And by that I mean that they do not even remotely fathom how pissed-off watch brands are, nor do they seem to remember how they screwed several brands out of thousands of Swiss francs that they could not reasonably afford to lose. They had no problem playing hard-ass with the people who were supposed to be their partners. It is, if I am honest, not unlike that abusive relationship. Your friends keep telling you to leave, but you say "You just don't understand! I can change them!"  Well, I guess we will see just how forgiving the people are who got hosed.  My guess? Not very.

Lausanne is the New Basel

Maybe...

Perhaps the worst guarded secret pinging around Watch Town today is the (I'm going to say less than surreptitious) first step made by MCH (organizers of the fair formerly known as BaselWorld) to potentially embark southwards to Lake Geneva.
https://de.watchpro.com/wagt-das-management-der-baselworld-einen-neustart-in-lausanne/

Whether or not this is the future, and the stars will align remains to be seen.  A few things that bear consideration -

Shamelessly borrowed from the world-wide infoweb

1.  When Daddy Warbucks (read Rolex, Patek and that "rags to riches" group that being born into the controlling family of does wonders for your professional prospects - LVMH) told BaselWorld to piss up a rope, it didn't leave a lot of room for potential reconciliation.  It also bears mentioning that it seems clear that the breakaway group really is not too interested or bothered in the public, or more specifically, that ever elusive unicorn - a paying customer.  Well, fair enough.

2.  Although I have never visited Geneva, it has been explained to me that both the canton and the city itself are controlled with the type of iron fist that would make Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge blush.  Nobody farts in that burg without the proper permissions stamped and processed by 15 different offices.  Meaning if the SIHH is calling the tune, most of the other brands are not going to be invited to the dance, and suffice it to say, nobody will likely rent any sort of space to any potential interlopers for fear of what could (and likely would) happen. 

3.  There were already A LOT of brands who had abandoned the fair prior to COVID-19.  And sometimes break-ups happen for a reason.  And now it is going to be challenging to drip enough honey to bring back the jilted former lovers.

Now for me personally?  While I might be able to get in to see Rolex, Patek and Tudor, I am effectively persona non grata to the gate keepers at Richemont.  And truthfully?  I'm okay with that.  

I also think that Lausanne is maybe not the worst place to host a fair for those that were left behind following the "rapture" of Rolex, Patek and the other "popular kids".  So the question is, will this be a "make weight" effort, or will this maybe, just maybe, be a Festivus for the Rest of Us?

Shamelessly Borrowed from the world-wide infoweb

We shall wait, and we shall see.

The Only Certainty is Uncertainty

Okay, it's been a crazy few weeks. And a lot has happened, and even after everything that has happened, there is still a veil of uncertainty.

Fact 1 -
Patek, Rolex and Tudor have decided to postpone the release of their new collections for now. Maybe until the proposed new BaselWorld schedule of January 2021, maybe sooner. Considering the slowdown in sales globally, well, fair enough, it makes sense.

Fact 2 -
Despite the global slowdown, a few brands decided to re-open (and even stay open) even when the majority of Switzerland is still on lockdown. Considering the slowdown in sales globally? Well, this makes absolutely no sense at all. Let us hope that this proves not to have been poor judgement. Health and safety are far more important than widgets.

Fact 3 -
There is now a potentially not-so-small scale dispute between the what is officially known as the Swiss Exhibitor's Committee and MCH - the parent company responsible for BaselWorld. The Swiss Exhibitors are, in essence, the brands who participate each year in the BaselWorld fair. And the spokesperson for this group is Hubert J. du Plessix. And before you figure that this is just some hack operator from a regional chamber of commerce, think again. Yes, Mr. du Plessix is the president of the Swiss Exhibitor's Committee. But he is more than just a spokesman for this group, he is also a not-so-insignificant member of Rolex's executive backroom.

