On January 10th, we announced our partnership with the LAAX OPEN 2019 Snowboarding World Cup. The most important European snowboarding event took place on the slopes and superpipe of the resort that’s been at the forefront of the snowboarding movement for 30 years, and Swatch was on site with Proteam member Xavier De Le Rue.

The legendary LAAX OPEN 2019 and Swatch are both big champions for extreme creativity, daring style and high-flying fun, so it makes sense that we would team up for one of the biggest snowboarding events of the year.

On January 14th-19th, the world’s most talented snowboarders took over the slopes of the famous Swiss resort. The stunning scenery on the mountain was perfect for our Swatch Booth. We feel very comfortable on the snow-covered slopes of our home country! Professional big mountain snowboarder and star of the YouTube channel “How to XV” Xavier de Le Rue joined us in LAAX for signing sessions at the booth, where spectators could purchase the event watch: XX-RATED in black or red with a loop featuring the LAAX OPEN 2019 logo. Xavier was eager to see how his sport had evolved over the past 30 years, and what better place to see how the skills have advanced than at a World Cup event? We were also able to bring Swiss rapper Stress to LAAX and he put on an unforgettable show on Friday night. Musical entertainment throughout the competition included non-stop DJ sets that made for a perfect soundtrack for the amazing performances on display.

In the LAAX OPEN Slopestyle finals, Silje Norendal from Norway and Chris Corning from the US both snagged gold with impressively executed moves from beginning to end. The Superpipe Night Finals on Crap Sogn Gion was the long-awaited highlight of the week and the energetic vibe in the crowd proved that the LAAX OPEN’s culminating event was very highly anticipated. After the sun set on the freestyle paradise, the outstanding performances began on the world’s biggest halfpipe: the superpipe. Known as the “big beast of LAAX,” the superpipe is 6.9 meters high, 200 meters long and 22 meters wide. At the end of the night, Olympic gold medalist Chloe Kim from the US and crowd favorite Scotty James from Australia stood atop the podium with their well-deserved World Cup titles.

At the end of the week, all we can say is... what a show! The level of the sport has been upped and with the heart-stopping moves we saw on the superpipe – at night! – we’re thrilled about where the future of this exciting sport is headed. What will these snowboarders come up with next? See you next year, LAAX!