Independents

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My Visits to Le Sentier

I can’t say that it is by design, but it seems that I am on a five year plan when it comes to visiting Le Sentier. In 2005 I made my first journey into the Vallee de Joux for a meeting with Philippe Dufour, whose Simplicity watch was all the rage (and seems still to be!). It was inspiring to feel Dufour’s passion and pride for traditional Swiss watchmaking. 

(On a side note, I highly recommend driving up to the VdJ from Geneva: the winding road up the mountain is a blast to drive, and the view from near the top down to Lake Geneva in the foreground and the Alps in the background is breathtakingly beautiful no matter the season)

Visiting him was a side trip, however, for the main purpose of being in Switzerland then was to join with a group of PuristS for a tour of Vacheron Constantin’s facilities during their 250th anniversary (more on this trip in another post). At that time I was only collecting Vacheron Constantin watches and in being so compartmentalized I was not open to ordering a Simplicty for myself. Dufour closed his order book not long after that trip, and I had regrets about not having committed to a Simplicty.

While a Dufour was not going to be in the cards for me, I kept exploring independent watchmakers, and soon closed in on some attractive candidates for my collection. In 2007 Kari Voutilainen was in the midst of a production run of his Observatoire watches, and I loved the look and finish on them. However, when I inquired about getting one, the order book was closed It would later reopen, but by then I had moved on to one that I could get and that pushed all the right buttons: the Jean Daniel Nicolas Two Minute Tourbillon. I placed my deposit, with the expectation for delivery in about 18 months. It took three years, and so in 2010 I again headed to Le Sentier to pick up my watch. 

I was so exhausted from the flight over that I did not pay attention to the drive up from Geneva, instead napping in Alex Ghotbi’s car as he drove me up to meet Daniel, his wife Nicole, and son Jean. Picking up the watch in person and meeting the Roth’s was one of the highlights of my collecting experience.

(I spilled a lot of words about the watch in this article: www.watchprosite.com )

A couple of years later I returned to Geneva for SIHH, and I brought the watch back to Switzerland for a tune-up. Daniel and Nicole were kind enough to meet me at my hotel to pick up the watch in person as I did not get a car for that trip. Little did I realize that it would be a long time before I would return to Switzerland!

And so when I returned to Geneva for SIHH 2015, I carved out some time to take the drive up to Le Sentier to pick up my watch. It was well worth the wait:

The Roth's are gracious hosts, and we had a lovely lunch at the Hotel des Horlogers in Le Brassus.

I hope that it won’t be another five years before I return once again to Le Sentier!

Bill

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