Day Three- Paul Gerber & Voutilainen

The next day I headed into the fair to meet up with one of the true unsung heroes of the watch world we all enjoy. Paul Gerber has been "Around the block" as the old saying goes for a while now, with his genius being put to use by many household brand names of the watch world. He has been asked to design and create many complications for brands for over 20 years, and his body of work is immense. I have been fortunate to work with Paul for 3 years now, and the more I get to know this quietly spoken fellow, the more I'm in awe of his place in the Independent Watchmaking scene.

A new white dialed Ref 42 Pilot.

Paul and yours truly.

The Ref 42 Dual timezone with a new addition of the orangey-red second hand. Improved upon the first effort!

His watches are rare and not found on many wrists, but those that have jumped in and acquired one of his pieces, will attest to their brilliance. From the relatively simple Pilot or Synchron, cased in a 42mm Ti case with the highly modified ETA 2824 caliber sporting his triple synchronised 18K gold rotors and the big date module; to the Ref 33, which has two models, one with a spherical  moonphase and the other with an over size seconds. Both Ref 33 models feature Paul's escapement, and are finished to a high degree, with all the hallmarks of fine hand finish, commensurate with the expectations of connoisseurs worldwide. Over the years he has designed watches with retro-grade seconds display and more recently a Jumping Seconds complication added to his other inhouse caliber, the Cal.41, a double barreled selfwinding movement.

The Ref 41 as it was displayed in Basel at Paul's stand in the AHCI booth.

On the wrist, it is a great piece.

Different lighting, another look to it.

The lovely Cal 41, with it's twin barrels and triple 18K synchronised rotors.

As I had ordered one of these Ref 41's with the added complication of the Jumping Seconds with a lovely guilloche dial and blue lacquered numerals last year. It was completed a couple of weeks prior to this Basel Fair and Paul asked if he could keep it and exhibit it at the fair, as this was the first dial of it's kind ever installed in his Ref 41. It is a stunner, and I was thrilled to see it in person at the fair. I believe he received much praise for it. It certainly is a much improved execution of this stunning watch over the two other dial options I've seen prior to now. Using his Gerber style hands and the 12, 6 & 9 in this lovely deep lacquered blue against the silver dial with center guilloche background, it is a stunner!

I discussed the Gerber workshop again and made tentative plans for an Oct. trip over to Zurich and Switzerland. On from there I walked all of 15 yards to the booth where Kari Voutilainen shares space with several other genius watchmakers, from Holland and Finland. Kari typically is inundated with appointments, many of whom are Asian press, eager to have a few minutes with this highly revered, and rightly so, humble and softly spoken watchmaking genius. I was able to carve out a brief meeting and he shared with me few of his latest gems! I have to say the Vingt-8 Power Reserve which previously I had seen in a WG case with a plain black dial and not really enjoyed, was revealed in a RG case and a silver guilloche dial, which was an immense improvement.

The V-8R

The caliber of the V-8R Power Reserve, reveals a new polished bridge to hold the escapement to give room for the power reserve mechanism in the 1-2 o'clock area of the above picture.

The movement of a WG Vingt-8 to compare, sorry for poor photo, desperate lighting!

Exquisite dial on this "Piece Unique"

Even the main plate & small cock on the movement are lacquered. 

The stunning Japanese technique of lacquering many thousands of of tiny shell parts to create a dial, was again utilized by Kari to tremendous effect. Two watches were on show, a RG piece unique 2-Eight with a center section of lacquer and my jaw dropper, the platinum Vingt-8 with a green fiery lacquer dial. The watches were sublime and almost took ones breath away.

The other piece that grabbed my attention, was the Tourbillon, which revealed itself dial side. The blue guilloche dial was stunning and everything about this watch screamed purity and elegance. The movement side, often quite plain in a Tourbillon caliber when the cage is front side, was elegant and obviously stunningly hand finished. This piece was one of my top watches of the fair! A tiny series of six pieces, this gem was cased in platinum and sports a huge tourbillon cage with the Double Wheel Voutilainen escapement, which I believe is a first for Kari. Due to the size of the cage, the dial is slightly off center to accommodate this feature. If money were no object, this would certainly be an addition to the collection!

The stunningly gorgeous Voutilainen Tourbillon.

As is often the case with dial side tourbillon watches, the back is less exciting, though finished to Kari's extreme level.

I spent my time ogling at the watches Kari had brought to Basel and discussed a few business points, before his next appt. from the far East showed up. Quietly making my way out, I bid him farewell for the day and headed off to my next port of call.

