Sylvie Ritter

Baselworld loses a piece

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A new question mark on Baselworld: René Kamm, CEO of Mch Group, leaves ♦

Baselworld loses another piece. After the resignation of the managing director, Sylvie Ritter, the time has come for the CEO of Mch Group, René Kamm. The Comité Mondial of the Basel trade fair organizer has chosen a new drastic change. Ulrich Vischer, chairman of the board of directors, will assume responsibility for the group’s operational leadership in close cooperation with the members of the executive committee during the transition period until the appointment of a successor to René Kamm.
This is not a little news, because René Kamm was at the helm of the fair for almost 20 years. He and Sylvie Ritter have led Baselworld to grow to become the worldwide benchmark for watchmaking and jewelery. But Baselworld has experienced a drastic downsizing as last three years. Just in July, Swatch Group, which includes 17 brands, including Omega, announced its decision not to participate in Baselworld 2019. A news that has cast a new shadow on what will be the next edition of Baselworld.
The Mch Group is engaged in a process of transformation, which should be carried out by the new managing director, Michel Loris-Melikoff. Forfait like the Swatch group, however, will not be easily replaced. Federico Graglia




Il management: al centro, Sylvie Ritter, managing director di Baselworld e il ceo, René Kamm
L’ex management di Mch: al centro, Sylvie Ritter, ex managing director di Baselworld e il ceo uscente, René Kamm
Interno a Baselworld
Interno a Baselworld
L'area di Crivelli a Baselworld
L’area di Crivelli a Baselworld
Sono stati 104.000 i buyer a Baselworld 2017
Sono stati 104.000 i buyer a Baselworld 2017
svarowsky baselworld
Lo stand Swarovski a Baselworld

baselworld 2014






Baselworld changes manager and skin






Baselworld renews itself: Sylvie Ritter leaves and a new number one arrives, Michel Loris-Melikoff. Here are the first initiatives announced ♦ ︎
Earthquake in Switzerland, epicenter in Basel. Only one victim, fortunately, but without damage to health: the former managing director of Baselworld, Sylvie Ritter. The manager after 26 years at the top of the Mch Group, the company that organizes the fair dedicated to jewelry and watches, gives way to Michel Loris-Melikoff, who until yesterday held the position of director of Mch Beaulieu Lausanne.
Here are the official statements: “After 26 years with the Mch Group, 15 of which as managing director of Baselworld, it is time for me to start something new and face new challenges”, says Sylvie Ritter, who received the usual thanks from of the Comité Consultatif of Baselworld. “Sylvie Ritter has left its mark on Baselworld for decades and has been the most important personal contact for exhibitors,” says François Thiébaud, president of the Swiss Exhibitors’ Committee.
Michel Loris-Melikoff is, therefore, the new operative number one. The manager joined the Mch Group three years ago as director of Mch Beaulieu Lausann, an exhibition company that has been part of the Basel group since 2010. Loris-Melikoff is a lawyer, 53, and started his career in private banking, before entering the event industry 20 years ago. After six years as president of the Zurich Street Parade, he took over the management of an event agency that developed and implemented concepts for national and international events organized by international sports associations, public bodies and private companies. He later became CEO of St. Jakobshalle in Basel before joining the Mch group.

Michel Loris-Melikoff
Michel Loris-Melikoff

What changes for Baselworld?

“We are expanding the Baselworld team and further developing the event to continue on the road to quality improvement and to face the challenges of the future”, are the first words of Michel Loris-Melikoff. “We want to place Baselworld as the main marketing and communication platform for the sector: we are tackling this task with a large number of new ideas and valuable input from exhibitors, visitors and the media”.
And here’s the first news: an change is coming, especially for the jewelery segment. New concepts will also be developed for the watchmaking and precious stones sectors. They will be presented shortly. Further innovations will be introduced in the catering, hospitality and events sectors “so as to meet the needs of exhibitors and visitors even more”. Baselworld 2019 will open a whole day for media representatives. The newspaper Baselworld Daily News will be back in print and with a new concept. At the same time, the digital information and communication offers launched in 2018 will be intensified and supplemented by new services for exhibitors, visitors and the media.





Michel Loris-Melikoff
Michel Loris-Melikoff

Che cosa cambia per Baselworld?

