Asbestos, Lead, Radium: Interview with Jonathan Toumi, Diagnostics Expert at the Heart of the Watch Industry
I met Jonathan Toumi six years ago, after what my kids had picked up in the garden thinking it was an interesting rock turned out to be a chunk of asbestos-cement. I subsequently developed a phobia of asbestos and other hidden enemies of
A Night in Bienne Watching David Beat Goliath
Bienne is globally renowned for its watches. As a place to live though, its image in Switzerland is uneven. A bad reputation developed during the quartz crisis era, when the city was at its lowest. It oddly seems to persist in some minds,
Amid Second Hand Drills and DVDs, My Little Secret for Watch Deals in Bienne
I wrote last month about the pleasure of purchasing affordable watches in Bienne. Some of you have since asked for my go-to places. While there are a few, none come close in their abundance of choice – and frequency of my visits –
The Best Watch Museums in Switzerland
As Watches & Wonders kicks off on Tuesday, professionals and enthusiasts from around the world will converge around the industry’s latest novelties. Living in a city where thousands of folks depend on the global watch market to make ends meet, I certainly respect
WristTrack, the App for Watch Nerds You Didn’t Know You Needed
As someone who works in “tech” and is obsessed with watches, the Instagram Story Robert-Jan Broer posted about the WristTrack app last month immediately caught my attention. The notion that other people are both down the watch rabbit hole and geeky enough to
A Peek Inside A Twisted Collector’s Mind (Mine)
Every collector has their quirks. I have many. More than most? I’ll let you decide. For one, I don’t like to call myself a collector. I typically consider myself a “user”, and refer to my accumulation of watches not as my collection but
The Omega JFK Wore on His First Day As President Is Also, It Seems, The One He Wore on His Last
When I wrote about John Kennedy’s Omega last year, I was not expecting to revisit the topic just eighteen months later. The elegant yellow gold rectangular timepiece, gifted by his friend Grant Stockdale, is famous for its presence on the newly elected President’s
From Swatch Intern to Chief Design Officer at On: Interview with Thilo Alex Brunner
When I first came across On shoes, over a decade ago, I was living in Senegal and visiting the Silicon Valley for work. I was immediately struck by the unique futuristic yet comforting looks. I certainly did not expect that, half a dozen
Branding Bienne: Interview with the City’s Vice-Chancellor Julien Steiner
As the city’s Vice-Chancellor, Julien Steiner has among his prerogatives Bienne’s image as a place to live. Considering how radically the perception of Bienne has evolved over the years, and the role of watchmaking in the city’s reputation, there was a lot to
The Watch Customer Experience in Bienne: Small Things Make a Big Difference
As you may know if you've been here before, I love buying pre-owned watches. The variety, the serendipity, and the story behind each piece are a lot more magical to me than a thick carpet, engineered lighting and unscratched, shiny cases. For that
