For watch collectors, enthusiasts, and industry veterans, it?s kind of hard to believe that Baselworld hasn?t existed in a meaningful way since 2019. Covid (and a rapidly changing industry) killed the industry?s biggest trade show in 2020, and as soon the show was on life support, many began prognosticating about the future of large scale industry events. Over the course of the last five or so years, the watch world has settled into a groove, with Watches & Wonders (formerly the far more exclusive SIHH) largely replacing Baselworld as the big spring must-attend watch event, with an ever growing roster of brands exhibiting at the show, and even more taking meetings in unofficial capacities adjacent to it. 
Baselworld being effectively replaced by another show was probably somewhat predictable, but a turn of events that fewer saw coming was the rise of Geneva Watch Days as a major end-of-summer tentpole event for the watch community. Originally conceived in 2020 as a way for a small handful of brands (Breitling, Bulgari, De Bethune, Girard-Perregaux, H. Moser & Cie and MB&F) to bring watch collectors together in a pandemic ravaged year, the event has grown to over 50 official participants and many more exhibiting on the fringes, taking advantage of the influx of collectors and watch industry types on the city of Geneva while the event is up and running.  
If you talk to people who have attended Geneva Watch Days since it began, you?ll hear a lot of chatter ...