BASELWORLD 2009 | An oriental air is in the air

Basel Special The 39th Basel Jewelry and Watch Fair, called the city of three nations because it is on Swiss territory but bordering Germany and France, ended a couple of months ago; the important event involved more than 1,900 brands from 45 countries. There were 6 pavilions available to exhibiting companies that highlighted the best of world production and this year saw a reversal of the trend in the number of visitors, with 100,000 industry professionals who traveled far and wide across the 160,000 square meters of the fair pavilions. Yes, because a drop in attendance had already been recorded for a couple of years, due to the stagnation of the global market that stopped due to the crisis. Many buyers were Russian, Japanese, American but also Indian and especially Chinese. Italians have always occupied a privileged position regarding the purchase of precious items, just think that we were in 5th place until a few years ago, now demoted by several positions and overtaken by the inevitable and rampant Chinese who have, over the years, developed a sense of beauty and luxury equal if not superior to ours. The fact is that companies in their carnet of precious items have inserted even more expensive and sumptuous products precisely to satisfy the numerous requests that rain down from the new economy countries. This difference will be noticed even more in the years to come and will not only be the prerogative of the world of precious items but, and above all, in the integrity of the luxurious product. Watches on display The first thing I really have to say is that this year the atmosphere inside and outside the Fair was imbued with good optimism, maybe because a good 60% of the visitors are non-European so they are experiencing a boom in expansion that we hope will return to us, the streets outside the fair were full of people, the bars chattering and the cars passing diligently, yes because even though the fair is structured in the center of the city, the pedestrian area does not exist except to preserve the old city, thus creating a lively moment of aggregation between the users of the fair who busily go from one pavilion to another (the stands are inside historic buildings or emptied executive offices where entire exhibition pavilions have been built inside) and the inhabitants, now accustomed to the events organized regularly during the year. The most popular companies: Rolex, Hublot, Omega, Hamilton, Tag-Heuer and Zenith, Movado, Patek Philippe, Vacheron Constantin, and BlancPain. Damiani, silver effusion The famous jewelry house Damiani presented two important novelties at the Basel fair that have enlivened the panorama in the jewelry sector: for some time there had been a request and a need for alternative proposals to gold jewelry with precious stones, to create a line, a jewel that was recognizable as a Damiani must, a jewel that embodies the spirit of the company aimed at a shrewd public, who loves luxury without blowing their credit card. And that's it; the D.STONE line was born in silver, with precious carved onyx or using mother-of-pearl for rings, pendants dangling from the bracelet and the pendant for the neck. Godmother of what will certainly be a timeless winning line? Sharon Stone. Sharon Stone and Damiani have in fact been collaborating for many years on humanitarian issues. A percentage of the proceeds from sales will be donated to a non-governmental and non-profit humanitarian association that takes care of bringing water to the most remote African villages. The other novelty concerns the Damianissimo D.SIDE watch which paid homage to its Italian origins by celebrating the 150th anniversary of the unification of Italy with a special piece studded with Green, White and Red precious stones.