A lunch with watchfriends (part 1)

Yesterday evening I was already exited about today, June 6, 2008. I was going to meet a few watch friends from the Forum. A week or so ago, Peter contacted a few Dutch Forum members and arranged a lunch meeting with Gerald Ebisuzaki. Unfortunately, quite a lot of us had a full agenda already so there would be 'just' four attending: Peter, Gerald, Nicky and I.

I hate arriving late so checked the travel time and trajectory several times and according to the route planner on the Internet, it would only be a 30 minutes drive from Alkmaar to the Okura hotel in Amsterdam.

Leaving three quarters of an hour before the meeting time, I start up my Tomtom and it told me the trip would actually take 45 minutes! I had no time to waste and after leaving the cluttered roads in Alkmaar, I gained a few minutes on the highway. There were no traffic jams so at 12:25 when Peter called me to ask where I was, I was just 2 minutes away from the restaurant.

Since I didn't know what Gerald looked like, I checked the archives and found a picture of him showing his new car. Peter didn't have time to do the same thing and didn't know who he was looking for. Note that I didn't know what Peter looked like!

So, when I enter the lobby, I see Gerald and another man sitting only 2 meters apart. I shake hands with Gerald and at that moment, Peter realizes who we are and joins us. Peter also told us that Nicky had fallen ill the night before and could not attend the meeting. Peter tried to collect the vintage Ingenieur but Nicky would not let it go (just kidding of course :-)

As soon as we were seated, we started checking the watches we had with us and we almost forgot that we had to order lunch! So, once the lunch was ordered, we started discussing watches and also a bit what we do besides being IWC addicts :-)

Gerald also brought souvenirs for us, a nice Polo shirt with (I believe) the emblem of the university where he works. I was doing some promotion of our company and brought them a pen with company logo :-)

Gerald had a very nice IWC watch box with him, I think the same one Andrew showed here a while ago and which I still haven't ordered... Gerald brought his Ingenieur (remember the Paparazzi pictures?) and his Portuguese Chrono with him. I even took my 'entire' collection of 3, wearing the Portuguese Automatic on the left wrist and the St Ex Chrono on the right. The Ingenieur came in a Breitling (blasphemy!) travel box...

Peter brought his lovely Platinum Portuguese Automatic, a stunning watch and quite a lot heavier than my stainless steel one! We also talked a bit about accuracy and it turned out that my Port Auto seems not as well regulated as Peters. We also agreed that at a certain point in watch collecting, you stop worrying about absolute accuracy and simply enjoy the watch and adjust it now and then.

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](sibon.triple-it.nl/images/stories/IWC/Okura/Collection_1_20080606.jpg)

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](sibon.triple-it.nl/images/stories/IWC/Okura/PA_Pt_StEx_20080606.jpg)

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](sibon.triple-it.nl/images/stories/IWC/Okura/PC_PA_20080606.jpg)

(To be continued)

A lunch with watchfriends (part 2)

In the meantime, the personnel in the restaurant already noticed that we were watch-nuts and kindly asked us to make place for the lunch on the table. It's a good thing Peter warned me not to bring my light box, tripod and standing flashlights, there would not have been enough place on or around the table :-) :-)

Since my Japanese is non-existent, I didn't exactly know what I ordered, the seasonal lunch and it was great! Unfortunately the menu on the website doesn't correspond to what I had so I am unable to tell you what I had. The dishes Gerald and Peter ordered, also looked delicious and this was strongly confirmed by both of them.

after enjoying our lunch, conversations and coffee, it was already a quarter to three, time to head back to the office for me.

Gerald was heading back to the hotel to get a few hours of sleep He actually flew in from the USA this morning and for him, the lunch time was about 5 o clock in the morning!

When I left the parking, I saw a very impressive Alfa Romeo entering, it was a C8! One of my business associates drives an Alfa himself and when I was back at the office we verified that it was a C8 I had seen and he told me that there are only 3 in the Netherlands!

[](blog.mhproductions.org/weblog/2006/11/09/wie-wil-m-niet-de-alfa-c8/)

Heading home, my Tomtom decided to stop working and after just driving around untill it picked up some sattelites, Peter called me and told that traffic was quite dense. I choose a different way back and after an hour and a half, so double the time it took to get there, I was back at the office.

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](sibon.triple-it.nl/images/stories/IWC/Okura/PA_Wrist_20080606.jpg)

[
](sibon.triple-it.nl/images/stories/IWC/Okura/StEx_Wrist_20080606.jpg)

I had a great time and I am sure the others felt the same. I wish Gerald a very nice holiday in Europe. I want to wish Nicky all the best and it's a pity she couldn't attend. Peter and I will keep in contact and maybe we can arrange something for a bigger group of Dutch IWC Forum members together with IWC in the near future?

Kind regards,

Clemens

PS: excuse me for the bad pictures in the restaurant. I left a complaint on the inquiry form that the lighting was really bad to take pictures from watches (with a :-) of course).

PS2: If you want a great Japanese meal in Amsterdam, check out the link below!

Yamazato Restaurant

Looks like a fine lunch to me

I bet you had a great time. Hope there is gonna be a sequel very soon.

                    Regards
                       Argiris

Thanks for the report Clemens...

... and I feel sorry I couldn't be there myself. I visited the Okura two weeks ago. We slept on the 15th floor with an amazing view over Amsterdam and had a very nice traditional Japanese breakfast on Sunday in the restaurant you mentioned. Would have been great to come back for lunch, but unfortunately that wasn't possible today.

Kind regards
Norbert

Nice work cing......Thank You. (nt)

Nice report Clemens...>

So what did you end up eating? ;-)

--
Cheers from Isobars.

Wow, a plat 5001. Yum!

Mmmmm You all have wonderful taste!

Looks like it was a fun gathering- thanks for posting, Clemens

Thanks for the report Clemens...

too bad I couldn't join.

Regards,
[i]Stefan

Thanks for sharing Clemens! nt

Looks like it must have been a

great time. Thanks for letting us tag along.

It was a great meeting indeed!

Thanks for the report, the lunch, the great company and the Nad shots!
Too bad I missed the alfa.
Wondering what Gerald is doing today in Europe.
Greetings from Orlando,
Peter

great meeting gentlemen (nt)