Horological Meandering

Jocke - Bad Santa
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Ok guys, the Basel 2009 report is here......

Baselworld 2009

This year we got a bad weather, so there are not much pics from the trip down.

The market are slow those days but it looks like they have sold a few cars anyway.

I haven't told my friend Tony I got a new watch a few days before the show, but after 9 months

of waiting I've got my Dornblüth & Sohn. It took him 600 kilometers or 7 hours to notice it. LOL

But finally we got there.

So I start with the Rolex house as I use to do and now I know why the germans call the fair "messe",

it was just a mess.

This year they have been very creative, a "new" TT Sub in the supercase and the ceramic bezel insert

as  they already have made at the gold model last year.

And a "new" DateJust II in 41 mm just as the DayDate II from the last year.

At the press kits Rolex says the new 41 mm DateJust II is for men and the regular 36 mm is for ladies,

so I hope now all regular DateJust owners feels very female. LOL

So I will say I'm impressed this year.

But I like this dial in some way, the green border at the romans looks great but there should be a

roman IX instead of the white marker.

The flower power is back.

But at least Rolex show the visitors whats new with a sign beacause if they not, no one will find

the new ones.  LOL

The displays was at least new and nice looking.

Maybe this showroom have more interesting stuff to shows than Rolex have this year. LOL

So I have to get upstairs and try to find a cup of coffe and look down into. Something that always

is for sure if you looking for Kristian Haagen, just look where the food and Coke is. LOL

Later at the day it was time to see what Glashütte Original come up with this year. There are a new

CEO and this will be the first time to meet Mr Thomas Meier.

So after a presentation Mr Meier will pull out some watches. And there is a lot of news this year.

My personal favorite this year.

A 44 mm beauty.

But the movement look really small in this case, so the backcase looks a little strange IMO.

And the watch that really do it for me is the new chronmeter. What a watch.

Day and night indicator at the dial.

The Cal 58 is chronometer certified in Glashütte and when you pull out the crown so will the

secondhand jumps to 12 o'clock position and the minute hand is jumping one minute at time

when you adjust the hand. So the minutehand is always syncronized whit the secondhand when

you push back the crown.

What a movement, planet wheels me like.

Another one was the square Senator Sixties Chronograph, not my bag but I believe that is right in time.

And a new perpetual calendar made in ceramic.

Cal 100 and it have a ceramic crown too.

The Meissen Tourbillion is new too and it was really hard to get the hole for the balance in

the porcelain dial. But the GO ingenieurs will fix it.

Then there is the rubber coated Sport Evo Impact with a new rubberblocks that take care of

60 % of the shocks.

Here Mr Meier shows it to everyone's horror when he strikes hard at the table on several occasions

and when I say hard I mean hard. We have to give a few guys a napkin and some water. LOL

The watch still works fine.

So that was a interesting presentation and I really wish Mr Meier all luck with his new job and I hope

he don't damages some watches with his test. I was a little disappionted when he dot't want to do the

same with the new chronometer for me. LOL

I always like the details in the GO displays at the fair.

Later on the evening we went to the Charon Resturant.

This year we have a privat meeting with the former GO CEO Dr Frank Müller and a bunch of GO freaks.

Next meeting was with Dirk Dornblüth and his wife Anja.

They have nothing new to show this year and that sounds fair to me because they show 3 new watches

last year so we have to see them again.

The regulator.

The center second.

The Gorch Fock.

And here we can see how they made the case and the bezel.

This year it's 40 years since the Speedmaster was at the moon.

So Omega have put some of the guys from the moonwalkings together.

And there was a lot of watches and history presented in the displays.

I really like this one.

We visit the Breitling house and enjoy Mr Per Hederströms company when he shows us The Big Breitling Box.

Mr Bill Yao was with us too and you can see his excitement over watch he was looking at.

This was the top of the line we got at the table.

Breitling have one of a kind aquarium too with a restaurant at the inside.

The bar aren't bad either.

So Tony will get a last beer and we have to get up early and start the trip home again.

So I told Tony, maybe we should look at the nice country on the way home?

The roads are maybe not what we are use to drive on.

And the house looks like they are from a ghost town at some places.

Then we go further and Tony told me to slow down because it's not autobahn longer.

I told him to calm down, he don't need to brake that hard when he is only a passenger. LOL

Kalbe/Milde, where have I heard that before?

This one looks familiar too.

Damn, going so far and the store is closed for months, we can't wait until May 2.

So then we have to do something else and look what we found.

Yes we are at the Dornblüth & Sohn.

So now we will sneaking around and see what we find.

The schablons for the Regulator dial.

Here is some serious stuff.

One of the employers do some work on a movement part.

So we have to step up to the next floor where the watches is put together.

Here Mr Dornblüth try to do some work.

But the Bessewisser Tony will show him how he should do (what did he knows?) and put him

at the side and take place at the machine.

One hour later he have to give up and leave the machine back after he have destroy things

for a great stack of €uros. LOL

Here is one of the employers at work and have just finish some polishing at a dozens of swan necks.

I use to call this a organized kaos. LOL

Before they blued the hand with fire, now there is a machine that do the work.

A little closer look.

And the final result.

A few swan necks.

And a balance.

Dials to the different models.

A secret project maybe? LOL

Display backs.

A new customer room are under construction.

The new dial to the watch that will be at the outside of the house. They got it last week.

I hope you like it and now the countdown to next fair can start.

Jocke

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