What an amazing exhibition and a great report, Nicolas.
I am still staggering from my day in Paris, Grail after Grail seemingly flying at an obscene rate through my hands. You will have to forgive the superlatives in what follows.
The afternoon began with Nicolas taking me to a fantastic vintage boutique. He started by showing me the TR on his wrist then quickly inside where the owner bypassed the cabinets and went straight to the “good stuff” in the safe.
We sit down and two Newman Daytona’s are laid on the table in front of me. Now I’m a Rolex fan, but not a collector, but even I know the pinnacle of Daytona collecting when placed casually in front of me. Brilliant. We’ve started with an earthquake where can we possibly go from here? A Forties Vacheron gold chronograph, OK that’s amazing, then the KO for me as a military collector, one of the all time rarest military watches. The Japanese issued Longines “Kamikaze” Weems, solid silver and 47mm of pure wabi.
OK, I think. This is great, now I still have some room left for the exhibition, but Oh No. Then it was like a private viewing at the National Gallery with monsieur Amanico.
A pair of amazing MN Tudors. A sublime Rolex GMT. Then the most wonderful, perfect JLC’s: black Memovox, white Memovox, SHOM, Geophysic, Steel Futurematic, Polaris old and new, both European and American Deep Sea Alarms, one after the other after the other, too many to mention.
I catch my breath and have a brief reprieve before it’s off to the exhibition. It was brilliant to talk with such connoisseurs as Jeff Kingston and Stephan Ciejka. I stood politely not understanding one word of the talk given by Stephan and Bob Maloubier. Then next thing I know I have an Air Command in my hand. I revert to being Fifteen. That is coooooool.
I head over to the cabinets and find my two watches and Jeff tells me that mine is one of the earliest in the exhibition. Fantastic. Then later Mr Ciejka gives me a personal rundown of my watch. Oh my.
As the evening moves on I get to talk to many fascinating aficionado’s and collectors, but the most gob smacking moment comes when a voice behind me says “… and where are you from?” in a fluid London accent and I turn to see Bob Maloubier smiling at me. “London” I say, “you from Nawth London?”, “Yes” I say, unable to keep the amazement out of my voice that Bob speaks perfect English and has nailed my Nawth London accent.
I ask him where he learnt his English and he tells me he fought with the British in the War. “Which war was that?” I ask, after everyone’s laughing had subsided, I take my foot from my mouth and he explains he fought for SOE in WW2 and was parachuted into wartime France, to be honest it had never crossed my mind that this sprightly, vigorous man could have gone back to WW2. He also trained in the early Fifties with the SBS and I believe the SAS. Truly an amazing man.
I finally make it back to my hotel and fall asleep smiling. The next morning I have tiny amount of time before my flight and head back to Place Vendome. It’s pouring with rain and nothing seems to open until gone ten and then they tell my I can’t get into the boutique until even later, I wander dripping up the street and who should I meet but Stefan (Fifty Fathoms), we dry off in the Ritz (like you do) and then to cap it off he brings out his two amazing Milspecs and I get to try them on
A years worth of watches in under twenty-four hours in Paris!
I think Blancpain have done a great job on the exhibition, you get a sense they really care and have made every effort to get in the best advisors and make it as correct as possible.
Thanks again Nicolas for your generous hospitality and hopefully the undiscovered country of the Fifty Fathoms can be mapped a little more. Now how do those serial numbers work exactly!
This message has been edited by Ubik on 2010-11-01 10:41:25 This message has been edited by Ubik on 2010-11-01 10:42:37 This message has been edited by Ubik on 2010-11-01 10:43:15