Basel, Switzerland, is returning as the venue for a major watch and jewelry show with the launch of Basilia planned for April, 2027. There’s no word yet on which brands will participate, but event organizers say the show will give watch and jewelry brands from Asia and other parts of the world a venue to connect with buyers from Europe that don’t participate at Watches and Wonders in Geneva, which is dominated by a handful of major Swiss brands, including Rolex, Patek Philippe, and Cartier.
At a media conference Thursday in Basel, announcing the new fair, organizers stressed that Basilia is not a return of Baselworld, the massive event that was once the world’s largest watch and jewelry fair boasting more than 2,000 exhibitors at its peak before Baselworld’s final show in 2019.
“Baselworld is no more. It has been more than seven years now, and it will not come back,” says Roman Imgrüth, the CEO of MCH Group Exhibitions and Events, which is hosting the new fair with Informa Markets, the trade show and business-to-business events division of publicly listed Informa Plc.
Basilia organizers, including MCH Group Exhibition and Events CEO Roman Imgrüth (left), announce plans for a new watch and jewelry fair in Basel.
Organizers say Basilia, which will take place after Watches and Wonders in Geneva, is targeting some 400 exhibitors and between 2,000 and 5,000 visitors for its inaugural edition next year. Participants and exhibitors have yet to be identified, but organizers say about half the show will consist of jewelry brands and makers, with about 25% dedicated to gems and jewelry materials, and the remaining 25% consisting of watch brands and watch industry players.
“We start from the assumption that clients will not spend millions on booth construction. We want them here with great products. Costs will be affordable for the clients that we target,” Imgrüth adds.
In an interview in Basel at the opening of the Baselworld Art fair that is also staged by MCH, Imgrüth said the event organizers had been in touch with leadership at Watches and Wonders as well as major jewelry shows, including Vicenzaoro in Italy and Inhorgenta in Munich, Germany. Both Vicenzaoro and Inhorgenta existed well before Baselworld ended in 2019.
“Their positioning is still the same, and so from a jewelry perspective, the demand for this platform, especially from Asia, was quite loud,” he says.
As for watches, Imgrüth declined to say if Basilia was hoping to draw in Swatch Group as an exhibitor. Swatch brands, once the anchor of the Baselworld watch fair, abandoned the show in 2018, a move that hastened the demise of the event. Breitling and its new House of Brands structure, which includes Universal Geneve and Gallet, is also a potential major watch partner for the new fair, as are Asia-based powerhouse brands such as Citizen and Casio.
“Without disclosing any individual discussions, we talked to important players in the industry, not to convince them, but to get their opinion, and just for them to be aware, because you know, we don’t do platforms for our own sake, we do it for industry,” Imgruth says.
“We want to prove that Basilia is a place for all of these stakeholders and a gathering of the industry that celebrates the cultural differences and uniqueness and that showcases products that you don’t typically see somewhere else,” he adds.
Basilia organizers say they don’t expect to compete with the haute horology and high-end luxury brands at Watches and Wonders and say participating brands and exhibitors at Basilia will be announced in the coming months ahead of the inaugural edition of the fair, which will follow the Geneva watch event in April, 2027.
