Writing from Milan may give me a unique perspective of the current coronavirus situation. Offices have been closed, people walk around wearing masks, and many Fashion Week events were shutdown in their final days. International media has reported that food shelves are empty in grocery stores and yet the local store shelves are stocked full. But here at Montres Publiques we talk about watches, watch history. And fear, in many cases justifiable, has already started to affect our beloved industry, but has this happened before?
In 2003 the world dealt with SARS, an atypical pneumonia first found in 2002 in Guangdong, China. At the time, not only was the world not as connected to China, but the watch industry was certainly far less interconnected, or reliant, on China as it is today. Baselworld 2020 was recently cancelled for fear of the new coronavirus, as was Watches and Wonders. Back during the SARS epidemic, Baselworld was dealt a similar blow, as two days before the fair, exhibitors from countries that had had outbreaks were banned by the Swiss government. The Swiss announced a decree explicitly banning people who had been to China, Hong Kong, Vietnam, and Singapore after March 1st, dealing a huge blow to the fair that affected about 45% of all exhibitors and reduced attendance by 22%. This move also did huge damage to the Swiss industry’s relationships in China, which they had been building up for the last decade through events like Baselworld.
Given how globalization has taken our industry to new, unforeseen levels of interdependence, we can only sit back and guess how governments and businesses will react to the comparable coronavirus epidemic. For the 2004 show, Baselworld dropped its “Two Cities” with Zurich plan after pressure from the nearly 400 Hong Kong exhibitors who were banned in 2003 and still reported a 39% rise in attendance, showing that no matter what challenges have been thrown at it over its decades-long history, the show must go on.