Now, before I go forward, it is important for everyone reading this to know that I was one of two people unofficially working with the fair organizers to put help put together a small additional section to accommodate small independent brands. I was personally invested (albeit not financially) in seeing the fair move forward and be a success. But this year it was not meant to be. I am as disappointed as anyone else.

So what is at the heart of this dispute? MCH has decided that every participant that signed an agreement would be financially accountable for at least some portion of the fees for the fair this year.

This is the official statement from MCH:

In this challenging environment, Baselworld is very conscious of the stakes for all exhibitors and is absorbing a significant portion of costs due to postponing the show by offering to carry forward 85% of the fees for Baselworld 2020 to Baselworld 2021 (the remaining 15% will serve to partially offset out-of-pocket costs already accrued). If needed, exhibitors can alternatively request a cash refund which will be of up to 30% of the fees, with 40% carried forward to Baselworld 2021.

So, essentially, as it is laid out every brand will actually be out at least 15%. And for the brands that cannot afford to leave their monies in "escrow" for 9 months, they can get up to 30% back with 40% moving to 2021 and (I can only assume) 30% staying as a permanent "fee" with MCH.

In Mr. du Plessix's communication (which I and several other journalists have received forwarded copies), he stresses the importance of understanding that while it is indeed a unique situation, the long-term (or even immediate) future of the fair was at stake. He also pointed out that state agencies (Basel and Zurich among others) represented nearly half of the actual owners/ investors of the fair, and that the Swiss government was working to address just these types of issues. And the desire to hang onto fees at the rates proposed are all the more concerning when weighed against the potential for the fair organization's losses to be mitigated by the Swiss government, or any insurance policy that might also serve to help make MCH whole. Lastly, the fairly public statement of Dr. Ulrich Vischer, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the MCH Group, on March 26 that the MCH Group had "abundant liquidity".

So I find myself in a rather peculiar place on this one.

On the one hand, I am a writer with a desire to report the facts. But in addition, I am also partners with one or two watch brand owners that will now be adversely impacted by this (which means that I will be as well). And finally? I would really like to see BaselWorld happen next year and for the Watch Lounge live up the The HYPE, as I put a lot of (unpaid) time into it. In truth I would really love to see BaselWorld recover from this year and grow into a solid, sustainable annual event that benefits the industry as a whole. But if I divorce myself from all three (admittedly small) roles that I have in this Kabuki Theatre of the Damned, I have to be honest and say that sooner or later, this type of impasse was inevitable. It just so happens that COVID-19 was the catalyst, but this conflict has really been on the cards for some time, slowly bubbling on a low heat setting. Once the heat turned up? Well, the lid started rattling and now has popped off.

Arrogance -

This is a word that has been bandied about quite a bit. Journalists and brands complain about the arrogance of the BaselWorld fair organizers. But in truth? They are no more arrogant than the organizers of "The Fair Formerly Known As The SIHH".

Arrogance, if we are honest with each other, and ourselves, is pretty much endemic of the entire watch world. Watch Town is packed to the brim with ego, and those of us who live and work here are all guilty of letting it guide our decisions.

As I have mentioned several times before, in addition to being a teacher, writer and educational social worker, I am also a trained mediator. Dispute resolution is always preferable. BaselWorld needs Rolex (among other participants) to continue to participate in order to keep going. And at this point? A dispute between the fair and the exhibitors ensures that there is not going to be any winning, only degrees of losing. And if this is clear to everyone, maybe it is time to stop making statements, and start talking together, like actual partners.

Mediation is the answer.

Sometimes You're the Hammer...

Sometimes you're the nail.  

Word has found its way to Tempus Fugit HQ, that following an ill-advised public pissing match with Hayek the Younger, Rene Kamm has opted to fall on his sword and pursue other professional opportunities -


COURTESY OF REUTERS

So we shall see who the next contestant will be on the Price is Right, but for now MCH chairman Ulrich Fischer will ride the rocket.

Shamelessly borrowed from the world wide infoweb