A last minute business trip quickly came together last weekend, and within 4 days of booking tickets, I was flying to my old country. Leaving San Diego in the morning, with bright blue skies and the temperature heading into the low 80's as I boarded my plane, I was excited to finally make this relatively new watch show held at the quite famous Saatchi Gallery off The Kings Road, Chelsea in London.
Sunny San Diego airport.
Salon QP is in it's 5th year and is found in a rather ritzy location for a watch show. I had until now failed to justify to myself the time & money to attend: my timing though was impeccable for the trip and coincided perfectly with the SalonQP.
The Gatwick Express heads over the Thames a few minutes before arriving into Victoria.
Arriving into a cold and windy London Gatwick, I jumped aboard the "Gatwick Express" for Victoria and headed to the Saatchi Gallery. Upon arriving I headed upstairs into the galleries where many of my friends were exhibiting their wares. Of course, there were many familiar faces too from the "Watch business", writers, photographers, bloggers, investors and marketing folk! When one attends Basel for 14 years, a certain amount of "Watch business" people become familiar.
Alex & Marco from L&H in Dresden.
I'm happy to say that Marco Lang and his colleague Alex were in attendance showing off their new highly complicated anniversary watch, the Augustus with it's magnificent Caliber VII with 18K rose gold bridges, cocks and wheels! I saw the prototype in Basel, so we chatted about business in general and I was then off to my next stop.
Stepan Sarpaneva is a brilliant watchmaker and designer of watches. He has been working on a Tourbillon for a few months, and having followed his progress via facebook, I was excited to see the running prototype at his stand. He also had brought along the enamel dialed K0 which I was interested to see. As a lover of enamel dials, this was intriguing and in person it didn't disappoint.
The K0 Tourbillon prototype Stepan has been working on for himself!
On the wrist, it has a great look and is very much a Sarpaneva!
The enamel dialed Moonphase beauty!
His use of the iconic grill over the top was in keeping with his design aesthetic. I pressed him to make a trip to the sunny climes of southern California, I know he'd enjoy it, particularly if it occurred during his colder season up North! Close by was my Hungarian friend Aaron Becsei, who showed a proto of his latest piece, the Dignitas, which I'd seen in CAD pics before, but nothing real. It was stunning! His watches have a rather old world styling, maybe a bit gothic and an irregular shape, so they are a bit of an acquired taste. In terms of workmanship, they are stunning and his hand finishing is superb. He also had the splendid Triple Axis tourbillon with him. Again, this piece is a technical tour de force and the cages are gorgeous. Very rarely a fan of regulator watches, this one I appreciate for it's craftsmanship and superb finishing, but style wise I find it misses the mark for me. Oh well, as they say, you can't please everyone all the time.
I had an appointment with my friend Richard from Pinion, who has been keen for us to find a working relationship. I want to help him, as I believe his commitment to English watchmaking, while freely admitting to using good Swiss calibers, is something worth supporting. I wasn't terribly excited about their first offering, the Axis Automatic, but upon seeing the Axis Pure, I was seeing a lovely watch.
The Pinion Pure cased in marine bronze at 42mm.
The dial work and case are lovely, with a reliable ETA 6498 beating inside, here is a watch that has style and good design. I grabbed a bronze piece, as I felt the high polish steel was a bit bright for me. The other watch I was eager to see was the Revival 1969 chrono, which features a new old stock Valjoux 7734 caliber never assembled from 1969 until now!
Pinion Revival 1969.
Again I loved the dial and being familiar with this caliber having owned a superb Habring2 chrono with it, I was excited to see what Rich and his team had done with it. Limited by how many NOS calibers they have, an edition of 100 pieces will be made, and at $6850 I think it represents quite a lovely hand wind chrono.
Please excuse the non optimum photo quality, this was an iphone pic!
I went over to see my slightly crazed French friend, Vianney and catch up with him after stopping and talking to Kari Voutilainen for 5 minutes. Kari had a couple of gems in his little showcase, I had to examine the exquisite tourbillon of course but the piece that really grabbed my focus was a gorgeous pale blue guilloche dialed Vingt-8 GMT. Kari's dials are getting quite adventurous in some cases, this was a bit of a departure from his usual classic look.