Day Two-Lang & Heyne, Speake-Marin

Officially the opening day for the public, Thursday in Baselworld is a zoo, with folks running everywhere between appointments, eager to see the latest and greatest from the brands. I on the other hand, sauntered in after taking the train and then tram from Bienne into the fair for my first appointment with dear friend Marco Lang from Lang & Heyne in Dresden. Marco has made a big change this past year, with the expansion of his sphere of influence into other businesses. Essentially he sold his majority stake in L&H & Hartding (His retail shop in Dresden) for a smaller slice of a much bigger pie, Tempus Art Group, that encompasses L&H, Hartding, Leinfelder a jewelry manufacturing company in Munich and a movement manufacturer in Dresden. His day to day work hasn't changed tremendously, he is hard at work creating stunning mechanical watches. L&H remains his baby, and the good news from my standpoint is that it will remain essentially as I found it, highly compelling back in 2005. They will continue to make very few watches each year, around 45-50, and this is good news.

The Lang & Heyne "Augustus"

The superb hand engraved bridges on the new caliber of the Augustus.

As a result of this expansion, Marco was showing his wares in two places, the AHCI and then upstairs in a new stand together with Leinfelder, the jewelry company from Munich. I had a table to sit at to view Marco's latest watch, the Augustus. Originally the complication was the idea of a Dutch collector, who had in the past explored the idea with a couple of other AHCI colleagues, to no avail. Marco, conceived of an upgrade that makes sense and completes the original idea. This watch other than telling the time and date and month, has this rather remarkable mechanical mechanism that once programmed with 12 anniversaries of specific dates and years, will calculate the exact age and indicate the number of months to this specific date's anniversary.

Marco's upgrade and important addition that really makes sense was to add the year indication. The monopusher changing mechanism on the crown, with the usage of a column wheel type of gearing, allows the watch to switch between the various settings, indicated by the arc scale by 2.30 on the dial. When in the year mode, turning the crown to change years, the watch calculates the age of the anniversary for each year changed. The years currently go up to 2031, at which point, the watch would need to be returned to L&H for the year disc to be changed out. The current month and the anniversary month are both indicated on the retro-grade display at 12 o'clock. A totally customizable piece from Lang & Heyne, The Augustus provides a fantastic showcase for Marco's technological micro engineering brilliance.

We discussed aspects of his & my business and are planning on an event with Marco later this year in several locations across the country. Stay tuned for more on this. I then looked at a couple of pieces from the Lienfelder collection, which house the first movement Marco designed for the movement manufacturing company, Uhren-Werke-Dresden, that he now is a part of.

The Elysium Classic features a manual wind caliber, with a sub seconds hand, the watch is a good looking quite classical first model for Leinfelder and I think could be well received in it's native Germany. Whether or not these will be sold farther afield, remains to be seen. It certainly appeals to me with the elegant white lacquer dial and black roman numerals.

Finishing up here, my next stop was with Speake-Marin, who has also moved and stepped up his game. He was now showing upstairs in Hall 1.1, albeit a bit tucked away on the West side of the building behind Clerc & Links of London. A stand alone showroom/booth, he had two rooms, one for showing new products and the other for Peter to host the several hundred press appointments that had been scheduled for him. Brand building is occurring at Peter's company, and the feel has changed from previous years. Still creating some of the best looking watch made, his new "Velsheda" from the now christened "J Class" collection, is a continuance/update of one of my favorite all time classic Speake-Marin models, the "Shimoda".

See above the two positions of the center seconds topping tool.

Peter has gone a step further with the addition of his now brand image/logo, "topping tool" as the running seconds, which creates a rather elegant motion in the center of the dial, as the single hour hand has the fixed topping tool design in the center. One can see Peter has taken elements of the nautical theme in this watch, to me it is like a hand held compass. The elongated hour hand is read off the white lacquered dial on a railroad track scale with 5 minute markers between those classic black roman numeral hour markers. Again the base caliber is the automatic Eros, with it's twin barrels providing 5 days of power reserve. Here in the 42mm steel Piccadilly Speake-Marin case.

The other new addition to the roster is an automatic high polish Grade 5 Titanium cased Tourbillon escapement wristwatch, named the "Magister". It is a welcome addition to the J Class collection and priced very competitively at under $80,000.

Featuring Peter's lovely blued steel Foundation style hands and the classic white dial with black romans. The Tourbillon cage is his now familiar topping tool shape.

