Inside Basel/Geneva ‘08

Inside Basel/Geneva 2008 Report

Photos by Patrick Roddie

WatchTime and watch connoisseur Jeff Kingston kicked off their third year of Inside Basel/Geneva events in grand style in San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Offering watch overdose for passionate collectors, all of the Inside Basel/Geneva events are held in the finest private clubs in the country. The San Francisco event was in the historic art deco City Club, and the Los Angeles event, in the legendary Spanish-style Riviera Country Club. Both shows were packed as collectors gathered to see the watches presented by the sponsoring brands, trade watch stories with other collectors, and enjoy an elegant meal accompanied by Jeff’s presentation of the novelties from this year’s Baselworld and SIHH watch fairs.

Sponsors for the 2008 shows, in alphabetical order, are A. Lange & Söhne, Blancpain, Carl F. Bucherer, Glashütte Original, IWC, Martin Braun, Montblanc, Piaget and Vacheron Constantin. In addition, Omega joined as a sponsor in Los Angeles and Roger Dubuis as a sponsor in New York, Chicago and Dallas. Each of the sponsoring brands brought their Basel/Geneva product introductions for this year as well as a broad swath of their collections. The collectors flocked to the tables to examine the watches and pose questions.

The presentation this year has undergone an enormous transformation. Jeff was accompanied in both Basel and Geneva by a film crew and was able to have private, exclusive interviews with watch industry CEOs and executives. The presentation featured nine interview video segments with such luminaries as Dr. Frank Müller of Glashütte Original, Marc A. Hayek of Blancpain, Marc Guten of Vacheron Constantin, Fabian Krone of A. Lange & Söhne, Martin Braun of Martin Braun, Guy Bove of IWC, Philippe Metzger of Piaget and Thomas Morf of Carl F. Bucherer. Other spice in the show came in the form of a whirlwind filmed tour of the Basel show and a film segment you have to see to believe, something called “Disco Wrists.” And according to tradition, the presentation featured Jeff’s detailed photographs of the watches and movements. The following images were captured at the San Francisco event.