Last night, WatchTime magazine had its San Francisco collectors’ event where Jeff Kingston spoke on the 2008 new models shown at the Geneva and Basel watch fairs. This year, WatchTime is presenting this in six U.S. cities, and about 200 collectors attended the sold-out San Francisco event.
IWC is one of the brands sponsoring the event and, as you might expect, was one of the stars. I was there to meet collectors –many of whom are old friends—and to talk about the new models. Most of the Vintage Collection was shown, except the Portuguese and Ingenieur models. Even IWC can’t hold on to them!
The star of the show seemed to be the Portofino, especially in platinum. That seems to attract huge interest and compliments. But all models were extremely well received, and the IWC table was jammed with interested viewers. The owner of Shreve, a large San Francisco retailer, told me that they’ve already sold all but two models from their initial allocation.
Jeff’s 90 minute presentation was well-received, and IWC received significant time –out of over 40 brands covered—at the beginning. There was a film clip of an interview with Guy Bove, creative director at IWC, and all six Vintage Collection models were shown. Plus the St. Ex UTC and, I’m glad to say, the Regulateur Tourbillon.
Here’s a close-up of the IWC table before the dinner and presentation:
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](www.iwcforum.com/)
And here’s a photo only I would publish. It’s yours truly on the right plus Benoit de Clerck, IWC’s North American President. Ben snuck up on me (I didn’t know he was in the photo) and was clowning around. As you can see he’s a two-fisted drinker.
](All in all, a very nice event. Now on to the event in L.A.
Regards,
Michael
