Baselworld, where the watch is still the greatest gadget

The new York Times:

For one week in March, this glittering watch and jewelry show (which ran March 19 to 26), attracts 150,000 industry insiders, collectors and fans, emerging from the digital mists of the 21st century like Brigadoon. It is a village unto itself with its own language, values and celebrities.

And a curious village it is. In an iPhone-toting era, where millions go out in public every day flaunting naked wrists, this is one corner of the globe where the wristwatch — that centuries-old feat of micro-engineering once considered as obsolete as the rotary phone — is the only personal productivity device, status symbol and idea on earth that seems to matter.

Interesting how an article about watches can be written this day without ever mentioning the Apple Watch by name. The reporter must have had to twist himself into knots to not get a single relevant quote from any of the assembled “150,000 industry insiders”.