Rolex Deepsea Challenge – Down under

An immense excitement was sparked in me when my AD announced that the Deepsea Challenge exhibition was coming to their boutique earlier this year. So much so that I knew about the email message well before most the staff that are working there lol.

There is something that fascinates me more about Rolex diving watches than any other brand. In this I’m not alone and I suspect it comes down to the profound interplay of pleasing aesthetic, rich history and a continuous sense of adventure that Rolex fosters to this day.

Technology truly is a marvel when you can share in the experience of James Cameron (via NatGeo) descending 10,898 metres into the Mariana Trench on the 26^th of March 2012.

The Rolex Deepsea Special started it all in 23^rd January 1960 with bathyscaphe Trieste, crewed by Swiss oceanographer Jacques Piccard and U.S. Navy Lieutenant Don Walsh, as the Swiss-designed bathyscaphe descended to the then deepest-known point in the ocean.

The experimental watch was attached to the exterior of the Trieste when it touched the very bottom of the Mariana Trench on January 23, 1960, reaching a depth of 35,814 feet (10,916 meters).

It successfully withstood tremendous pressure that no submersible, let alone watch, had confronted before and that no human could ever survive. The dive marked the culmination of a long association with Jacques Piccard and his father, Auguste Piccard, the inventor of the bathyscaphe, as they stretched the boundaries of deep-sea exploration.

A cross sectional view, Deepsea Special.

This is a model of the Deepsea Challenger that took James Cameron on his underwater journey. The Deepsea Challenger was designed as a science platform with manipulator arm, remotely operated vehicle and two lander vehicles to collect samples for marine biology research.

The test tank for the Rolex Deepsea and Rolex Deepsea Challenge was developed with specialist engineers from COMEX (Compagnie Maritime d’Expertises), the world-renowned French company specializing in underwater engineering and hyperbaric technologies. Rolex has been collaborating with COMEX for decades and supplied Submariner and Sea-Dweller models to equip its elite divers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=S3_ycKwBDLI

The Deepsea Challenge was attached by manipulator arm and remained at the bottom for about 3 hours of a dive that was to last just over 6 hours. It returned in perfect working order and was running to chronometer specifications.

This is one Big Watch!

A cross sectional view Deepsea Challenge.

If Rolex decided to actually produce this watch for collectors I suspect that I would be mad enough to buy one!

TY by Tateru Yoshino, Tokyo

When we visit Tokyo our hotel of choice is the Park Hotel in Shiodome. Located a short walk from Ginza, the Shiodome area has easy access to transport, so handy in fact that last year, for the first time ever, we took the train from Narita Airport to Shimbashi station and walked to the hotel. The Park Hotel is located in the Shiodome Media Tower, on floors 25 to 34. The rest of the tower is occupied by Kyodo News. I really like the way the Japanese combine a hotel with businesses in their towers. The Park Hyatt is the same, offices on the lower floors and the hotel on the upper floors.

We usually book a room that looks out to Tokyo Tower(city view room) which when there is clear weather also includes majestic Fuji-san in the distance.

We have never eaten in the hotel restaurant, usually because we are out so much taking in all that Tokyo has to offer. Last year we decided to finally give it a try.

TY by Tateru Yoshino is located on the 25th floor of the Park Hotel (Lobby floor). With panoramic views out over Tokyo and Tokyo Tower, it is an intimate, elegant and refined setting, white cloths, crystal, silver and dark woods. The room is a not overly large so there is no loud noise to compete with. Presenting a degustation menu where customers can choose some of their dishes is a great option, and means that you can have something different to your partner.

Beautiful freshly baked bread with our amuse of mackarel, baby herbs and flowers:

Cream of mushroom soup:

Scallop and prawns in a seafood foam:

A specialty of the house is the Assorted Seasonal Vegetables Presented in the Image of Monet. A delightful plate of baby vegetables, flowers and herbs with a light dressing.

The first few courses we had were the same, mains however I had a beautiful slow cooked beef, while Vikki had duck breast.

Before dessert we decided to have the optional cheese course. The waiter wheeled out a trolley with around 10 cheeses on it. We selected 3 which was enough for us.

Dessert was 5 flavours of chocolate. I nust remember to write things down, but there was cinnamon, coffee and well I guess I need to have pen and paper in future. 

Deciding to have a coffee we were greatly impressed with the selection of mignardises (petit fours) that were wheeled out. I think there were about 20 things to choose from. Some fruit jellies, cannelles, churros, madeleines, coated nuts, and  many more.