Kari's latest Vingt-8 GMT with the GMT dial at 6 o'clock.
He also showed me a Vingt-8 with striking orangey-red numerals and discs on his modified Breguet hands. Kari was very excited about the English market for his work, saying his English clients really were huge fans of his work, truly appreciating his style and craftsmanship, with several clients owning more than one of his pieces! To me it made perfect sense, with the natural appreciation for classical style and exquisite workmanship, I could imagine him finding many a happy client in England. Might be biased here! Anyway, as I got to Vianney's showcase, he was readying himself to face the British weather for a lunch. Kindly inviting me, I agreed to join him and another great watchmaker, Antoine Presuzio for a bite to eat on the Kings Road.
Antoine's latest project with his son, an oversized automatic with power reserve and mixed metal case & lugs. A bit too "bling" for my taste! They apparently have no problem selling them.
Antoine, yours truly and Vianney.
Funnily enough we ended up in a Japanese sushi restaurant in London. Wouldn't have been my first choice, but as I was a guest, it wasn't my place to decide! Of course we had a great time, and it was a pleasure getting to know Antoine, his son and wife. We returned under a British shower, without the benefit of an umbrella!
I then wandered around taking the sights, many small brands were in attendance, so it was educational being exposed to them. My friend Johannes Jahnke, formally of Lang & Heyne, now reside with his growing family in Switzerland, where he develops calibers for the likes of Christopher Ward and Meistersinger. he showed me the C.W. Ward inhouse automatic he designed for them. It represents quite a value, and as they only sell through their own website, the consumer gets a lot of watch for the money. Of course the buying experience isn't what most of my clients wish for or expect, but it works for them. A different type of business for sure. Bidding him farewell, I bumped into the two genius brothers Grönefeld from Holland, fresh from their win in Geneva at the GPHG, they actually declined a beer!
The Parallax Tourbillon and it's creators, Bart & Tim.
Closer up, plain light.
Now some reflected light, to reveal the lovely blued steel hands.
Fortunately they were happy to chat and show me their superlative Parallax Tourbillon. Tim & Bart are two of the more fun and entertaining fellows in the Independent Watchmaking world, so spending time with them is allways good. One day I must make the trek over to their country and visit. On my way out, I stopped by Andreas Strehler's stand, where he was showing his latest creation, the semi-skeleton Papillon with power reserve on the back.
Front, again a poor pic, lighting wasn't great, and the iphone struggled!
Beautifully hand finished.
Last but not least, Max Busser's colleagues were showing off the latest MB&F Horological Machine. The HM6 is quite something and again touches on several themes, primarily space travel and sports a central tourbillon under a domed crystal. It also had a "Shield" that can be closed over the tourbillon to cover it, sort of like a cloak. The titanium case is "spaceship" in looks and feels amazing on the wrist. Pictures will reveal more than words...
Central flying 60 second tourbillon.
Domed bubbles reveal the hours and minutes similar to the HM3. The Tourbillon is partially "cloaked"
The tourbillon has been cloaked.
The back showing the MB&F green 950 platinum rotor on their caliber.
As I had an appointment with a client in Covent Garden for dinner and to deliver his new Speake-Marin, I had to depart prior to the evening cocktail event, which I suspected was going to be a fun time unfortunately. Such is life when you have to work for a living! No complaints though seriously, as I enjoyed a great seafood dinner with my new friend Graham and got to see his smile as he strapped on his new watch. Acquiring a watch by fellow Englishman, Peter Speake-Marin, was exciting and possibly way past time. Worth waiting for though! We finished up our meeting and I headed off to meet my old friend who I was staying with. The following day I headed over to the island of Jersey to deliver the other Speake-Marin watch. As my folks live there too, I got to spend a couple of days with them prior to returning to the sunny climes of San Diego via a rainy London!
I would encourage any of you in the UK or near by to attend the SalonQP event if possible as one can really spend time with some of the greatest watchmakers on the planet, see their watches in a relaxed and pleasant atmosphere without the crowds and hoards of watch press swarming around Baselworld. I'm only sorry I didn't get to attend the evening event, as that I suspect would be quite fun. They also have several lectures during each day of the show, which I imagine are full of fascinating and useful data. I think I might need to make this an annual trip!
Cheers,
Tim