With the overall financial situation, this year’s Baselworld was a big question mark for all the Swiss watch manufactures, not knowing what to expect from the retail market situation.

The results showed that fewer visitors came to the Fair and the one that made the trip stayed a shorter period than usual.

On the figures’ side, for the first time in many years, a drop on the orders was felt, resulting from several leading markets that faced a sizeable drop in the last quarter of 2008 as well as in the first quarter of 2009.