TY by Tateru Yoshino was awarded one Michelin star for 2013.  Tateru Yoshino has another 2 restaurants in Tokyo (Ginza and Shiba) and he also chef/patron of the Michelin starred Stella Maris in Paris.

I had a wonderful 40th birthday dinner which was followed by a bottle of Dom Perignon in our room with Vikki and my Vianney Halter. 

Vikki and I will definitely be heading back to TY next time we stay in Tokyo.

Hong Kong Glamour

On our way back home from our trip we had a few days in Hong Kong.

Our visits to Hong Kong are always a great chance to catch up with friends we have met through my passion for watches. Several times Vikki and I have had the great fortune to be invited to events through Swiss Prestige. On this trip we were invited to join Swiss Prestige and Hublot at the re-opening of the refurbished boutique in Central.

Dressed up and ready we hopped on the Star Ferry (our favourite mode of transport in Hong Kong) and braved the threatening rain for our journey across to Central. Luckily most of the way to the Hublot boutique is undercover so we arrived reasonably dry.

The new boutique was designed by New York architect Peter Marino, who has also designed the Paris, New York and Tokyo boutiques. The redesigned space incorporates materials such as bronze, natural buckskin or ebony, creating a luxe but still warm and tranquil space. A private room is also available for clients.

Vikki and I arrived to find a crowd of Hong Kong’s watch collectors and wealthy along with a smattering of celebrities. 

Standing chatting with Emil Klingelfuss, Chairman of Swiss Prestige, we saw someone who looked familiar but we couldn’t place where we might know him from. A subtle question and we found out it was none other than Donnie Yen from the Ip Man movies, among others. We were lucky to have a conversation with him and he seemed impressed that we had seen both Ip Man movies. Donnie came across as a really nice guy and we enjoyed our chat with him. Later in the evening we were able to get a photo with him.

There is a short video of the evening on the SWISS PRESTIGE website and yes we have brief appearances in it.

We would like to thank Emil and Jacqueline for inviting us to join Swiss Prestige and Hublot for this wonderful event.

Musée d'Horlogerie du Locle, Château des Monts

After a great morning and lunch at Greubel Forsey, we headed off for a special afternoon of touring the Musee de L’horlogerie du Locle, Chateau des Monts with Phoebe Forsey.

Situated in the midst of rolling lawns and an English style garden the Chateau du Monts was inaugurated as the Musee d’Horlogerie Du Locle in 1959. A long history of watch making is associated with the Chateau dating back to Samuel DuBois. In the early 1900’s the Chateau was bought by Georges Ducommun the founder of DOXA. Upon his death it passed to his daughter Helene Nardin who in turn sold it the town of Le Locle.

The watch museum came about when the watch component of a curio collection was transferred to  the Watchmaking School. After being stored away during the Second World War, a group of horological enthusiasts set about reviving the Watch Museum. A permanent location became available when the town bought Chateau des Monts from Mme Nardin. Five years after the purchase and restoration, the museum welcomed its first visitors.

Since it’s inauguration the Museum has had its collection enlarged with the generous bequests of Maurice Yves Sandoz (primarily pieces from his automaton collection), Alfred Huguenin (Neuchatel clocks), Henri Jeanmarie (clocks and furniture decorated with the Boulle marquetry ) and Frederic Savoye (a collection of French and Swiss clocks).

Some of the automata found in the Maurice Yves Sandoz Room:

Examples of Boulle clocks in the Henri Jeanmarie Room:


 

Examples of Neuchatel Clocks in the Alfred Huguenin Room:

 Another permanent exhibition is The Times Of Time. This thematic exhibition, deals with the human comprehension and measurement of time. Shown in a modern setting, with separate and distinct chapters, it not only deals with the industry preoccupation of measuring time, but also with calendars and chronologies and non- mechanical methods of time telling such as hourglasses and sundials.

On temporary exhibit at the time of our visit was Automates & Merveilles au Locle :
Chefs-d’œuvre de luxe et de miniaturisation (Automata and marvels: Masterpieces of luxury and miniaturisation). A joint exhibition between Musee d'art et d'histoire de Neuchatel, Musee International d'Horlogerie La Chaux-du-Fonds and Musee D'Horlogerie Du Locle. This exhibit focused on the work of three leading figures in 18th century clockmaking: Pierre Jaquet-Droz, his son Henri-Louis and their associate Jean-Frédéric Leschot. The exhibition at Le Locle focused on the miniaturisation aspect of watchmaking and the luxurious, playful and often whimsical creations.