My personal viewpoint, is that the nomenclature on the dial is completely un-necessary. Those collectors who understand and appreciate a Tourbillon, do not need to be told it has a platinum rotor nor that it oscillates at 21,600vph. A shame as it is otherwise a lovely watch. Now if only Peter would case it in 18K Red Gold without the superfluous dial writing...

The Spirit Collection has expanded since last year by two models, which were released a little earlier than Baselworld in pictures. A big date with power reserve for the Wing Commander and the Seafire, an automatic chronograph, both these are cased in grade 5 Titanium.

The Seafire on the left and the Wing Commander on the right.

This is the area of his collection now, that is definitely aimed at a different audience, and as much as I appreciate the technical dial work, these two watches don't appeal to me. This is not to say they are bad looking, rather they just "miss the mark" in my opinion. I very much prefer the original "Spirit" in the 38mm case, with it's original dial; a classic Speake-Marin. Oh well, I can't have it all and time as they say marches on, so too does Peter's collection, as he consolidates his brand and looks to the future. He has also collaborated with an American company to produce some fun hand waxed cotton military style straps for the 42mm Spirit  collection. Quite stylish I'd say and fitting for these watches. Each one is unique!

The Spirit "Wing Commander" with the one-of-a kind “Suigeneric for Speake-Marin” hand waxed cotton strap.

Peter had added an all steel version of his art piece from last year, the Triad, which had it's debut with an 18K RG bezel. I find this version better on the eyes...I still get asked if it is a three timezone watch! It takes a little explaining and viola, the rhyme and reason makes sense to most. It is purely micro-mechanical horological art for arts sake.

To me, a better looking piece.

I bid my hosts farewell, several new faces to the Speake-Marin team, and left for other watch makers to wow me. It was a different experience this year at Peter's booth/stand and one that is a big change from previous years. Time will tell if the feelings I got were accurate or not. I'm a patient man, so will give these new guys a chance to prove me wrong. I want the best for Peter, and having journeyed with him this long, I hope his well intentioned plans work for everyone's benefit, not only the collectors who supported him in the early days, but the new folk who are discovering his brand for the first time.

I headed off to my next appointment in the Ramada Hotel Tower with Glashutte's latest Independent brand, Moritz Grossmann.

Day One-A visit to Twann and Thomas Prescher

I am now on the train to Biel/Bienne to meet up with a dear friend. Thomas is one of those rare fellows who suffers no fools in a business rife with questionable folk. Why do I say this, well he has a clear sense of right and wrong and in dealing with collectors, he has on occasion had to say no to unrealistic demands, when many of his contemporaries have buckled and given in. I commend him highly for this, taking the high road over selling out his name or reputation and 20+ years of hard work.

He has created a new style for him; watches that deviate from his previous efforts in terms of case work and dials or lack of dials in the case of the Nemo Captain, the incredible Triple Axis Tourbillon with Jumping Hours window. Quite steam punk in style, there are also elements of the Art Nouveau period that Thomas and I share a love for.

The mighty Nemo Captain Triple Axis Tourbillon Jumping Hour. Photo courtesy of T. Prescher.

This is the second time for me to visit Twann, where Thomas has his atelier. This being the border area between the western French speaking part and the eastern Swiss German speaking part of Switzerland, hence the dual names of Biel/Bienne. Twann lies on a stream that traditionally is the border, quite fun to see person and at times a raging waterfall in the middle of Twann village. Quite an old village, many buildings date from the 1200’s, and it was settled many years prior to that.

Thomas' workshop is located in the bottom of the central building next to the vineyard.

I arrived on the train from Luzern, and Thomas was kindly there to pick me up on the platform. I jumped into his car and headed over to Twann to see the atelier and the the village. He showed me the waterfalls in the center of the old village and we then headed into his den of creativity.

Twann village waterfall

Thomas keeping up with his old neighbors

Similar to what I remember from 2009, when I visited previously, he had added a few things to improve his comfort and ability to create everything himself.

The 5 axis CNC machine, that one has to know how to program in order to use. Not for the faint of heart, this Independent Watchmaking lark takes many skills, not just being able to finely polish tiny pieces of metal!

The lathe of the hand made watch world, the Schaublin 70.

Graining/finishing station

Very fine grit papers for high polishing.

This is the dial printing machine, known affectionately by watchmakers as the Tampon.

He diligently explained each work station and what occurred there, giving me a rare glimpse into the life of an artisan Independent Watchmaker. I say life, because this is life, and not just work. Whilst I stayed with his lovely family overnight, I was exposed to projects at home over dinner and when I awoke the following morning to head into the Basel, Thomas was creating his next remarkable piece on the computer in the living room.

