Column: Basilia 2027 – New Trade Show, Old Questions

Good old Baselworld, which, together with its predecessor, MUBA (Mustermesse Basel), had been around for over 100 years, began a rapid decline in 2013.

The Long End of an Institution

Following a completely excessive and extremely costly renovation of parts of the exhibition hall and a redesign of the exhibition booths—which was not well-received by everyone—prominent exhibitors gradually began leaving Baselworld. In 2019, the Swatch Group and the trade show’s long-standing management team departed. Amid the turmoil of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the five largest remaining exhibitors also ultimately left Baselworld. The end was in sight. Now Basilia is following suit.

Following Baselworld 2019, the 2020 edition was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic. Later that same year, organizers announced the renaming of the event to HourUniverse and set 2022 as the date for its debut. In 2021, the event reverted to the name Baselworld.

However, they stuck with the concept—only to scrap it as well a few months later. Most people thought that was the end of it. Especially since Michel Loris-Melikoff, then Managing Director of Baselworld, decided to leave the company following the cancellation.

Aside from the COVID-19 restrictions still in place at the time, the organizers also cited the desire to take more time than originally planned for the relaunch as a reason for canceling Baselworld 2020.

Basilia 2027: The Trade Show Concept

It took several years. It’s finally set to take place in April 2027: The Basilia Jewellery & Watch Fair is set to make its debut as an annual B2B event in Hall 2 of the Basel Exhibition Center, with more than 400 expected exhibitors (50% jewelry, 25% gemstones, and 25% watches). An exact date has not yet been announced, but the event is apparently scheduled to coincide with the start of the public days of Watches & Wonders in Geneva, which also takes place in April.

Old ideas with a new look?

The concept of Basilia (the historical name of Basel) is similar to the one Michel Loris-Melikoff explained in an interview with WatchPro Germany in the summer of 2021 ahead of Baselworld 2022—in the shadow of Geneva, which was already establishing itself as a new exhibition platform for the watch industry:

“We want to be a modern platform for the entire watch, jewelry, and gemstone industry. (…) The focus isn’t on the architecture of a booth, but on the products and the people who make up this scene. (…) It’s important that people can conduct business and network, that they have a great time in Basel and discover new things. That’s more important than the architecture of a three-story building. (…) And we need to give retailers the opportunity to find the widest possible range of products in one place at a specific time. (…) Diversity also means that people don’t just want to see Geneva-based luxury watch brands at a trade show; they also want to discover new watch brands and smaller manufacturers, as well as jewelry and gemstones—all in one place. And the Geneva-based organizers don’t offer that. (…) As a B2B platform in the mid-luxury segment, it aims to combine trends in experience marketing with the needs of the entire community in the mid- and high-end segments of the watch, jewelry, and gemstone industry.”

Mind you: That was the description of the planned Baselworld 2022.

The official press release about Basilia strikes a similar note. Among other things, it states that the industry lacks a broad commercial ecosystem and that the new format will fill this gap as an international business-to-business platform in Europe. This sounds like a fresh take on the 2022 Baselworld concept—including the layout of the exhibition space.

At the press conference on June 18, 2026, Roman Imgrüth, CEO of Exhibitions & Events at the MCH Group, explained in this regard that the “City” concept for Basilia would be “affordable”: “We don’t expect customers to spend millions on booth construction. We want them here with great products. The costs will be affordable for our target audience.”

Despite the parallels, Imgrüth spoke of an entirely new concept: “It’s a completely different way of presenting the product,” he replied when asked by the Keystone-SDA news agency how Basilia was expected to succeed where Baselworld had failed. There will be products at Basilia that cannot be found at any other trade show in Europe; moreover, they are intended to be affordable. Basilia is something “completely new,” Imgrüth replied.

Geneva as an overwhelming competitor?

At the risk of being a killjoy: I have my doubts as to whether this oh-so-new concept will work out—at least when it comes to watches.

In my opinion, it is even more difficult today than it was in 2021/2022 to successfully establish another watch hub in Switzerland alongside Geneva.

This is therefore a bold move that the trade fair company MCH Group intends to take together with the international event organizer Informa Markets.

In just a few years, Watches & Wonders in Geneva has become the place to be for watch brands, retailers, and collectors. And while the number of luxury watch exhibitors in the Palexpo halls continues to grow unabated, more and more smaller brands and vendors offering more affordable price points are gathering in the immediate vicinity year after year.

During Geneva Watch Week, you can now meet a large portion of the international watch industry: from professional market participants to watch collectors from all over the world. The line between B2B and B2C has long since blurred.

The date chosen for Basilia is also noteworthy: April. Presumably to coincide with the opening of Watches & Wonders to the public. That sounds like a smart move. Retailers and the press could make the mass exodus from Geneva to Basel together without having to plan for a costly stay back home.

But they also want to see something. The big question is whether the “broad commercial ecosystem” will embrace Basel as a new-old trade show venue. Or whether it would prefer to position itself among the luxury brands at Palexpo—or has long since found its place there.

Of course, in many quarters there are still calls for the return of an all-encompassing Baselworld. But not alongside Watches & Wonders—rather, in its place. So, for now, this is just another patch added to the Swiss trade show landscape. Whether it will actually become a viable part of the whole remains to be seen.