Henri-Louis Jaquet-Droz’s Le Dessinateur (The Draughtsman) was the centre piece for the theme of miniaturization. Along with the Jaquet-Droz’s, other master clockmakers and craftspeople were featured in the exhibition revealing the relations that existed between them. The miniaturization of mechanisms allowed the clockmakers to put singing birds, music boxes or animated scenes in all sorts of objects (watches, pistol, cages, snuff boxes). They also excelled in creating android automata and small mechanical animals. Having seen the movie Hugo, Vikki and I were really excited by this exhibition.

Unfortunately photography was not allowed in this exhibit. I have included the link Automates & Merveilles for futher reading and photographs.

While the museum is primarily focused on timepieces, they have also included samples of other crafts of the region. During the winter while their husbands were working on the watches and clocks, the women folk were occupied in making lace and other textile crafts. On display are various samples of lace and the equipment used in its manufacture.

Below next to the fireplace are two examples of lace making apparatus:

Our visit of this well presented museum and its collection was a rare treat. Having Phoebe Forsey with her in depth knowledge of the collections to guide us through the museum was a wonderful highlight to our visit.

We would like to thank Stephen and Phoebe Forsey and Greubel Forsey for organising our visit to Musée d'Horlogerie du Locle, Château des Monts.

Oz in Watch Wonderland

Very rarely does one get the opportunity to actually meet the craftsmen and women that create the watches that we buy. The large brands are increasingly shrouded behind the marketing veil of secrecy and mystique. There is more and more corporate speak about getting close to the customer, whilst in truth the era of political correctness has made this an even greater challenge.

Well in this case things are different. As soon as I got my Observatoire, I emailed Kari Voutilainen that we would like to visit as part of our global trip. He seemed more than happy for us to come and visit him and his Atelier.

The previous day was spent at Greubel Forsey so it was going to be even more interesting to freshly compare and contrast the philosophy driving both independent watch makers. Fully rested from our previous night at the Beau Rivage we were not quite as blessed by the weather gods the next day.  The 40 minute train ride up to Motiers however still managed to showcase the best country lifestyle Switzerland has to offer.

Arriving at Môtiers, we were met at the station by Kari and walked to his house a short distance from the station.

 

We passed an amazing school which reminded me of my youth growing up near Bern.

Finally, we arrive at the gates of Watch Wonderland.

This was an old doctor’s mansion that Kari converted. The Atelier portion of the building was originally a set of apartments with its own side entrance. Machining is done in the basement whilst the watch workshop is in the attic. The family lives in the middle of the house.  It is simply a stunning restoration.

The tour (which quite a few of my collector friends have also been privileged to partake in) starts in the basement. Here is Kari showing me his new milling machine from Haas.

 

This table is full of small machines for particular operations like gear tooth polishing and other finishing operations.

Kari now makes all his dials in-house, this is a rotary guillochage machine.

We also saw machines for linear guillochage.

 

It is obvious Kari has some very talented people within his team.

 

An example of one of Kari's finished dials.

 

Ever the gentleman, Kari allowed me to photograph the dials for his Masterpiece Chronographs (series is finished I asked for one more but to no avail lol).

 

Upstairs in the attic where all the true magic happens.

 

The Vingt-8 movement with direct impulse system with two escapement wheels: this system allows for better accuracy and can even do without lubrication.

An actual Vingt-8 movement in German silver. You can see the traditional Geneva stripes, perlage and anglage.

Kari’s prototype Masterpiece Chronograph amongst a couple of Vingt-8’s. I tried to convince him that I was the ideal person to keep testing the chrono for him but that trick didn’t work. He did mention some future projects which sparked my interest.

It is obvious that Kari is a rare watchmaker who can integrate mechanics and aesthetics with great panache and refinement. Always humble, his watches are understated but full of innovation and the Atelier reflects his philosophy of making everything in-house and maintaining quality by producing a maximum of 40-50 pieces per year.

After a leisurely tour through Kari’s Atelier looking at his watches and production, he took us to lunch in the local cafe/hall/beer house. Unfortunately no photos, but we had the special of the day which was Chilli con carne( I know you, go all the way to Switzerland to have chilli con carne, but it was GOOD), followed by creme brulee. Seriously good, must be all that fabulous Swiss cream and free range eggs.

Not knowing much about Môtiers, we were surprised to find it was (and still is) a town with a history of Absinthe production, apart from watch production. Kari’s facial expressions hinted  at some interesting stories and experiences with this devilish nectar. We suspect the green fairy is alive and well lol.

 

Saying good bye to Môtiers and Kari,  we headed back to Neuchâtel under clearing skies to catch our train to Zurich.