The troubling trend of withdrawals from the 2020 Baselworld trade show continued this morning, with Japanese industry giant Citizen announcing that both Citizen and its stablemate brand Bulova will not be attending the show. In its official statement, Citizen cited the growing threat of the coronavirus epidemic as the reason for the abrupt decision.

In November of last year, Citizen Group had delivered a statement reconfirming its commitment to Baselworld for 2020 amid news of scheduling-related withdrawals by several other major brand groups. With this latest announcement, none of the Japanese Big Three brands (Citizen, Seiko, and Casio) are currently scheduled to display at the event.

Interestingly, aBlogtoWatch has spoken with representatives from fellow Citizen Group brands Frederique Constant and Alpina, who have stated that as of press time both brands are still slated to attend the 2020 show. aBlogtoWatch will continue monitoring these brands and report any further changes as they develop.

Citizen’s official statement continues with an assurance that both Citizen and Bulova intend to return to the Baselworld roster for 2021. While this is undoubtedly a major change for Baselworld 2020, show management has stated the event is still on track to occur as planned, currently scheduled from April 30 to May 5 in Basel, Switzerland.