From Freddie's Perspective: Watches & Wonders - Day 1

 

The day started off with an early alarm at 4am so we could make our way down to Luton airport. Myself, James and my Dad (Dominic) were excited to land into Geneva and see the new watch releases from our brands. We made our way from the airport in a rush, due to the plane landing late at 11am and our meeting at Chopard starting at 11am. Luckily, with a lot of rushing and marching through the airport, we got there at 11:15am, with a large stitch and a bit (very) sweaty on my behalf.

 

 

We were greeted at Chopard in their beautiful stand featuring some outstanding pieces and their lovely staff. Charlotte, the sales director for Chopard, showed us their stunning new additions to all their families of watches and jewellery. There were a few standout pieces in the meeting but, unfortunately, we will have to speak about them later in the year due to some strict embargo bits and bobs, which, of course, builds the excitement. Chopard’s Happy Hearts necklaces were vividly eye-catching and are pieces that you should certainly look at in the shop when we have them in stock soon. Chopard did seem to know James and Dad’s weak spots by charming them with beef tartar and salmon, enticing them to stock their new products. It was a lovely experience with Chopard and looking forward to meeting them many more times in the future.

   

 

The next meeting we had was at 2pm with Hublot and this was something I was greatly looking forward to, as it was a memorable part of the last years trip to W&W. Hublot, once again, had the most amazing and, in my opinion, the most unique stand in the show. Nick and Jo took care of us in the Hublot meeting, showing us all their conspicuous new stock. For myself, Hublot is a brand that I really love, and I wish to have one of their watches one day, on the other hand, unfortunately I find them too big for my fun-size wrists and they tend to weigh my arm down a fair bit, making me a bit lop sided. But Hublot has answered my prayers and released a stunning 38mm integrated Big Bang which fits perfectly on my wrist. It was a pleasant surprise to see our Scouse friend, Omar, who is our ex-Hublot port of call. Omar never ceases to put a smile on my face, and on this particular occasion it did make me crease when he mentioned he had been learning mandarin. For those who don’t know Omar, he has a rather pungent scouse accent, which makes it hard to imagine a scouse mandarin accent. Once again, it was a memorable experience with Hublot and I’m looking forward to the dinner they are hosting tomorrow night.

   

 

 

We were pleasantly hosted by Tag Heuer at 4pm for our next meeting in their radiantly lit up booth. The booth was surrounded by big LED screens show-casing Tag Heuer’s state of the art watches, making their booth hard to miss. Although I’m getting tired of the “You’ve grown a bit” and the “What has your mother been feeding you”, it was nice to see some familiar faces of Rob, Paul and the new addition of Tom. They showed us some dazzling new watches among their inventory, including a very attractive GMT Aquaracer in a green and black bezel, and also complimented by a blue and black bezel GMT watch, which are some stand outs of the show so far. There are many watches of Tag Heuer that I would love to rave about, but Tag have also taken the embargo path, which will lead to some exciting releases later in the year, keep your eye out for them. Tag Heuer persistently create brilliantly made watches every year, I’m already restlessly eager to see what they bring out next year.

   

 

The final meeting of the day was at the Tudor quarters. Tudor this year has made an addition to their stand by adding one of their Americas cup racing yachts which provided a big statement in the W&W halls. It seems, this year, Tudor have been listening to what the people have been saying, releasing some flawless watches to their collections. The introduction of the fully gold Black Bay 58 is something that got my dad rubbing his hands and put a great big smile on his face. We were hosted by Sven, Carl and Radhika during the meeting. It was my second time meeting Sven, and I noticed this year that if Carl wasn’t in the room, it would be a bit of a yapping fest between both my father and Sven, which we did actually conclude in the meeting that my dad would win in the waffle competition, and that potentially they could have gone on forever. Anyway, Carl managed to steer away from those two, by showing me their brand-new Black Bay GMT 58, which is exactly what the Tudor fans had been asking for. The new GMT has some great proportions featuring a 39mm case which always fills me with excitement, so members of the small wrist community can also be included in the release. They have also reduced the thickness from 14.6mm to now a thickness of 12.8mm which fits very amazingly well for my fun-size wrists. The watch also features the astounding METAS certified movement, keeping you always on time. Tudor has a very exciting future ahead of them and they keep releasing watches that are a right bang for your buck, so check out their new watches as they will, without a doubt, catch your eye.

 

To finish the day off we were pleasantly invited to Tudors dinner that they were hosting inside the Watches and Wonders facility. When we got into the venue, we were led to a bar with some amazing lighting around it but had a strange ambience to the room as it was surrounded by curtains. After about 20 minutes of being inside the room the curtains dramatically dropped, revealing the dining room that was surrounded by big LED screens featuring videos of their proud Alinghi Red Bull racing Team. The atmosphere was great and, for starters, we had a very tasty yellowtail sashimi, which was followed by an amazing dance performance by a synchronized dance group. I did try and convince my dad to bust some moves on the D floor but he didn’t fancy losing the Tudor account, funnily enough. After the dance performance, we had our main course come which included a starboard side veal, which was equally very tasty. After the mains were cleared up, we were treated to an acrobatic performance that was slightly nerve racking at times, due to performers going free fall but it was great entertainment. Due to a rather heavy couple weeks in Bali, I thought it might be a sensible idea to give some recovery time for the old liver, so I went into the night with a glass of water and also, very surprisingly, came out with a glass of water, which has worked as a great benefit as I can remember every detail of the night so I can write this diary.

   

 

In summary, my first day at Watches and Wonders was very eventful and I’ve had a fab day. As mentioned earlier, this has been my second trip to Watches and Wonders, and the two trips have been great for me to learn the trade. They have both been a great way for me to also learn about the watches and products that we sell. Another thing that I have learnt, on both of these trips, is how my father conducts his business. The main attribute that I have learned, is that he will always speak his mind, as many of you may know. But by speaking his mind, in sometimes mildly aggressive manner, it allows his ideas and thoughts to always be noted by the brands, so that everyone is on the correct hymn sheet, which in my opinion is one of the key parts of being a successful businessman, and also having a business that runs in the best and most efficient way possible. I count myself very lucky to be able to come to these wonderful trips and events, whilst, of course, being part of something very special, which is of course Lumbers, with meeting the suppliers, brands, staff and of course all of our wonderful customers which makes this company become a beautiful family which I love. I look forward to what the future holds and seeing where it takes this family, which is Lumbers.