Cancelled because of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, Watches & Wonders (W&W) was due to take place in Geneva but will now go online starting April 25, 2020 at 12:00 pm CET (or 6:00 am in New York, 6:00 pm in Hong Kong and Singapore), where most of the year’s new watches will be revealed.

Once known as SIHH, W&W was meant to take place in the Palexpo convention centre in Geneva. Now the 30 brands that would have taken part in the event will be presenting their wares on a brand-new W&W website, a project that has been completed in barely a month. Amongst the exhibiting brands are A. Lange & Söhne, Cartier, Hermes, IWC and Panerai, as well as independent brands like Ressence and H. Moser & Cie.

Three cheers for a long, long time ago, when W&W was actually real

The virtual fair will showcase most of the year’s new launches, accompanied by videos, articles and other content. And the April 25 opening is just part one of W&W, with the second part slated to arrive in summer 2020, where additional products will be launch, along with “strategic e-commerce partnerships”.

Ambitious as it is, being the first large-scale virtual “fair”, this may be the first and final instalment of W&W, given that Rolex, Patek Philippe, Chopard and Chanel have withdrawn from Baselworld and will be joining the new, as-yet unnamed fair in Geneva in April next year that will substitute W&W.

The virtual W&W will go live on April 25 at Watchesandwonders.com. You’ll find all of the new launches right here.