Last week I was honored to join fellow IWC Collectors’ Forum members for a memorable GTG in Amsterdam. We had attendees from the UK, Belgium, Germany, and, of course, the native Dutch collector contingent. In addition, we were honored to have a representative from IWC Benelux join us… Anne Sanders-Conil and her husband. It was a delight to sit next to her at dinner. She brought along the new Ingenieur collection as well as the spectacular new Portugieser Chronographs in all the metals.
As I have stated many times, the greatest joy of being an IWC Collectors’ Forum member is the lasting friendships developed with like minded people all over the world. Mark Levinsohn and Clemens Sibon expertly and perfectly organized the Amsterdam GTG while I was Europe for some business in Latvia. I owe a big thanks to both Mark and Clemens and too all the collectors who attended. The bravest attendees were the wives and one brave daughter who were along for the evening’s festivities, fun and hilarity. Clemens, Ralph and others have already posted many excellent pictures and commentary on the GTG. I won’t attempt to duplicate much of what has already been posted.
I have so many pictures of the two days in AMS I won’t try to reorganize them into a fluid story. Most will just be shots taken in sequence starting with the first day, Sunday, I spent with Ralph and Maureen Edmondson who traveled in from the UK.
On Monday afternoon Mark Levinsohn took Ralph, Maureen and me to a local fishing village, Volendam, as Ralph noted in his post. Monday evening was the GTG. It was a fantastic two days in the Netherlands with friends, watches, food, and stories to tell.
Walking around AMS with Ralph and his lovely wife on Sunday was a delight. Of course the canals and bicycles are the ever-present sight in the city.
It was too cold to have the Dutch Flower market in full swing. It actually snowed a bit Monday morning.
Cheese is ever present as well:
More canals and boats:
This older leaning building caught our eye. There are many like this as you look around:
Maureen and Ralph agreed to pose in the sun:
As we were trying to decide where to have lunch, Ralph spotted a nice modern looking restaurant that was not too crowded. It was Easter Monday and the streets were packed with people. We walked in and tables were readily available. Being in a Dutch restaurant I was prepared for some local cuisine. But guess what we ordered, English Fish and Chips. Who would think of that?
Outside the restaurant was a street fair with circus rides. Needles to say, we did not take part.
This reminded me of a giant watch mainspring.
We stopped in Gassan, the large IWC AD. They had a LE BP Perpetual on display. It is a limited edition of 10 pieces:
I told Ralph, if I had to eat Fish and Chips, he had to indulge me and have a Hot Dog snack.
A few pictures of AMS as we walked the canals and dodged the bicycles, some with very attractive ladies onboard.
On Monday, Mark took us to Volendam, a local tourist area and fishing village. It was a bright sunny day with a stiff wind off the sea. We took our time wandering around the village, taking pictures of the fishing and pleasure boats, and having lunch while talking IWC.
Mark told us these are Friese Racing Yachts. Each village may have one loving restored and raced for sport.
Here is a brief description of the Yachts:
www.tallshipsandsmallships.com/pages/cargoboats/01_largest.htm
The businesses and homes in the village are atop the dikes protecting the harbor and countryside.
Local inhabitant:
Cheese is everywhere:
Some of the older homes are built atop an older part to the protective dike and are lower than the newer edition:
You shouldn’t have too many beers before trying to get into your front door:
We stopped for lunch at an outdoor table on a very sunny day. We had a heater next to us and it was quite pleasant to sit and chat about IWC and the watches we were taking to the GTG that evening:
IWC and Heineken go together well:
We left Volendam and drove back to the city for our GTG. Now the fun part of the trip begins:
There was cocktail hour before dinner. We started showing IWC’s around the tables right away. I won’t put names and faces together. Most of you know each of us.
The big and the small…BP 5002 and the Ladies DaVinci Perpetual. The DaVinici is one marvelous IWC.
After cocktails, we moved into a private dining room for the rest of the evening of IWC talk, watch showings, food and self imposed humor:
The first order of the evening was to inspect the new Ingenieur novelties that Anne brought for us to inspect.
The surprise of the evening to our delight was the newly introduced Portugieser Chronograph models. They are spectacular. Mark was anxiously awaiting the delivery of his RG model. You could see the lust in his eyes.
Wrist shot…Ralph models the RG reference for us:
Before long, all of our IWC’s started to appear on the table. Individual conversations broke out all across the room. This is what it’s all about. We share a passion together across the globe.
Clemens and Anne:
Even PW’s were on display courtesy of Tonny and Mark:
Watch talk was delightfully interspersed with a magnificent meal artfully served.
Mark brought along the new Archival report for vintage IWC’s. It was written in French. Tonny was asked to translate.
Watches, watches everywhere with not a one on our wrists. Ralph at one point stood up and asked quite seriously if anyone knew what time it was. Giovanni nearly choked to death with laughter that continued for minutes.
Dessert is served and it’s nearly time for the ubiquitous table shot. I believe there were some 53 IWC’s on the table.
Before the table shot activity, we had our Collector Forum Group Photo with and without our special guest, Anne.
Clemens starts arranging the table shot. He wanted all dark dial IWC’s in the front rows. He’s a man in charge and with a vision. Some of us speculated on how many IWC purchases we have influenced over time. Our collection is pretty impressive. IWC should take note of our purchasing power and pass along purchasing power, don’t you think.
From the backside:
The Ali BP and girlfriend:
View from above:
One of the stories that you have heard already, but which has to be recounted now and I’m sure will be repeated over and over again revolves around how to distinguish the two 5002 BP’s that were on display as they were to be returned to their owners…Ralph and me. Since they were identical, how were we to decide whose was whose since neither of us know our case serial number. Ralph came up with a solution that required us to take a 1 second time lapse exposure to count the beats since his was the transitional model and mine was the slow beat. That exercise failed miserably as we could not get a decent picture.
Can you count the beats…we couldn’t?
Clemens claimed he was an expert at listening to the beats in stereo and could tell us which was which. This was hilarious…he was dead wrong.
The solution was the easiest of all solutions that I noticed after taking the time-lapse photo:
You can plainly see my slow beat is set to USA EDT time, while Ralph’s was UK Summer Time. How stupid can we be?
The last shot is deciding who is going to pay…
Once again, I have to thank all of my wonderful friends, their families, and IWC Benelux for putting on the fantastic GTG on a Holiday. It was a pleasure to see everyone again. This has to be the premier GTG of all time. I hope all the photos and travel logs are not too boring or OT. Thanks to everyone and to IWC for sponsoring the IWC Collectors’ Forum that allows us to make friends around the globe. We share a passion and a link that is unlike any other luxury watch brands loyalty group. Thanks MF for always supporting us as well. Next time, maybe you can join us.
Btw, an invitation is extended to all to duplicate, if we can, GTG’s in NYC whenever anyone lands on our shores.