Thomas' watchmaking certificates on the wall of the backroom from 1994

Back in the workshop: Like many of his colleagues, Thomas has completed many rather impressive restoration projects on important collectable and many times of serious horological historical interest. He has a few recorded in pictures on a wall in the back, together with his Master Watchmaker certificate and a couple of fun letters from gracious industry folk. At this level of craftsmanship, the skills Thomas possesses are highly sought after by collectors wishing to restore and maintain important pieces. An original Breguet and an important GP Triple Golden Bridge tourbillon pocket watch were there.

Pics of a rare original GP Triple Golden Bridge Tourbillon pocketwatch.

Rather fascinating to me was the revelation upon opening the safe, of previously unknown early pieces from his time whilst working for others. An elegant flying Tourbillon caliber within a sterling silver Pocketwatch case featuring a perpetual calendar module from IWC. Completed in 1994, it is simply lovely.

Thomas' tourbillon caliber for IWC, completed in 1994

I also had the pleasure of comparing a brand new Nemo Sailor which I subsequently delivered on the Saturday in Basel, with Thomas’ 2yr old piece that has become his daily wearer. The copper bronze case has taken on a patina, which softens the look of the watch and almost gives it a feeling of living.

Love the blued steel hands...

Thomas' original Nemo Sailor on the left, the new watch on the right #6/25

Other fun items to play with, the Mysterieuse Double Axis Tourbillon automatic, that has a partially completed caliber and the prototype watch we’ve seen before. It is a remarkable piece of micro-engineering, with the movement being located inside either case side.

The watch in proto form, seen before...

Partially completed movement.

Other side

Together, viewed for the first time by me!

The creative genius to think up this and then execute it, is rare talent!

Looking for a patron to step up on this amazing piece...

We then closed up shop and Thomas took me for a little drive round the Lake of Biel, through a couple of very old villages.

We arrived at his home to be greeted by his lovely family and proceeded to have a great fun evening and superb home cooked dinner! A traditional cheese fondue with some the requisite Kirschwasser! The following morning came quickly and I dashed off to the opening day of Baselworld for me and the first appointment with another German genius, Marco Lang. Saying a rushed good bye to the Prescher's I made the train to Basel with a couple of minutes to spare!

Again, a huge "Thank You" to Thomas and his wonderful family!

Day One-Luzern with Ochs & Jr.

I took an earlyish train from Basel to Luzern to meet up with Beat Weinmann, who is the co-founder and man running Ochs & Jr. A different kind of Independent watchmaking company, where one gets to have many choices and be part of the process of designing your personal watch. This approach takes a lot of time on the makers part, much more so than the typical company is willing or able to do.

Conceived with the great Ludwig Oechslin as the mastermind behind the simple looking complications and Beat Weinmann, as the front man and face of the business, they now have a showroom/planning office in Luzern, where the base of operations is.

Beat cut his teeth in the fine watch business down the road at Embassy, the rare Swiss jewelry company known for carrying Independent Watchmakers work alongside that of the usual suspect big brands. He was involved in Ludwig's other pet project, the MIH watch during this time, when Ludwig became curator of the Museum d'International Horology in La Chaux-de-Fonds and wanted to help promote the museum with a watch.

Meeting Ochs & Jr

I arrived into Luzern at 10am from Basel. Not knowing exactly where I was going, I wandered into Beat’s old place of work, Embassy. The very polite and kind staff, gave me his address and showed me on google maps where he was.

Armed with the correct address, I walked the 10minutes to 49 Zürichstrasse, where Beat is situated. I actually walked past the store front, that tells you how under the radar this amazing little watchmaking company is! Beat had to walk outside to greet me, as once I realized I had strayed too far up Zurichstrasse, I turned around and there he was smiling.

This is the scene to great you on the left as you walk in

And to the right behind the long dining room style table, the espresso bar...

I entered the shop/showroom/office eagerly getting out of the cold air, no gloves meant very chilly hands! An open plan space that felt immediately welcoming and a place that was comfortable and not pretentious in any way. I was quickly offered coffee by Beat, who masterfully dished up a perfect espresso within minutes. We then sat down to discuss the beginnings of Ochs & Jr. and I found Beat very easy to warm to and open about all that he was up to. An American fellow, hired by Beat about a year ago to manage the website content and style, formerly of Google, was also introduced to me. Cail connected with Beat after he acquired a MIH watch several years ago from Beat whilst he was still with Embassy.