«Ampliamo il team di Baselworld e sviluppiamo ulteriormente l’evento per continuare sulla strada del miglioramento della qualità e per affrontare le sfide del futuro», sono le prime parole di Michel Loris-Melikoff. «Vogliamo posizionare Baselworld come la principale piattaforma di marketing e comunicazione per il settore: stiamo affrontando questo compito con un gran numero di nuove idee e con preziosi input da parte di espositori, visitatori e media».

Ed ecco la prima novità: è in arrivo un’iniziativa soprattutto per il segmento dei gioielli. Nuovi concetti saranno elaborati anche per i settori dell’orologeria e delle pietre preziose. Saranno presentati a breve. Ulteriori innovazioni saranno introdotte nei settori della ristorazione, dell’ospitalità e degli eventi «in modo tale da soddisfare le esigenze di espositori e visitatori in misura ancora maggiore». Baselworld 2019 sarà aperta un’intera giornata per i rappresentanti dei media. Il giornale della fiera Baselworld Daily News tornerà in forma stampata e con un nuovo concept. Parallelamente, le offerte di informazione e comunicazione digitale lanciate nel 2018 saranno intensificate e integrate da nuovi servizi per espositori, visitatori e media.

Sylvie Ritter
Sylvie Ritter inaugura Baselworld 2018
Modella con choker di diamanti di Jacob & co
Modella con choker di diamanti di Jacob & co
Visitatori a Baselworld
Visitatori a Baselworld
Tra gli stand di Baselworld
Tra i booth di Baselworld
Baselworld 2018
Baselworld 2018

Ingresso principale allo spazio espositivo di Baselworld
Ingresso principale allo spazio espositivo di Baselworld







Baselworld 2018, selection and news





Baselworld 2018 starts with the selection. But news jewelry are not lacking ♦ ︎
“The world is changing fast. Faced with this challenge, there are only two alternatives: to grow larger or to concentrate. We have chosen to concentrate”. The words of Sylvie Ritter, managing director of Baselworld, have opened the new edition, the number 101, of the great fair dedicated to luxury watches and jewelery. Indeed, more and more luxury, because if Baselworld 2017 counted 135,000 total visitors, down from 145,000 in 2016, in November the Mch group, which organizes the fair, announced that it would have halved the list of exhibitors and reduced the duration of the event, two day less, in response to the difficult phase recorded by the Swiss watchmaking players (the export of Swiss watches, however, after two years of crisis started to rise again at + 12.6% in the first few months of 2018). Baselworld also reduced the rental fee for the stands by 10%.
The result is that in Basel there are about 700 exhibitors, almost halved compared to 1,300 in 2017, when they had already fallen by 200 compared to 2016, but still the past year attracted 106 thousand buyers and 4,400 journalists (including those of gioiellis.com). And yet, if there are no more brands like Movado or Eberhard in watchmaking, there are always leading names like Rolex, Patek Philippe, the Swatch group with its many brands, some of which, like Omega. There is also the Lvmh group with Maison like Bulgari and Tag Heuer. And there are many top brands of jewelry, from fashion like Swarovski, or haute joaillerie with Graff, de Grisogono or Harry Winston, up to small Maison but with great creativity like Alessio Boschi, and the classic brands of Italian jewelry, Nanis, Giovanni Ferraris , Annamaria Cammilli, Picchiotti, Fope, Leo Pizzo, Casato, just to name a few. In short, Baselworld has lost weight, but still retains a lot of charm: the 101 years brings them well. We will tell the news in the next few days.



Sylvie Ritter
Sylvie Ritter inaugura Baselworld 2018
Booth Swarovski
Booth Swarovski
Ingresso principale allo spazio espositivo di Baselworld
Ingresso principale allo spazio espositivo di Baselworld
Collana Swarovski
Collana Swarovski
Al lavoro nei booth
Al lavoro nei booth

