I felt my first twinge of affection for sports watches a few years ago when I was invited to Florence to attend a Panerai event. I stayed in a wonderfully picturesque hotel on the banks of the Arno, visited a museum and was generally royally wined, dined and entertained. I believe that St. Tropez with Omega and Ellen MacArthur came next when we sailed on a yacht with Ellen at the helm. This obviously helped to consolidate the twinge of affection.
Flying Business Class to and from these events meant that there was room to stretch our pencils, legs and notebooks, but a vital element in my developing relationship with sports watches, were the flutes of Champagne during the flights and the events.
All of these factors had been taken into consideration when TAG Heuer flew me to New Zealand for the Louis Vuitton Cup, the winner of which, Alinghi, became the official Challenger and the eventual winner of the America’s Cup. Between glasses of Champagne, there were regular trips on a motor launch to follow the races, as well as an outing one day when I took the helm for a while on an eight-year old America’s Cup yacht. My feelings for sports watches were slowly but inexorably developing with affection intensifying into a warm liking.
All of these elements played an important role in my relationship with sports watches, however I have so far omitted the most obvious and important element … the sun. The sun definitely helps to develop an appreciation of these organized events, it brings about a feeling of warmth, of wellbeing, of unadulterated luxury … which in turn stimulates an endearing feeling to the sports watch. As interesting as the hustle and bustle of foreign parts is, not to mention the panoramic seascapes and the wines and delicate tastes of the foreign clime, it is at the end of the day, the sun that is primordial.
I saw hundreds of sports watches at BaselWorld that did little or nothing to further augment my amorous feeling towards this watch category. I had to wait for nearly a month, until the end of May to be exact, before my feelings were enhanced to the point of actually falling deeply, madly, passionately in love with them: first with Hamilton on sun-drenched Lake Como, which included a hair-raising flight in a seaplane, to launch the Khaki X-Wing Automatic and Navy Regatta, then with de Grisogono to introduce the Power Breaker during the recent Cannes Film Festival and finally, there was TAG Heuer’s invitation to St. Tropez a week later for the launch of the New Aquaracer Calibre S.
These events were brilliantly organ-ized so that we could fully appreciate the wonderfully sunny weather. There were excellent meals and fine accommodation and if you could lift your head from the deckchair long enough, there was the added enjoyment of watching the passing parade of partially dressed international stars and personalities. Needless to say, there was the inevitable press conference with a touchy-feely session of the new model of sports watch, but that’s the price we have to pay for pursuing this love. If the truth must out, it didn’t detract too much from lounging on a yacht in the sun, but it did consolidate my amorous feelings and I have to admit that I am now an ardent lover of sports watches.
Hublot also recently arranged a watch launch in Monaco that meant flying to Nice and then taking a helicopter to Monte Carlo to participate. Pierre Maillard, our Editor-in-Chief was invited, but because he had priorities other than the sun, he asked me if I would go. I had to refuse, because as interesting as the watch almost certainly was, the weather forecast was not good and quite frankly, I don’t really enjoy helicopter trips.
Pierre recently mentioned in Europa Star that watch manufacturers are organizing more and more events of this nature. However, being fiercely independent, he feels that in order to maintain his objectivity regarding the new watches he doesn’t have to attend “the luxury holiday trips” to which I have become addicted, he prefers to carefully read details of the watch in the pertinent literature, study the photos and then perhaps set up an interview with the CEO of the brand.
That’s what he tells me anyway. But then, a couple of weeks ago, without an iota of guilt, he hypocritically zoomed off to the manufacturing centres of Neuchâtel, La Chaux-de-Fonds and Le Locle … on captivating and exhilarating visits to see the new CNC facilities for drilling and piercing at Parmigiani, discover an innovative silicone escapement at Ulysse Nardin and a new alarm development at Vulcain.
Some people have all the luck!


Source: June-July 2005 Issue

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