The jubilee annual show BaselWorld 2012 wrapped up proving to be a success. Famous brands from around the world, jewelry and watch manufactures were once again given an opportunity to present their most topical trends and latest innovations in the watches and jewelry world.
BaselWorld is considered one of the biggest events of the year in the world of luxury goods, demonstrating the highest level of organization in the exhibition business. This year, due to construction of additional buildings the Basel Exhibition Center was expanded, but this is not the limit. In 2013, another large-scale expansion is planned in line with a new concept set forth by the organizers.
This time, the show brought together by 25-30% more exponents and visitors compared to the previous year. A new record was set by the media present at BaselWorld – 3,320 journalists from more than 70 countries, which is 9% over the last year. For the exhibitors it was of paramount importance to have such a worldwide daily coverage of the ongoing events to reach out to the public at large. At the end of the show almost all exhibitors declared themselves to be particularly pleased with the level of sales they had achieved.
Jacques J. Duchêne, Chairman of the Exhibitors' Committee, announced the results as follows: "The eight highly successful days confirmed once again the leading position fair in Basel. 2012 should be truly a good year and we are highly satisfied that nearly all the brands will now be investing in their new stand for BaselWorld 2013. This is the best way to show more positive development in the future.”
Giuseppe Picchiotti, the owner of Picchiotti, expressed his opinion: “BaselWorld is of key importance for the jewellery brands. We are happy in respect of the sales we have achieved. Precisely our business with South East Asia ran very well indeed. As of very important 2013, we will be investing more for show and our expectations will be correspondingly greater too.”
A no less number of positive comments were heard from the suppliers of precious stones too. Hence Bernd Willy Ripp, managing director of Groh + Ripp, sums it all up: “After a highly successful show in 2011 we were able to boost the good result we obtained by a further 25% this time round. The quality of the visitors was exceedingly good. The other precious-stone dealers are similarly highly satisfied.”
Ralph Chow, Director Product Promotion of the Hong Kong Trade Development Council, underlines the purchasing behavior was gratifying and the potential in the boom markets, including Russia and Latin America, highly promising.
Jasmina Steele, International Communication Director at Patek Philippe, has noted: “We received 800 journalists at our stand, which is a considerable increase over previous years. And these included a large number of new contacts with journalists. It was quite convenient for us to personally attend to a large number of media representatives within a very short period of time.”
Sylvie Ritter, Managing Director of BaselWorld, sums up as follows: “Looking back at this successful BaselWorld 2012 with a certain amount of nostalgia. At the same time, I am looking forward with great expectations to the new dawn. And to give some delight to our exhibitors we decided to change the normal winter time of show for the end of April 2013”.
Veronica Novoselova, Rough&Polished, Basel
