Things are very complicated in the watchmaking industry as well, thrown off balance by the rapidly-advancing pandemic – Watches and Wonders and Baselworld were among the first watch events to be canceled, along with Swatch Group’s Time to Move.

Then came Seiko and now Breitling, which announced they were forced to cancel their novelty presentations (Breitling is hosting a webinar to let us see the novelties, which is great news).

Rolex and Patek Philippe have announced that they will push all novelty launches to next year, to avoid putting even more pressure on the retailers. Some of the independent brands tried to organize a small event of presentations in Geneva, but it too had to be canceled.

Also, some brands had to resort to a temporary shutdown of production – for safety reasons mainly and, also, perhaps, for financial reasons, since many of the watch brands are relying a lot (too much, in my honest opinion) on the Chinese market, which was virtually dead for more than two months.

So this is, indeed, unprecedented. And difficult. And scary.

And it adds to the previously existing difficulties experienced by the watch industry, which has been grappling with a lot of challenges, such as poor, vision-lacking management, digitalization, failure to attract the young generation.

Moreover, Rolex just resorted to an unprecedented move – the very tight-lipped company has for the first time expressed dissatisfaction with the way Baselworld officials are handling the financial issues triggered by the cancellation of the show (more exactly, trying to make the brands pay 15% of the costs for this year). And please don’t get me started on the way the famous Les Trois Rois hotel in Basel is handling this year’s reservations for Baselworld – namely refusing to give people back their money.

So, is this the end? I think this is the end of the watchmaking industry as we know it. The good old times were gone, anyway, replaced by a strange situation that not many people, if any, could understand.

What now? Some brands may disappear. Some brands may learn their lesson. Some brands will thrive. Some more brands will definitely leave Baselworld and it remains to be seen if there is still going to be a Baselworld next year. Us, journalists, are not seeing any new models so far, so it will be very hard to write true watch stories for those of us who loathe the idea of publishing press releases in guise of real articles (which some of the publications have been doing for a lot time but again, in my honest opinion, I think this is just terrible).

In the end, true watches, real brands will not disappear. I believe that, in times of crisis, the good is very easy to tell from the frauds.

This too shall pass. I pray.