BaselWorld… It is a little like the international film festival in Cannes. There is a visible—in fact, very visible—face, and there is a face that is less—in fact, much less—visible. At Cannes, the visible face is seen on the red carpet going up the steps showing the films selected for the competition. The less visible face can be compared to an ‘underground bunker’ where the largest film market in the world takes place, where everything is bought and sold, from the most spectacular Bollywood musical comedy to the most fragile art film.
At BaselWorld, the visible face was seen in the large brands, the enormous media hype, the concept watches and the quadruple tourbillons. The less visible face was the group of stands—in the hundreds—that remained in the shadows but where everything was bought and sold, from the $10 watch to a highly coveted object of timekeeping art made by a small artisan.
Contrary to a number of other publications reporting on the watch industry, Europa Star, a veritable
professional tool at the service of the entire watch industry, does not limit its coverage to only the ‘visible face’, to the shiniest and most prestigious parts of our industry. Rather, our magazine goes behind the scenes, digging into the least illuminated corners of the stage to bring you the most complete and comprehensive coverage of the sector of time.
As you can easily imagine, it is impossible, in the limited space of a single issue, to cover all that we would like to discuss. Instead, in our issues over the course of the year, we will distil and transmit
information and data that contribute to a better understanding of the watch market. For example, we will return in more detail in the next few issues to the subjects of: technical developments (ES 4.09 ‘Special Mechanical’ distributed at the end of August 2009); design trends (ES 5.09 ‘Special Glamour & Design’ distributed at the end of October); and the state of global distribution (ES 6.09 ‘Special World Watches’ distributed at the end of December).
We must also add that Europa Star is not only on paper—far from it. On a daily basis, our comprehensive website, www.europastar.com (in English, Chinese, and Spanish) brings you the same high level of analysis and discussion. Every day, in a ‘continuous flux’, the site brings you the most
current and important global watch news, descriptions of the latest products and the viewpoints and analyses of our editorial team.
We are convinced, now more than ever during this fragile economic period, that Europa Star, the only truly global B2B watch publication, is an indispensable tool at the service of the whole watch industry, regardless of category. During our 82-year history, we have evolved with the ‘times’, so to speak, in order to meet our goals of covering this important and fascinating sector. And, we have also experienced other ‘watchmaking crises’, including some quite serious ones, so we understand only too well that communication is even more indispensable in hard times than in good times.

The Europa Star team

Source: Europa Star June-July 2009 Magazine Issue