A Brief Detailed Retrospective Of 100 Years Of Baselworld

A century of history of the world's biggest and most comprehensive copy watches uk fair is impossible to sum up in just a few lines. However, that is exactly what I am attempting to do here as the centenary edition of Baselworld approaches in 2017.

The history of the Baselworld watch and jewelry fair we know today began on April 15, 1917 as the first Schweizer Mustermesse Basel (MUBA).

Coincidentally (or perhaps not) this time is not only the same one that saw the wristwatch rise to popularity, but also one in which World War I represented a serious threat to the artistry of Swiss craftsmen.

A total of 831 companies from diverse branches of the national Swiss economy such as the chemical industry, banking, insurance, and transport and shipping – the city of Basel's chief economic mainstays – exhibited in the city's casino, and the 6,000-square-meter exhibition space also included a special section for watches and jewelry.

Among the first exhibitors were watch brands Tissot, Thommen, Longines, and Ulysse Nardin.

Mustermesse is German for "sample fair," a word perfectly characterizing the beginnings of this exposition, which has become the most important annual gathering of the watch industry in the world.

And it remains the oldest trade fair in Switzerland open to the public.

In 1923, six years after it had begun, the first halls were built where today's Hall 1 stands. This was also the year in which Zenith exhibited for the first time, making 2017 the Le Locle-based brand's 94th appearance at the show. Just one year later, the Swiss watch industry's Fédération Horlogère (FH) was called to life – an association it would be hard to imagine the industry without today.

For the exhibition of 1925, MUBA ("Mustermesse Basel") invited several more watch manufacturers. This was obviously successful, for in 1926 the first hall dedicated solely to the watch and jewelry sector – high-end Schaffhausen-based jeweler Furrer Jacot had already been exhibiting since 1924 – was opened on the grounds.

At this particular exhibition, John Harwood's automatic replica watches caused quite a sensation.

Harwood had invented a wristwatch with automatic winding in 1924 – at that time watches were still wound by hand – and sold the rights to Fortis. Movement supplier A. Schild subsequently perfected Harwood's construction for serial production, and Fortis utilized an AS caliber as the base movement.

At this Basel fair in 1925, Fortis presented the first serially produced wristwatch with automatic winding. The watch had no crown and the time was set by rotating the bezel. Blancpain and Felsa also introduced wristwatches containing the same caliber (see the Blancpain rendition in Eternity In A Box: The Blancpain Rolls Starring Léon Hatot Made Watchmaking History).

Because Rolex did not participate in the Basel fair until 1939, two of its most important inventions were not launched there: the Oyster in 1925 and its self-winding wristwatch mechanism patented in 1931 – and in use to this day – which the brand called the Perpetual rotor. The wrist replica rolex watches outfitted with it also boasted an exhibition case back to allow potential customers to see the "perpetual" motion of the rotor at work.

It was in 1931 that the Basel fair became known as the Schweizer Uhrenmesse ("Swiss Watch Show"). By this time the sector was so big that it was held in the dedicated pavilion that is today's Hall 1.