I kinda miss Omega being at Basel. Was always a fun week.

 

true but i'm excited for the future - to see how Omega approach new product launches.

They are innovating and moving with the times. #SpeedyTuesday - brand ambassadors - embracing their heritage - staying true to their product lines and really stepping up their movements / new technology.

Their CEO is very open, humble and clearly cares.

I think their move to pull out (well swatch group) was bold and will set the precedent now.

 

I feel that Omega is constantly releasing new models that they don't need to time the release with Basel World.

 

Yes - plus look at Basel this year.

Terrible showing.

Rolex releases and Tudor are a joke. They turned up with some colour adjustments and a movement tweak + an existing watch (no-one can buy) with a bracelet from the bin of DJ's.

Even Patek released some pretty bad efforts, apart from the weekly calendar calatrava which, with its hand painted indexes are pretty lovely.

 

absolutely horrible. Even Rolex disappointed me.

 

I always felt that Big brands booth in baselworld was always like a fortress. Impossibly difficult to enter and meet people. Whereas smaller brands were so open and approachable. What did you feel about Omega during past Baselworlds?

 

One day I will attend Basel World. it would be nice to see the smaller, up and coming brands.

 

To add to my previous comment, the media event in May is scheduled for 14th to 16th. Here they will surely have all watches on hand for media outlets to photograph and handle. I suspect that there were some watches missing at the buyers event this week, and perhaps only images and drawings were seen for some models. I'm not saying the SS version will be revealed at this event, it could be sooner, but you can be sure they will have some big announcements saved for that event. media are coming in from all over the world for it...

 

May 14th indeed. Calendar marked.

 

If I had the money I would like to have the Patek khaki aquanaught, I really like green watches and some of the releases from Zenith are pretty cool looking.
Though they have gotten mostly negative reviews, Rolex and Tudor still manage to grab all the attention. Due to the fact the desirable models are difficult to hold of, I don t really care what they release, there are plenty of nice watches to spend money on that you can walk into a shop and buy.

 

I could see Basel slowly fading away not completely but more brands pulling out and doing their own little show based on an occasion etc. I would think the brands would want to have more control on releases times shwping off to public etc.

 

Agreed. The show is fading away. We didn't visit this year. There were very few exhibiting watch brands as compared to last year.

I am hopeful for next year but then again we cannot expect the brands who have pulled off to come back to the fair.

This year the organizers seem to have tried really hard to make the fair more interesting and attractive.

 

That would be fun, any word on how / when Omega will introduce its releases this year?

 

WatchAdvisor has an interesting youtube video interview with J-C Biver about his Baselworld observations and what he would like to see happen to make it more relevant. He is full of interesting ideas and, as usual, very entertaining.

 

Thank you very much. WatchAdvisor is indeed one of the most entertaining and interesting bloggers and JCB one of the most clever persons in the watchmaking industry. I totally agree upon what he says about what needs to be done for Baselworld to continue to exist.

 

Thank you for sharing!

 

https://www.hodinkee.com/articles/why-nick-hayek-pulled-the-swatch-group-out-of-baselworld

"On Monday, July 30, in a phone interview with CNBC, Hayek explained. Clearly frustrated, he issued a scathing indictment of Baselworld's management, which he says is resisting changes that need to be made in the show, and ignoring the show's exhibitors, who are rightly clamoring for change. Including him. "

This Hodinkee article suggests they left after the BW management failed to "make changes". But Nick Hayek never mentions specifically what these changes were meant to be. Now that Swatch have their own show, I look forwards to seeing these "changes".

Thoughts?