Hong Kong watch fair on the wane, but ‘not being Baselworld’ could help attract global brands
Exhibitors at this year’s fair say that visitor numbers were down but the ‘right people’ – the ones on business – still come, a nice contrast to Baselworld where throngs of non-industry attendees make it harder to meet clients
The Hong Kong Trade and Development Council’s Watch & Clock Fair last week closed the doors on its 36th edition.
Thousands of people attended the five-day event at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. Millions of dollars in business was conducted.
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But as exhibitors packed up their booths, the mood was mixed over uncertainty in the wider watch industry, as global sales struggles at the high end of the market trickle down to the mid and mass sectors to which the Hong Kong fair caters.
“[The fair] is definitely down in terms of visitors and importance,” says Vishal Tolani, director of Hong Kong-based Solar Time, the holding company for brands such as AVI-8, Ballast and Spinnaker. “We’ve been here for years and it’s not as interesting for us as it was before.”
Tolani explains that the show used to take up every floor at the convention centre. “Our booth was three storeys [high] and in the past we had gimmicks like model planes crashing through it,” he says. This year’s fair took place on two floors, sharing the week with HKTDC’s Centrestage fashion event. All the booths were very much single-storey affairs.