Antwerp’s Slaets welcomes us into its horological cave of delights
By Straight-Six, published on 26 November 2010
We talk watch. A whole lotta watch a whole lotta the time. Truth is, outside of our personal collections and the odd visit to a retailer or watch fair we – much like you, dear readers – have to satisfy ourselves with watch porn. A whole lot of it.
Now, that’s all good stuff and works reasonably well for most of the time, but there is no replacement for the real thing, folks. Much can change between the moment you eyeball a timepiece and actually manipulate it before trying it on. It’s real and often brutal, having on more than one occasion ruined perfectly concocted acquisition plans.
So, it was not only fortuitous, but decidedly magnanimous when watch and jewelry retailer Slaets invited The Guide to come to its Antwerp-flagship store and, well, fondle and examine as many watches as we could stomach. Needless to say, we shredded the tires on Straight-Six’s M3 in an effort to get from Brussels to Antwerp as rapidly as possible. This is about as good as it gets and there was no time to waste.
Slaets has been a family-run business since its founding in 1904 as a small clock and jewelry store, blossoming to three stores across Antwerp. Despite the size and scale of the atrium in their flagship store, the welcome we received was warm and they were always helpful and incredibly patient as we drooled over their six-figure timepieces, forgot to wear gloves when we were supposed to, took far too many pics and behaved like children in a candy store. Thank Christ all of this took place in a private viewing room on the first floor. Far away from real, paying customers…
Much like a fine meal, Slaets served us up two different platters of watches – playfully including a huddle of Hublots following our post about how the brand has taken leave of its aesthetic senses. This was no-holds barred watch sampling at its best and the beauty was Slaets introduced us to a number of timepieces, and materials, that The Guide would almost never consider given they don’t fall within our definition of restrained, timeless elegance. Yes, it’s good to taste something new and have your preconceptions pressure-tested before confirming or destroying them. Slaets managed to do both.
So, without further ado, let’s take you through our thoughts on the treats that were on offer:
Platter 1 (Jaeger-LeCoultre; Breguet; IWC)
We’d never handled a €134,000 timepiece before, but the Breguet Tourbillion Messidor in 18-carat rose gold was worth putting on a glove for. As we move ever further down the paths of watchdom, we’re starting to better appreciate what separates the mainstream from the truly special and this Breguet is a fine example of this, with a movement that is entirely engraved by hand with a Tourbillon regulator. Not something we would buy, but instead stare at and admire. We were less interested in the Classic XX, although the grey dial was rather tasty.
Jaeger-LeCoultre remain the brand we would most love to be chained to. For the rest of our lives. And the range of pieces they produce was highlighted by the Master Grande Ultra Thin we’ve raved about and Duomètre à Quantième Lunaire we were privileged to handle. The latter is simply breathtaking, though we’d prefer it in pink gold (a material we are taking a serious shine to…) rather than the yellow gold version we were mesmerised by, what with its jumping stop seconds function accurate to the nearest 1/6th second and the two independent power reserves. All this makes the €25,000 price tag come across as a bargain. While the Master Grande Ultra Thin was as gorgeous as we expected the leather strap on this almost €6,000 timepiece was bargain basement. Simply not good enough, JLC.
Last, but not least, came two cheeky IWC Portuguese Chronos. Now, The Fool was given one of these wrist-saucers by the incredibly generous and forgiving Mrs. Fool for his birthday, and Straight-Six has always thought that the pinkgold hands and indexes don’t quite work on such a bright white background. Lo and behold, Slaets presented us with the blue steel hands/indexes version which is more cohesive. What we weren’t ready for was the pink gold/black dial version of the Portuguese. Evening wear is a term we normally identify with women, but in this case we have to admit to being seduced by a watch that can claim that term for its own. Rich, deep and utterly luscious, the pink gold Portuguese has that killer metallic brown dial that only the non-steel IWCs have access to and was enough to make us want to do a runner with it. Pity about the locked door…
OK. Wipe your mouths, loosen your belts and get comfortable. You now ready to tuck into Platter 2? Then tune in next week as we share what happened when Slaets hit us with some mighty Big Bangs…
Slaets, De Keyserlei 42 & 46-48 / Schuttershofstraat 30 bis, Antwerp, Belgium
Antwerp’s Slaets welcomes us into its horological cave of delights
We talk watch. A whole lotta watch a whole lotta the time. Truth is, outside of our personal collections and the odd visit to a retailer or watch fair we – much like you, dear readers – have to satisfy ourselves with watch porn. A whole lot of it. Now, that’s all good stuff and [...]
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6 Responses to “Antwerp’s Slaets welcomes us into its horological cave of delights”
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Straight-Six
29 November 2010
My man,
There is a room full of big, serious guys who stand heavily armed and motionless awaiting the order from JCB to come and, um, do interesting things to me if I don’t succumb to the charms of Hublot.
Look to this Friday’s post to find out whether I’m as dumb as I look…:)
And again: thanks for making it all happen!
Cheers,
Straight-Six
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He’s dumber than he looks.
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Ivan Y
30 November 2010
Just like with Rolex, we fully expect you to come out with a “the only Hublot worth buying article” (I’d take a guess, it’d be Classic line that’s less in-your-face than Big Bangs).
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Straight-Six
30 November 2010
Shit, Ivan. There are just no surprises left for you anymore, are there?
Stay tuned. I’ll make it worth your while, big fella…:)
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[...] week, we shared our observations on a host of watches following a visit to the luxury timepiece retailer Slaets, in Antwerp, Belgium. And now, having [...]
Maarten__S
28 November 2010
Thanks for stopping by ProdigalSix, we really had a great time talking watches.
I wonder wether you’ve come to senses and will give in to the allmighty … you know … hublots