Interno di Baselworld
Interno di Baselworld







A heavy farewell to Baselworld




Baselworld, the largest watch and jewelery fair, loses another piece, Eberhard ♦ ︎
We deal with jewels, as the name of our headline says. But we must record a news that is related to the world of jewelery indirectly: Eberhard & Co., Swiss watchmaking company born in 1887, this year celebrating 130 years of history, announced that it will not be present in 2018 at Baselworld, the largest watch and jewelery exhibition of the world, where it has been exhibitor for 70 years.
It’s not a little news. What has been the world’s largest exhibition for watches, but also for jewelery, loses an important piece.
“Even during the last edition of the Basel Fair, despite the fact that the brand was one of the main protagonists of the event, thanks to its location in the prestigious Hall 1.0, it began to reflect on the possibility of a change, a decision not to entrust Baselworld with the introduction of brand new products, “says a statement from the Swiss company. “Eberhard & Co. then chose for 2018 to be no longer among the Salon brands, whose organization announced for the upcoming edition a further defect of exhibitors estimated between 30% and 60%, after the already remarkable reductions in recent years. It is clear that for independent brands such as Eberhard it is time to get away from the traditional contexts to seek closer proximity to markets and their needs. ”
Comment by Mario Peserico, managing director of Eberhard, is even more severe: “Baselworld has been a representative industry in the past, but this aspect is now disappearing without being replaced by a new project. I think many more will be defeats for 2018. ” Eberhard added that the presentation of its news 2018 will take place from March through dedicated activities and events.
It’s a tough hit for Baselworld. Already this year, the fair had seen the number of exhibitors drop: “It has been a difficult 12 months and forced some operators to abandon the watch or jewelery industry,” Sylvie Ritter, Baselworld’s managing director, admitted. “Our transformation process will always have to prefer quality to quantity. As a test, for this edition we have decided to reject some exhibitors. It’s a choice, our choice. ” An elegant way to justify the decrease in stands. The 2017 edition (it was the number 100) closed closed with 106,000 buyers (-4% over 2016, when they were 111,000 and less than 114,000 in 2015) from over 100 countries. And exhibitors fell 13.3%, from 1,500 to 1,300.
In the watch sector, for example, he had already announced the absence the Timex Swiss Luxury Division group, which operates luxury brands such as Salvatore Ferragamo, Versace, Versus and Nautica through licensing agreements. The watch sector, among other things, is suffering the spread of smart watches, such as Apple Watch, which has surpassed by revenues that of a giant like Rolex. And in jewelery for a long time no more middle-size brands such as Vhernier or Antonini aren’t in Baselworld, to say two Italians. Now the Basel Fair will have to try to use a lot of creativity to retrieve its actraction.




Mario Peserico, Eberhard
Mario Peserico, Eberhard

Baselworld 2017, interno
Baselworld 2017, interno
L'area di Crivelli a Baselworld
L’area di Crivelli a Baselworld

Sylvie Ritter
Sylvie Ritter







Double surprise at Baselworld

Baselworld 2017 has a century old and shows two surprises: the area Les Ateliers and Design Lab.
Official opening of Baselworld, which celebrates a century. In 1917 he debuted with 29 watch companies. Today, manufacturers are present timepiece 220. In addition, there is all the jewelry industry. But the centennial birthday is also celebrated in a not propitious moment from the point of view of the market. “It was difficult 12 months and forced some traders to abandon the watch industry and jewelery,” admits Sylvie Ritter, managing director of Baselworld. For this reason, the fair will be transformed. “This transformation process will always prefer quality over quantity. The proof is that for this edition we have decided to reject some exhibitors. It is a choice, our choice,”she announced. Words that have surprised many. In any case, we could understand, it was the exhibition space wider to create new opportunities. “In particular, these adaptations have allowed us to offer to the independent watchmakers, recently placed at the Palace, an area of ​​first choice in Hall 1. By creating this space, we called Les Ateliers, we have been able to meet growing demand of this sector, “said Ritter. She has also unveiled another novelty: the Design Lab. “This space dedicated to designer, active primarily in the field of jewelery, presents innovative unique and cutting edge creations.” In short, space for quality jewelry and new, previously had no access to the very high organizational costs, at Baselworld. Of course, the move is very reminiscent of The Design Room, the area set up in the January edition of VicenzaOro.
It seems, however, it’s watch industry that suffered more. According to François Thiébaud, president of Swiss exhibitors, in 2016 the Swiss watch exports fell by 9.88% compared to 2015, although the last quarter has been a slight improvement.





