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
Bringing Rolex Retail (and More) Back to Bienne: A Conversation with Cédric Schiess, Founder of Art du Temps
parked outside the museum that hosts, almost secretly, the largest public Rolex collection in the world. A few hundred meters away from where the first ever Rolex watches were made, I crossed the road and walked into Art du Temps, the brand new
The Rolex History Book the (French-speaking) Watch World Is Talking About
After reviewing several watches, and even a film, I am about to add a third string to my bow of impostures and share my thoughts on a book I just finished. You have been warned and should only keep on reading at your
Interview with Matthieu Humair, CEO of the Watches and Wonders Geneva Foundation
Matthieu Humair is normally a busy man, but in the weeks building up to Watches and Wonders Geneva 2024, his schedule is denser than ever. Grateful for his time, I wanted to arrive extra early. But when my smartphone kept telling me I
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
