SalonQP 2010: Foolish highlights
By The Prodigal Fool, published on 18 November 2010
Watches – perhaps even more so than cars, films, food or gadgets – are very subjective things to assess. We all have our personal preferences and distinct tastes: you know, the oddities that blow our skirt up when nothing else will.
So, although we normally like to speak with one voice here on The Prodigal Guide, when it comes to giving you the highlights of an event as broad as SalonQP 2010, we thought it fairer to do so in two parts.
Today, we present The Prodigal Fool’s personal favourites and tomorrow, you’ll get Straight-Six’s perspective.
A. Lange & Söhne
I confess: Lange is not a brand I’d been drawn to until this year’s SalonQP. Oh sure, if you know even a little about watches, you respect the Lange brand, but somehow the Glashütte-made timepieces have never really caught my eye. Until, that is, my friend Francis grabbed me by the arm and pulled me over to their stand. “You have to see the Lange 31” he whispered, slightly viciously “it takes a fucking wrench to wind it!” He wasn’t entirely wrong. With a power reserve of 31 days, lucky owners do indeed have to use a winding key to transfer the power into the mechanism. As it turns out, the Lange 31 was one of the only models the company hadn’t brought to the Salon. A shame. But Francis’ incredible story and the time we spend perusing the stand regardless left quite an impression.
The following day, I was honoured to appear on the SalonQP panel debate with Ken Kessler, Elizabeth Doerr and Peter Roberts. Just as I was getting over the shock of being on the same panel as these experts and was plucking up the courage to speak, I glanced down at Elizabeth’s wrist and was floored all over again. There shimmering on her wrist was a Lange Zeitwerk in rose gold: a stunning, original and beautifully crafted watch. Forget the Rolex sausage factory, this is serious timepiece territory folks and, I admit, I’ve been rather smitten ever since.
Perrelet
The Perrelet Turbine XL. What can I tell you about this puppy? Not only had I never heard of the brand before SalonQP but I’d certainly never seen anything like this watch before. The rotor powering the watch is connected to a turbine mechanism with 12 blades that are visible through the front of the watch and cover the whole of the dial. Move the watch and the rotor – and thus the turbine – whirl into action in front of your very eyes. Stunning. Does the incredible turbine have any mechanical benefits? Eh, I forgot to ask. Hey, sue me! I’d had a fair few drinks by that stage and was hypnotised by the visual effect it creates. And really, when it looks this enchanting, who cares!?
Bremont
Once you start paddling around in the warm, inviting waters of watch fanaticism, there’s always a danger of being swept away by the current of a good yarn or, to give it a more technical name: marketing bullshit. That is to say that every brand seems to have its own special story, its own identity that it promises to bestow on its clients. Bremont’s story is more dangerously endearing than most. Resolutely British, the company was started only a few years ago by two charming brothers, Nick and Giles English, who, having seen their father – a pilot and engineer – die in a flying accident, decided to turn their backs on their careers in the City. They wanted to do something with their lives that they could really enjoy and that would be a fitting tribute to their father. The Bremont watch company was born after a foray into restoring old planes and a very successful dalliance with a media company. Their principles are individuality, precision and durability. They’re now making some of the most straight-forward, masculine watches out there. See? Hard not to be charmed isn’t it? Well forget all that. Appealing though this one is, brand stories of any kind shouldn’t convince you to buy watches. On the other hand, just feast your eyes on the U-2 pictured here. A pretty stunning pilot’s watch isn’t it? Yes, forgot the story, they don’t need it: the products speak for themselves. I’m hooked.
Zenith
Just as I was admiring the El Primero Stricking 10th on Francis’ wrist (an acquisition so recent, he hadn’t received the invoice yet), he grabbed my arm (he’s quite a forceful little fellow in case you haven’t realised yet) and dragged me over to the Zenith stand.
Again, I must confess – just like Lange – I’ve never been very taken with Zenith. Until, that is, we were shown the Christophe Colomb.
The glass globe dominates the face of this piece and so it should as it contains the watch’s very heart and soul: a gyroscope-balanced regulator, a self-winding gyroscopic module that ensures a permanently flat positioning of the regulator organ.
Now, the whole tourbillon thing has never really done it for me. There’s a whiff of bandwagon about most of these pieces, but I’ve never seen something as instantly impressive as this gyroscopic one. Truly a stunning piece of engineering.
They’re only making 25 of these and the Zenith representative was visibly nervous when we talked him into unlocking the display case and letting us try it on. Interested? I’m sure you’ll agree that it’s a snip at £135,000.
12 Faces of Time
As I said earlier, I was fortunate enough to sit on a panel with Elizabeth Doerr during SalonQP and it was a pleasure getting to know her a little. I wanted to chat to her after our session but the poor woman was rushed away to host her own book signing. That’s right, she’s written a book called “12 Faces of Time” that aims to provide some insight into the creative and inspiring process behind some of watch making’s legends.
I had a chance to catch up with Elizabeth later in the evening and to look through the book. It’s really a class act. Beautifully photographed (by Ralf Baumgarten) and thoroughly researched. You get a real sense of personal insight from the book.
It’s not a book for the casual watch fan, that’s for sure. You have to be pretty committed to the subject matter since it covers watch makers and brands that most will not have heard of. But if you are, then it looks to me like it will pay you back in spades. Well worth the £70 asking price. If you’re interested, you can order a copy from teNeues.