Anello di Stefan Hafner
Anello di Stefan Hafner

Baselworld, interno
Baselworld, interno
Ingresso della Messe
Ingresso della Messe
Bracciali di Fope a Baselworld
Bracciali di Fope a Baselworld

Sylvie Ritter
Sylvie Ritter







Baselworld on air

Press conference at Baselworld, the world kingdom of jewels and watches until Thursday, March 26th. A outline has been traced by René Kamm, Ceo of Mch Group, the company that organizes the Basel Fair. The event has been opened with pride of the MCH Group, as demonstration of such a wide resonance of Baselworld: the city welcomes the most important trade fair announcing the trends of the creators. He then expressed his gratitude to Sylvie Ritter and his team to “be able once more to meet the needs of the market and the industry and to conceive a living unmatched able to shine in the world.” The Fair has a leadership, according to Sylvie Ritter, Managing director of Baselworld: “This position envied and enviable must be defended vigorously. For this reason Baselworld evolves from year to year, gaining more and more functionality and efficiency and offers constantly innovating to meet the needs of operators evolving. ”
But there are shadows: the time, according to analysts, is not among the best, even though 2014 was positive for the watch and jewelery. About watches: second François Thiébaud, President of the Committee of the Swiss exhibitors, the 2014 was more difficult for the Swiss watch, but it was a year of consolidation. Exports continued to grow, with an increase of 1.9% compared to 2013, with a total value of 22.2 billion francs. And 2015 has started positive, with exports that reached 1.6 billion Swiss francs in January (+ 3.7% yoy). Federico Graglia

It’s time to Baselworld

Baselworld comes back, it’s the biggest event in the world dedicated to jewelry and watches. Visitors are expected 150 thousand, including 4 thousand journalists (even those of Gioiellis, of course), to identify the new products presented by 1,500 brands from 40 countries spread over 141 thousand square meters of exhibition. The fair is also a big business: according to the director of Baselworld, Sylvie Ritter, the event generates “800 thousand nights spent in Switzerland during the event, 13 thousand jobs across the country, and moves a turnover of 2.4 billion Swiss francs”. The Basel area has benefits from the trade show with 6,500 jobs and revenues of 1.2 billion francs, she said.

In addition to manufacturers of watches, Baselworld is also home to major players in the field of diamonds, pearls and precious stones, the machine suppliers and subcontractors. Here too there are news: for example, at fair you can visit the British company Cooksongold, that presents a 3D printer specially built for the production of gold jewelry. The printer M 080 promises to make jewelry with complex designs, which until now it could not realize due the difficulties in traditional production. The jewels are made layer by layer, with the merger of thin metal powder and a laser. In this way a jewel complex can be manufactured in a few hours.

In short, Baselworld is an event not to be missed. Some of the changes Gioiellis has just published, but there will be others to discover. But if the jewelry market seems to go through a period of reasonably good health, there’s some more problems for the one of the clocks. The markets of Germany, French and Russia are estimated to decline. In addition, the revaluation of about 25% of the Swiss franc is probably can damage on producers of the Swiss Confederation. Sales are better, however, in the United States, Japan, South Korea and the Middle East, although the decline of oil could soon curb it. “The Swiss watch industry is not in crisis, but we lack the visibility,” explained at Les Temps the President of the Fédération de l’industrie horlogère suisse (FH) Jean-Daniel Pasche. On the watches market, in addition, lies with the cyclone Apple Watch: can the smart electronic device depress sales of traditional watches? At Baselworld, perhaps, you will find an answer. Federico Graglia

Baselworld 2015

March 19-26  Basel, Switzerland

MCH Swiss Exhibition (Basel) LTD., 4005 Basel, Svizzera

Opening hours:

Daily from 9 am to 18

(except Thursday, March 26: hours 9-16)

Interno di Baselworld 2014
Interno di Baselworld 2014
Sylvie Ritter
Sylvie Ritter
La hall di Baselworld
La hall di Baselworld
La stampante M 080, che crea gioielli in oro
La stampante M 080, che crea gioielli in oro
Lo stand di pasquale Bruni
Lo stand di pasquale Bruni
L'esterno del centro fieristico di Basilea
L’esterno del centro fieristico di Basilea
Baselworld 2014
Baselworld 2014