Baseljing 2016
I fancied a visit to Switzerland to see my wife who is working in Geneva.
She actually works for the Police, in watches too. Reuniting stolen or lost watches and jewellery with their rightful owners.
It so happened that Basel Watch Fair was on the same week I planned to go.
As technically a resident of Geneva I was able to buy a ‘Go anywhere train, bus or boat ticket’ for Chf40 per day and as I haven’t been to Basel since 1998, thought I would give it a look.
In 1998 I was employed by the Japanese owners of the once great American Waltham Watch Company to describe and catalogue their entire collection of historical Waltham timepieces. This was quite a large task but very interesting because it included the Waltham pocket watches with rock crystal plates, finest quality chronographs and chronometers and several watches owned by American Presidents, flyers and explorers. Including Abraham Lincoln, Sir Ernest Shackleton, Charles Lindbergh, Henry Ford and Florentine Ariosto Jones who founded IWC.
The Japanese owners had no new models to show at Basel for 1998. So they needed to display something.
And in my opinion because of dreadful management, an MD who sacked nearly all his staff and employed his illiterate daughter as receptionist, a Company with no employees and no vision soon went into the ground !
It has now been bought by an American who intends to revive this once world leading name.
Well I got to Basel on it’s opening day and went into one of the main halls looking to buy a ticket. I was told that tickets were being sold in a wooden hut. On my way out of the hall I was approached by a wealthy looking elderly lady who asked me for my ticket if I had finished with it. I explained that I didn’t have one yet and perhaps she should buy one also.
I bought a ticket for Chf80 and proceeded with a thick book of where each stall was to find the people I had intended to meet.
I planned only to visit a few specific stalls where pals of mine were working.
I am not a watch collector as such. Just a humble repairer.
The Fair was held in several different buildings over many floors and frankly I could have done with an electric car to travel around the venue(s).
The ticket had to be tediously scanned on entering and leaving every hall, typical Swiss security.
First thing I noticed was the Fair was full of Chinese, both buying and selling.
Many crisp suits and after shaves permeated the atmosphere.
I headed for Omega to chat with a retired employee of theirs and who was sitting in a café, part of the Omega stall, waiting for me. As I tried to enter the café a burly security guard approached me and said ‘This is a Private Area, Business only!’
‘But I just paid Chf80’ I replied, ‘Why should any of this be private ?’.
At that point my pal Fritz appeared and welcomed me to the café.
I pulled a gawpy face at the Security guy ! All 6 foot 10 of him.
We chatted about Omega and its future. He told me that many jobs in watchmaking have been axed, due to downward sales and this because of the high value of the Swiss Franc plus global uncertainty.
He told me that many Chinese were now investing heavily in watches and that the Swiss had pitched their prices according to what the Chinese will pay.
He also told me that many retired Swiss find it hard to live on their pensions and there is a lot of hidden poverty there.
(I did witness that for myself. I was approached by one or two beggars asking for money.
One 19 year old Romanian girl standing by the tram queue to the Fair asked me to buy nappies and milk for her baby.
She was a bright girl and obviously good at begging.
I couldn't refuse.
I sometimes do.
She told me that the Swiss will not employ immigrants in favour of Swiss.)
I was told by Fritz that he found it disturbing that this brand would stop supplying parts to independents even though they were short of repairers nationwide.
The idea being to get all watch repairs returned to CH.
I also learned that a French retailer was supplying parts to independents against Omega policy, and that of other luxury brands, because his customers were complaining about the long repair waiting times and walking back out of his shop with their broken watches.
He told me that watches are now taking up to 42 weeks for service in CH.
And with higher than ever charges.
From Omega I happened upon the Glasshutte stand where a watchmaker was dismantling a pocket watch for public amusement. He had an interesting old micromillimetre measuring tool which I asked him about. There is a photo of it in Jocke's Basel post. As I did so I couldn’t help notice that the watch he was dismantling was an English Thomas Russell.
‘How come you’re taking a Thomas Russell apart?’ I enquired.
Five or six people were watching this guy take the watch apart.
He looked like a rat in a trap and said ‘Oh they are very similar to old Glasshutte watches’.
‘Oh yes’, I replied, ‘Coventry and Glasshutte watchmakers regularly exchanged ideas before the Second World War, when Glasshutte became a prisoner of war camp’.
‘Anyway who are you?’ He continued.
‘Oh I am just a watch repairer living in England. I sometimes make cases but I’m getting a bit old for that now’.
He quickly retorted ‘Well maybe you should give up repairing watches too’.
At which point several of the observers gasped and raised eyebrows in disgust at his rude remark.
‘What an arrogant b*stard’ one guy uttered.
But my wife said ‘It serves you right you shouldn’t have mentioned the War!’.
Sharp exit !
The first of many Chinese stands I visited had two very tall and self conscious chinese models in native dress, trying to entice customers to their wares.
Some pimpy looking guy was telling them how to stand and grooming their costumes.
The watches were very complicated looking timepieces with so many dials and hands it would be difficult to know which one was the time.
I noted later that many watches on display had very complicated faces and it seems to be the theme for 2016.
Whilst walking around it was impossible not to notice the extreme wealth of many Fair goers. One guy who looked Arabic had diamonds studding the face of his shoes and was wearing a ton of gold and diamond jewellery.
Another had a caddie carrying his brief cases. He was Indian I think.
Outside the main hall was a private parking area full of very expensive and classic cars. This was drawing a lot of attention from those who had gone outside for a smoke.
Naturally I looked at the commoner luxury brands briefly then left the main hall non plussed.
It looked more like a shopping mall than a Watch Fair as I remember them.
Mostly sales personnel and very few practical watchmakers in sight.
I headed to the smaller pitches where innovations take place. New ideas, latest technology and small time luxury watchmakers who want to make it big time.
Since I was told that the price of a stall at Basel is Chf16,000 per square metre, I am not surprised that some of these stalls were as small as a 3x3 metres square.
Smart style, connected watches were on display here. The Swiss have mostly been ignoring them but guys like JC Biver (MD of Hublot, Tag Heuer amongst others) are saying that the Swiss need to wake up to them soon or they will miss the boat. The Chinese are obviously very into these as they move from manufacturing to high tech innovations.
Well I visited about 30 stalls in all, including my friend Kari Voutilainen who is now following Daniels in making an innovative escapement.
I also visited Ronda to enquire about spare parts manufacture.
Then Elmo, to look at new cleaning machines and went to several other tool and spare parts makers.
Finally I caught up with my friend Michel Golay formerly of J LeC and we moaned about Frederic Piguet movements over coffee.
He never thought that J LeC would now be using them.
By this time I was exhausted and looking forward to a good nights sleep and visiting a great watch tool shop in Bienne, the next day, which my old friend Maurizio now owns.
I hoped to visit CERN too but didn't make that due to my wife's remarkable cooking abilities (Gulp!)
I've got to say the best day I had was on the Saturday morning visiting the Plainpalais antiques market in Ge.
It's a car boot sale really but it has loads of watch tool stands, paintings, furniture, you name it and everything except watches is cheap.
I was amused to hear 'Hey, hello English with no money, how are you?'.
I have a habit of haggling with the Swiss stall holders and he remembered me....perhaps for not the best reason, but we always got what we wanted. That was nice.
When I got back to Geneva one of my TZ customers texted me and asked ‘Did you buy anything at Basel?’.
‘Course I did !’. I replied.
'What, what did you buy?'. He eagerly asked.....
'Two croissants!'.
Reply With Quote