Visiting Baselworld 2017

With a keen interest in horology, for years I had read numerous articles about the annual Baselworld Watch and Jewellery shows.

As they are held in Basel, Switzerland, I never dreamed that I would get to attend one. However, my lovely wife Christina, while planning our overseas trip, included a visit to Basel as part of a treat for my 70th birthday.

Because accommodation was all booked out at Basel, we stayed in a lovely German village called Bad Krozningen, about 40 km away from Basel and took the train to and from Basel.

One of the two train stations in Basel is only a five minute walk from the site where Baselworld is held. With no idea where Baselworld was located, we hopped off at the station and immediately saw signage directing people to Baselworld. Groups of people were walking in the direction of the signs, so we followed and on arrival it was obvious that this was a bigger event than Ben Hur, the movie.

Thousands of people milled about coming in and out of doorways, sitting sipping coffee or alcohol, plucking away at their smart phones, or chatting to others while they sucked in carcinogens. This was truly a huge event and it was day three. One can only guess what day one would have been like.

We bought our 60 Euros tickets and moved into the main pavillion. From then on, it was like trying to take a drink from a fire hydrant - watches and more watches, all the big name brands and some of the smaller brands. Wall to wall watch bling. Although I can't remember it, Christina said I was like a child in a toy shop. Hard to believe really.

We spent most of the day viewing all the bling and the displays that accompanied them. A couple of displays were minimal with entrances only available to invited guests and people within the watch industry. For example, BLVGARI who had produced one of the thinnest watches ever, had two well dressed doormen who took one look at Christina and I, assumed we were well beneath the station to purchase any of their overpriced stock and told us, in more polite terms, to piss off.

When we got to the CASIO stand, we went to enter a hallway leading into what we thought was a publicly accessible entry only to be told by a young lady that we couldn't enter. A tall German man dressed in a suit stepped in and after a brief discussion about where we were from, invited us in. He was the German manager for CASIO and spent about a half hour showing us the new watches on display. He and I got talking and he realised that I had a good working knowledge of CASIO and its products. At the end, he led us to a bar and offered us complimentary drinks and nibbles which we gratefully accepted as we sat back and felt like VIPs.

CASIO produces a very large range of watches under several brand names, one of which is Edifice. In that range, they have a few models that link to one's smart phone from which they get the correct time in whatever time zone one is in. There's an app that sits on your phone and is used to set a second time zone - World Time. Your local time zone is set automatically provided your smart phone is up to date. You can also set alarms and retain logs from timing events. Quite remarkable.

The Link watches also come with a button that will locate your phone ie, you press the button and it causes your phone to beep. Excellent technology.

Later, at Keil in Germany I took advantage of the tax benefits and bought a CASIO Edifice Link watch which I wore for the rest of our journey, It's solar powered, very tough and looks nice as you can see from the photograph.

By the time we had completed our day at Baselworld 2017, we had seen enough watches to last a life time and discovered a number of brands I had never heard of.

Some of the watches are very highly priced which left me wondering who buys all this stuff? An $8,000 Rolex won't keep time as well as my <$500 Edifice Link watch, doesn't have an alarm capacity and won't automatically change to different time zones.

Robin  

Our European Jaunt Completed!

Which of those great poets wrote, "Much have I travelled in the realms of gold ...?" I've forgotten, but we've travelled in the realms of history, all over many of the great cities and towns of Europe and it has seemed like gold.

In the last four months we've travelled thousands of kilometres, stayed in dozens of hotels, bed and breakfasts and one or two "youth" hostels. (Nobody ever questioned our youthfulness).

Because I have this need to write - or type as the case may be, I've inundated Trip Advisor with reviews of over 58 hotels, dozens of cafes, restaurants, and events eg, Stonehenge. Now I'm going to continue to write my blog, but you'll be pleased to know that I'm not going into all the minutia, I'll write in some specific categories that may make it more interesting. You can tell me if I fail horribly or write some informative stuff.

Four Months was Enough

You can only sleep in so many different places, eat at so many different cafes and wear the same clothes for so often. A week or two before our homecoming, I had had enough. Christina, on the other hand seemed like she could go on forever.

I was really pleased when the wheels of our QANTAS jet met the runway at Alice Springs Airport.

The Highlights

For both of us, the highlights were being able to spend a few days with our friends, to make new friends, to meet new people, see many of the historically important places, and bathe ourselves in the history of Europe that makes the European history of Australia look like a weekend tour.

We revisited Mutlu and Alison Ustun and their two boys, Kerem and Onat, with whom we shared three years at Al Ain, At Burnley in England we spent time with David and Barbara whom we had met previously on one of our ship tours. Then there was a group of wonderful people who shared their lives with us on a three week bus tour. Add to that the many other people with whom we dealt and it was a very sociable experience; the nicely dressed German man in Hamburg who spent 15 minutes helping us find a hotel at short notice. The CASIO executive at the Basel 2010 Watch and Jewellery show who gave us a personal tour of the "industry personnel only" display area ending with nibbles and drinks. There are probably plenty of others whom I will remember as I write.

First on my list is the Basel 2010 Watch and Jewellery Show.

Grab a cup of your best beverage and read on.

Robin

Off peak at Costa del Sol

Costa del Sol is Spanish for the Sunshine Coast and it is a region near Malaga. Similar to our Gold and Sunshine coasts in Queensland, Australia, it's a high density region consisting of thousands of apartment buildings and hotels to accommodate a massive influx of tourists.

It doesn't have the high rise buildings we do in Queensland which tends to retain the Mediterranean architecture uninterrupted.

As it's only three hours flight from Gatwick in the UK, there are obviously scores of Brits who make this their holiday destination. There are numerous Canadians, Americans and other Europeans here too, but so far I haven't found another Australian accent.

Unlike Christina and I who purposely have avoided wearing anything that stands out as Australian, a Canadian couple we met wear Canadian labelled clothing and small flag pins because they don't want anyone to think they are Americans. Aren't we people complicated?

The Sunset Beach Club where we stayed is huge, quite a few years old and showing its age, but is very comfortable, well equipped and all anyone needs. It has a large in-house supermarket, a medical centre, dentist, and the usual play grounds, pools, restaurants, and even a child minding centre.

While I expect the summer months would attract thousands and many with children, at present most people were Baby Boomers like us; greying, many a bit heavier than perfect, balding, probably cashed up, and determined to get out and about before they take that final journey from which none of us returns.

You see them en masse at the Happy Hour all getting their Scotch and sodas, sangrias and beer all on a two for one tab. At the end of the hour most stagger off to their rooms or dinner venues and the once noisy venue dulls a little. We visited a few times but only managed the one round of drinks.

There are hundreds of food outlets here and even a Burger King. Food and alcohol is significantly cheaper than in Australia which is good for us because we already lost on the exchange rate between AUD and €.

The area, Benalmadena, and other areas we have visited within the region are immaculate - not a toothpick of rubbish anywhere. How do they manage it? Either the locals are so proud of their towns that they dont spill a thing or, every night after we are all in bed, a thousand workers come out to keep things spotless. I think the former.

The locals are friendly, helpful people obviously accustomed to tourists who dont speak Spanish. When you enter a shop or bar, it's customary to say, "Hola!" to everyone already there.

From the Club where we stayed, you can book numerous tours and activities. We took a 4WD tour of the small villages, olive, cork and almond plantations in the region, had lunch included at a quaint restaurant and attended a flamenco dancers and combined Andalucia horse show. Both were very enjoyable.

Its a lovely part of Spain and time permitting we could have stayed longer.