I then headed over to the AHCI area to meet up with my good friend and one half of the brilliant Irish watchmaking brothers, Stephen McGonigle. Sad to say John wasn't in attendance this Basel fair, but I was very happy to see Stephen. Deciding to grab a quick beer outside and enjoy the brief spot of sunshine, I enjoyed a fun 1/2 hour discussing watches, business and family. We agreed to meet up later after the fair prior to heading to our respective homes.
Spring was in the air finally in Switzerland, albeit quite chilly at night.
I then headed in to see Marco Lang and his team adjacent to the AHCI stand in Hall 2.0. Marco is one of those lovely guys you can't help but like. Humble and brilliant, he has continued to create gorgeous watches in Dresden in tiny numbers, preferring to focus on his own calibers and traditional high quality manual wind movements. From simple Time Only classics to superb Constant Force models and my personal favourite, the Albert Chronograph. All his watches are cased within his own manufactured cases, which I believe is a pretty rare occurrence in today's Independent Watchmaking world. I had heard about a new dial option for one of his models, the Friedrich III, which previously only was found with a black matt dial and white romans. The promise of a massive silver frosted dial for the 18K RG version had me eager to see the final result. The watch he showed me, was quite lovely and very classically styled. My only improvement was to change the hands from RG cathedral to blued steel cathedral hands.
A glorious 40mm Friedrich III in 18K RG.
This is for myself and I think many others, a perfect dress watch size. Manually wound with the Lang & Heyne Caliber VI, it doesn't get much better in my opinion. I ordered it!
A little different light.
Here it is on the wrist!
As Marco and his team of craftsmen explore a few new avenues in the artistry of watchmaking and being in the center of the Saxony, with it's long history of being an art and science mecca in central Europe, it is of no surprise that they occasionally get creative. Champlevé enamelling has been used for dials in watchmaking, as well as the more common Cloisonné, by master artisans for many of the big brands. One of Marco's colleagues created this striking dial for a RG Johann in blue enamel.
Marco told me they are capable of creating red and green too. Not sure I like the shade of blue in the strap on this one, but fabulous craftsmanship either way. I suspect there will be takers for this concept, although it might be a bit too "out there" for most of my clients. Great to know they can do this in their workshop.
I also discussed a trip to Southern California in the fall in order to create an event for watch lovers to have the opportunity to meet Marco and see and hear directly from him as to why he does this. I am excited to have him visit again, and we will have a fun and educational time when he comes. Details will be forthcoming as we flesh out the exact dates etc. I am very happy for Marco and his team and am glad to represent his superb work in the USA.
A pair of Moritz’ in rose gold. Spot the difference!
A short walk across the aisle to see the other brotherly Independent Watchmaking team from Holland. Bart & Tim Grönefeld. Sharing a stand with Stepan Sarpaneva, Kari Voutilainen and Alberto (The Loupe System) much laughter and excitement can be heard even outside the booth. These friendships and relationships furthered during the Basel fair are crucial to a better understanding and appreciation for what these master Watchmakers are doing, and for continuing to work with them. Seeing their latest creations is fun too, and after all why I make the long trek to Basel from the West Coast of the USA. Tim & Bart were fresh off of a win at the prestigious Grand Prix de Haute Horology in Geneva, for their Parallax Tourbillon. They were in great spirits and happy to show the latest models.
Their new execution cased in platinum with RG frosted dial elements.
Tim & Bart Grönefeld.
The 18K RG One Hertz with the new frosted dial from last year. Quite an elegant version.
The stunning One Hertz caliber from a Titanium earlier piece, with their steel bridges.
I snapped some fun pics with the great guys:
Tim Grönefeld, Bart Grönefeld and myself. Being serious with them for once, not to be outdone, we traded looks...
I then then moved to another desk, where the younger of the two brilliant Finnish Independent Watchmakers parks himself during the Basel fair. Stepan Sarpaneva makes somewhere around 40 watches a year and they are not for everyone. His style resonates with a portion of watch admirers and collectors and not at all with others. He is totally OK with this. Prior to this years Basel, he released images of his latest watch, the Korona Northern Lights, on various social media sites. Not a lot of technical details, but enough imagery to certainly capture my imagination. He collaborated on this dial with a Canadian artist, who emigrated to Sweden in order to study art and design. His company, Black Badger operates in the Badger Den in Sweden creating amongst other things, jewelry using superbly luminous aggregates. Stepan contacted James, and they co-created a dial for the watches, which are another extension of the Northern Stars model in effect. Sporting Stepan's tremendous moonphase semi-skeleton dial, the three options of color once charged, glow amazingly in the dark. Blue, green and purple are going to be made in 8 pieces of each color. They are all sold as of this writing, I'm happy to say I have one coming for stock, again spoken for, but I'm on the wait list in case someone decides or is unable to acquire one...not terribly optimistic, but hopeful nonetheless.
In standard lighting, the blued DLC skeletonised dial sits atop the Black Badger material.
Moving my wrist under the desk, reveals the blue glow!
The green version in full light...the green ADLC grid is a strong color. Of all three, this makes the most impression...
Here it is upon Stepan's wrist, not dark yet!
Again full light on my wrist...
Tricky to capture this one. The Purple version with its black ADLC case needs UV light to glow...James from BlackBadger came equipped with the requisite black light to charge it.
Outside the booth, in the darker corridor, I was able to better experience this piece.
Now with it's sibling, the blue Northern Lights:
Sibling rivalry!
Another direction Stepan took last year, was to use a fired enamel dial on a model or two. This piece I think works quite well in 18k RG, the Korona Moon Emaili (at least I think that is it's correct moniker) an elegant and yet at the same time whimsical with Stepan's Moonphase. Of course the RG Moon is replicated on the rotor weight.
A sporty red alligator strap, perhaps a bit dandy for me, certainly you'd receive some comments!
Seeing this in motion is fun every time I see one!
And last but not least a prototype Stepan has been working on for several months. I saw it in the previous execution prior to being "Black Badgered" in London during the Salon QP show in Nov. This work in progress is quite stunning piece and once finished, I'm sure will be incredible. The first Sarpaneva Tourbillon to my knowledge. Cased in steel and sporting a couple of Black Badger Blue elements on and around the dial. I love it!
Again here in full light.
Here held under the desk, so please forgive the slightly blurry photo!
More to come, stay tuned...