Bonham’s: vintage Jaeger-LeCoultre Polaris
Boring, I know, since I said pretty much the same thing last year, but I can’t finish without mentioning Bonham’s. Dammit, they just had to show up with another great looking vintage Jaeger-LeCoultre Polaris didn’t they?
I believe that it’s in their 15 December auction along with the incredible Haslinger collection of NOS Heuers. Yes, don’t worry, we’ll be there…
Photo credits: Many thanks to Noodlefish and Ian Skellern for some of the photos we have shamelessly stolen and featured here.
SalonQP 2010: Foolish highlights
Watches – perhaps even more so than cars, films, food or gadgets – are very subjective things to assess. We all have our personal preferences and distinct tastes: you know, the oddities that blow our skirt up when nothing else will. So, although we normally like to speak with one voice here on The Prodigal [...]
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13 Responses to “SalonQP 2010: Foolish highlights”
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Salesmen! They’d say anything to part a fool and his £135,000.
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Ivan Y
18 November 2010
Don’t you think that Perrelet Turbine is a little bit gimmicky and too much like wheel spinner that were all the rage but went out of style rather quickly?
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Very interesting comment, Ivan. In short, yes. Or at leas let me say: it’s too gimmicky for me; I wouldn’t spend my own money on it.
And I think this raises a good point about this highlights post that perhaps I should have made clearer: It was never intended to be a list of the things that I would most like to own. Rather, I tried to list the things I saw at SalonQP that stuck in my memory, that were special or different for some reason. That I beleive may appeal to others as purchases. If I only wrote about watches that I wanted to buy, it would get pretty dull pretty fast around here.
The Perrelet may well be a gimmick and, who knows, maybe it will go out of style but I defy anyone who sees one in operation not to be rather captivated and charmed by it.
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Ivan Y
19 November 2010
Thanks for the elaboration, Mr. Fool!
Quick question on Bremont: Supermarine – thumbs up or thumbs down? It’s a new brand, so — rather like Linde Werdelin — I don’t know if it’s worth buying for a long run (don’t trade watches).
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Purely on looks I give the Supermarine thumbs down. While I love the U-2, to my eyes at least, the Supermarine just looks too derivative. Not to my taste.
But – I do think the brand has legs. They’ve got good products and great momentum.
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Ivan Y
22 November 2010
Is there a particular aspect of U-2 that makes it look better than rather unimpressive photos on Bremont’s site? I don’t really get it… Their MB line looks way better, IMHO.
Not that you’d even convince a person with Russian heritage to wear a U-2 watch… Well, maybe to commemorate the fact that we shot it down in 1960 and US government tried very hard to cover it up (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1960_U-2_incident)
P.S. History sure makes tougher to chose a watch — e.g. can’t wear classic German’s pilot’s watches thanks to Herr Hitler.
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SalonQP Foolish Highlights – Part II « The Prodigal Guide
19 November 2010
[...] Today, we present Straight-Six’s personal favourites given The Prodigal Fool tickled your eyeballs and wallets yesterday. [...]
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Helly
22 November 2010
I actually just barely purchased the Perrelet Turbine with the red face. I understand that at first glance it seems a little gimmicky, but after wearing it around for the first few days I have been pleasantly surprised at how subtle it has actually been. People have not been rushing over to me and telling me how cool it is or how much it caught their eye (which might be fun at first, but would certainly dip into the realm of gimmicky after awhile). Instead, I notice people here and there stealing glances at it, only after I have been in the room for awhile. So far it has been a perfect balance of attention and subtlety.
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Congratulations on the purchase Helly.
I think you may enjoy our post today.
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The Perrelet Turbine XL in action (video) « The Prodigal Guide
22 November 2010
[...] We mentioned the Perrelet Turbine XL in our SalonQP highlights post but then, through our hungover haze, we suddenly remembered that we’d taken some video of it [...]
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El Guapo
27 November 2010
A very, very cool event. Lange’s Zeitwerk was definitely the highlight for me. Like Straight Six, I too noticed the disparity in depth between the numbers in the minute window, but any aesthetic concerns disappeared upon seeing the thing tick from 29 to 30 past. Mesmerizing.
My one recommendation to the presenters: make sure the watch your potential customer is trying on is wound and ticking. Messing around with screwed in crowns on a watch after it’s on the wrist is well-nigh impossible and shaking one’s wrist to get it going is, well, unbecoming.
Is a writeup of the panel on which you participated forthcoming?
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Straight-Six
29 November 2010
The Fool doesn’t remember it. He did, after all, walk up to the panel desk sit down and slug his glass of wine to kick things off.
With a start like that, who needs a finish?!
Seriously, I thought he did a great job considering what his mind and body had been through the night before and over lunch.
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Ian Skellern
18 November 2010
Regarding Zenith’s amazing Christophe Colomb and your commment, “Now, the whole tourbillon thing has never really done it for me.”
Despite what the salesman was telling everyone and the word “tourbillon” (quotation marks theirs) in its technical description, the Zenith Christophe Colomb is in no stretch on the term a tourbillon. There is absolutely nothing tourbillon-like about the escapement.
The Christophe Colomb’s escapement is gimballed so that it tries to stay in the same position (relative to gravity) at all times. A tourbillon does the complete opposite: it constantly rotates the escapement so that (ideally) it is never in the same position (relative to gravity).