Selection of Ochs & Jr laid out for me by Beat. Great to be able to examine current models and get a feel for the company history...

Preferring to stand up, I proceeded to get the history of how the company came about with Ludwig Oechslin designing the mechanics and his “Reduction” philosophy of watchmaking. Somewhat counter to the mainstream “Luxury watch business”, their ideas took a couple of years to be fleshed out to what it is they are doing today. One of the original models, the Anno Cinquanta was a predecessor to the annual calendar model of today. It featured a Caliber 41 from the esteemed Zurich watchmaker Paul Gerber, as the base automatic movement, with Ludwig’s second generation annual calendar mechanism. This model in a sterling silver case sold for around CHF42,000.

The Anno Cinquanta here cased in sterling silver

The Gerber inhouse Cal 41. twin barrel automatic.

Realizing this probably wasn’t the way they envisioned the company growing and also being dependent upon rather too many other companies for parts of their watch, they turned away from the traditional watchmaking industry for parts manufacturing and looked at a specialist machinist for Formula One racing engines, Sauber. The fellow was happy to help out Beat, and now is the supplier of the latest generation modular annual calendar and moon phase mechanisms together with the cases. The majority of the cases are Titanium, with an option for Sterling silver. A myriad of dial options are on offer and the client can customize his or her watch to almost any combination of metal finishes and colors.

From left to right, Anno Cinquanta (old model), Moonphase & Date.

The Moonphase with an oxidised copper dial, cased in Ti. 42mm.

Selling for CHF 7400 ex Switzerland, these watches offer the collector a tremendous value and experience of acquiring a watch, reduced to the basics of mechanics and styling.

Another rather fun variation of the Moonphase, again customised to the clients' wishes.

A Moonphase piece in Ti with brass dial and sporting a water resistant leather strap, Sturgeon skin is the key here and unique to Ochs & Jr. I believe!

A rather simple dualtime watch. Easy to read and operate.

The Annual Calendar with brass dial, intuitive dials show the remainder of the week or month, as the perforations in the dial reveal a "dot" to indicate the date, day and month in a circular linear fashion. There is also a Day/Night indicator, that reveals Daytime (6am -6pm) by one dot on the 6 o'clock dial, and Nightime (6pm-6am) with two dots. Reduction of the seconds hand to a small disc rotating in the middle revealing if the watch is running. The above watch reads just after 12:19pm on Thursday(if set up with Sunday at top), May 1st. Simply brilliant!

The watches are available typically in either a 42mm or 39mm case size, although other case diameters are available upon special request. They are powered by an ETA base caliber with the moon phase module/dial being only 5 parts and the annual calendar being reduced to only 6 parts!

The parts of the moonphase...

Together, this is the underside of the dial.

The six parts of the Annual Calendar

Again, together from the under dial side.

This is quite extraordinary and a perfect example of the company philosophy of "reduction”. One of Ludwig’s previous efforts at “reduction” in an annual calendar, was the famed MIH watch, which uses 9 parts for the annual calendar module, a revolution in its time back in 2005.

MIH annual calendar parts.

There is also what might be referred to as a base model, the date only model, with Ludwig’s brilliant date indicator, of dots, which also gives one a sense of where one is in the month. This piece sells for CHF5550 in a Ti case.

It's the black dialed one in the middle. Sorry poor photo!

I then was kindly taken across the road for lunch by Cail, as Beat had a previously arranged luncheon meeting with a local museum and local retailer who are together with Beat, responsible for raising money for the museum. A delicious meal was had, I then returned to the shop and sorted out my train to Biel, over an espresso, to meet up with Thomas Prescher for the next installment of my Swiss/Basel 2014 experience. I had the pleasure of meeting Beat’s lovely wife Bea, who is an integral part of the business and the photographer for Ochs & Jr.

Beat's desk, where the creation and management takes place.

Perhaps on my next visit to Luzern, Ludwig will be in residence, as he is shortly to have a work desk inside the shop, where he will spend part of his time since he has resigned as the Museum director in La Chaux-de-Fonds.

A huge "Thank you" to Beat and the team for spending a couple of hours with me, showing me many watches and explaining the story and vision of Ochs & Jr. Their business is all about relationships with the buyers and offering something that no other company is doing, so I may not have the opportunity to work directly with Beat and his team for now. I will remain hopeful that one day as the business expands, I can fit into their expansion plans, as there are many similarities in the way we see the watch business. I know we have many mutual clients and providing a level of personal service is key to what I do too.

Stay tuned!