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Baselworld says it is “analysing and observing” coronavirus impact

Managing director Michel Loris-Melikoff tells WatchPro that there are currently no changes to its plan.

This week may be the first time in a year that Baselworld’s management team will be glad to have made the decision to move the show to the end of April.

The watch industry recoiled at the change of date, which did not align with production and delivery schedules that are almost impossible to adjust for the biggest players.

But rising concern over the coronavirus’s impact on global travel has already put paid to Swatch Group’s Time to Move event in Zurich during the first week of March.

Were Baselworld taking place just three weeks’ later in its usual late March slot, it too would be in serious jeopardy.

As things stand, the exhibition’s managing director, Michel Loris-Melikoff, tells WatchPro that they have time to see how the health scare develops.

“We are analyzing and observing the situation; there are still 3 month to go,” he says.

WatchPro also reached out to Fabienne Lupo, chairwoman and managing director of the Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie, and organiser of Watches & Wonders Geneva, but has not yet received a response.

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