Keeping up appearances
Baselworld gives watch companies an opportunity to present their brand image to professionals from all over the world, and the industry responds with elaborate architectures, each more imaginative than the other. Spotlight on these temples of luxury.
Patricia Lunghi
Ten-metre high cubes wrapped in wood, stone, glass or steel. Windows running along each side, displaying new launches or historic models to illustrate the different firms’ legacy of excellence. Inside, restaurants served by state-of-the-art kitchens and two, three or even four floors of air-conditioned private offices with plasma screens, ready to do business with customers from around the world. No, these aren’t stores on New York’s Fifth Avenue but temporary stands at the Baselworld international watch and jewellery fair. Not that "temporary" is the most appropriate description for these veritable works of architecture. The only difference is that they are taken down at the end of the fair and stored in warehouses, ready to be reassembled the following year. These imposing showcases have a lifespan of five to ten years and swallow up a colossal budget.
Stand out from the crowd
With so much riding on the architectural face of a brand, from its production facilities and boutiques to its display windows and stands at fairs, the trend has been around for a number of years. Focusing on a stand’s visual impact is one way to stand out from the competition, and Baselworld is clearly a favourite venue for these feats of fantasy. The biggest event of the year for the watch and jewellery industry, Baselworld has a strategic role as it welcomes journalists and trade visitors from around the globe. Some brands make up to 80% of their annual sales there. Léonie Bochot, spokesperson for de Grisogono, confirmed: "The importance of Baselworld goes beyond its economic aspect. We develop our brand image here. We meet our main customers and the international press at Baselworld. This is an essential element when promoting a brand."
Strolling along the aisles at Baselworld, and in particular in the Hall of Dreams, visitors are free to admire the contrast between the relatively simple stands, such as Jaquet Droz and its sober elegance, in perfect keeping with the product, and the pharaonic, even extravagant constructions that occasionally contrast with the relatively classic products inside.
Phenomenal figures
This outburst of opulence is personified by the de Grisogono stand, newly-inaugurated at this year’s fair and which defies description. A rather bling-bling luxury object, designed to mirror the brand’s corporate philosophy, this new showcase is an ode to the precious stone on which Fawaz Gruosi has built his reputation and fame. Seen from the outside, it resembles a fortress of black diamonds. The walls have been angled into 960 pyramid shapes and the summit of each incrusted with a luminescent diode. A monumental staircase connects the two floors, with 20 plasma screens and an actual waterfall to complete the whole. The stand, which covers 560 sq m, rests on a metal structure weighing almost 30 tons. Some 700 sq m of carpet were used. It took 14 trailers to transport the material, and 34 people 25 days to assemble the stand. Enough to make your head spin.
Seiko also unveiled a new stand at Baselworld 2008, but in a far more low-key style. This new decor has been christened The Cube, and for good reason: nine-metre high white walls studded with 40,000 crystals form a luminous corridor, the Crystal Canyon, which opens into a central area. This is clad floor-to-ceiling with brown stone to imitate a cavern, in a rather startling contrast to the bright white corridor. Despite this slightly intimidating feel, the Seiko stand can claim to stand out from all the others by its audaciously contemporary design.
At Breitling, 7,000 fish
The Tag Heuer stand shed its old skin in 2007… an apt expression as the outside is designed to resemble an epidermal structure with light bouncing from aluminium "scales." Masterminded by the Milanese architect de Blasi, who has signed the brand’s boutiques since 1994, 47 tons of steel were brought in to build this giant structure, a true feat of technology. Extending over 1,000 sq m, it includes 35 offices. The challenge for the architect was to "create a structure that could be taken apart and which conveys the values of the brand. In this particular instance, these are more masculine values associated with the automotive world: energy, performance and precision." No one can deny that Tag Heuer’s chosen concept does indeed respect these values in an avant-garde construction.
The world of aeronautics, the symbol of Breitling watches, is reflected in a stand that gives a very personal interpretation of aviation. The outside of the aluminium structure is covered with genuine stone (pietra dorata) whose rippled surface suggests the shimmer of metal or the sea. The Lausanne-based architect Alain Porta certainly pulled off one of the most spectacular stands, thanks in particular to a giant suspended aquarium to remind visitors that the brand also makes diving watches. A system developed by Professor Joubert, Cousteau’s right-hand man, to produce artificial seawater means that each year 7,000 bream take to the water, and to the air, before returning to La Ciotat and the sea at the end of the fair. But do they enjoy the trip? ■
