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Getting There What would I do if a friend suggested that I take a day off, met him in Geneva and from there first go visit a watch company of my choice and afterwards go for dinner to one of Europe's finest restaurants in the evening ? I would certainly be more than tempted but with all that annoying work stacking up on my desk, finances in their usual desolate state and a woefully low vacation day balance, I'd have to beg off. Right ? Wrong ! Jeff and I had met a few months before to visit Blancpain, a trip documented in The Pilgrimage to Blancpain in Le Brassus . He was to return back to Europe and his schedule allowed him a few free days which he wanted to spend eating good food, drinking good wine and most of all. again go see how good watches are made. One can't just go knocking on the door of a watch factory demanding entrance but Jeff asked which company I'd like to go see the most and he'd then see what he could do. I've never
answered an email so quickly before. "AUDEMARS PIGUET !" I screamed
out in my reply to Jeff, "I'll gladly come along to any factory but it's
AUDEMARS PIGUET I really want to see". Well Jeff got the message and
immediately started pulling strings in at least two continents. A few
weeks later - such things take time, especially if they have to happen on a
certain day - our visit was confirmed. But not only that, Jeff wrote that we
we'd also be welcome to go see Renaud & Papi, AP's formidable complication
manufacturing subsidiary.
And if this wasn't all more than enough to make for a perfect day, Jeff offered
to book us a table at the Pont de Brent, one of only two restaurants in
Switzerland with three Michelin stars on their roster. Taking the train would
have meant getting up at 5 am - not the ideal way to start a perfect day -
so I typed "w w w dot swissair dot com" as fast as my shaking fingers
would let me, booked a flight to
Geneva and sat back to endure the long wait for the day to come.
A trip to Audemars Piguet had always been on my list of “must do” things. Indeed, Hans and I had previously talked about a possible trip, although nothing actually came of it. Thus when Jeff and Hans asked if I would be interested in visiting the Audemars factory with them, my answer was naturally going to be yes. Having previously been forced to pull out of the Blancpain visit (mentioned by Hans above) it was going to take an army to keep me away from this one (well, that and work). How could I possibly not take up this once in a lifetime opportunity? I had been an Audemars fan from way back and, to me, they were the gods from outer space (not sure how this description would go down with the good people at Audemars). The only problem for me was the timing – I was absolutely drowning in work, trying to close one part of an enormous transaction my firm was working on. The signs weren’t looking too good, and I began to wonder if fate wasn’t going to pull a fast one on me again. Happily, after much
maneuvering and fast-talking at work, I secured my release (for two whole days) and quickly
organized a flight to Geneva. However, fate conspired against me yet again, and Montreux, the place we had agreed to spend the night and which is usually dead quiet in
May, was overrun by doctors(!) attending some medical conference. That was fine, but it meant that there was hardly a hotel room available. How ironic that a group of people dedicated to preserving life and health was the cause of my rapidly deteriorating mental well being and sky-rocketing blood pressure! Was I destined to miss yet another watch pilgrimage? Fortunately, Hans came through and after a flurry of emails and phone calls, he managed to book a room for me in Vevey, home of Nestlé. Not too far from where I would otherwise have stayed, at the Victoria Hotel, in Glion. At least I wasn’t going to have to sleep under a bridge! That’s easy for Jeff to say! While I managed to secure my release from the Gulag that is my office, I ended up leaving the office at 4 am, jumping into a cab to the airport for a 6.15 am flight to Geneva. Fortunately things went smoothly, and I took my place on the aircraft. With my mobile turned off, and the plane taking off, I was at last able to relax, secure in the knowledge that work couldn’t get to me. Thus I arrived, bleary eyed, in Geneva. Jeff had left us some pretty good directions, so it took all of a few minutes to find him. I must have looked like hell, but Jeff looked like the early bird that had caught the worm. Pretty soon after, we were joined by Michael (wearing a beautiful platinum and steel Royal Oak perpetual calendar) and then Hans. With the dream-team intact and my need to sleep well and truly gone, we set off to the promised land. The drive was rather hurried, but otherwise pleasant. We had a date with destiny, and nothing was going to stop us. Or so we thought.
The trip from Geneva to Le Brassus has somewhat of a twist to it. The quickest route involves a slight duck into and out of France along the way. We hit the border crossing back into Switzerland at 10 am, nearly in sight of the Vallee de Joux and were greeted with all of the warmth and welcome usually reserved for Libyan terrorists. Perhaps the simultaneous arrival of two Royal Oak Offshore chronographs (Kevin and Hans), a stainless steel and platinum Royal Oak perpetual (Michael) and a white gold 3090 (moi) fit an obscure Swiss border guard danger profile. Taking no chances on who would be let into the Vallee de Joux the guards gave us the arched eyebrow visual once over and retreated to their little booth for 15 minutes of phone calls to whatever powers control admittance to the cradle of watchmaking. Finally satisfied that four digital camera, briefcase, and best of all, credit card toting gents posed no threat, the Swiss guards let us back into Switzerland to continue our trip. What can I say ? Naturally we looked suspicious. Perhaps the seemingly well dressed and well presented gents looked like they were in the cleaning business ? With two suits amongst us, perhaps we did indeed look as if we had stepped out of the nearest laundry. And we must have had some money, so the guards obviously put two and two together… and came up with five. On arrival we were me by no less than Georges-Henri Meylan the president of Audemars Piguet. The company occupies a unique place in the constellation of Swiss watchmaking. It is the oldest house which has been continuously co-owned by a single family. In defense of the Swiss border control: Would you have just waved this group by ?
I
remember that it was raining when we arrived at the hallowed grounds.
However, none of us seemed to care particularly, as we had finally
arrived (okay, I had an enormous umbrella with me – what can I say?
I live in sunny London). From
the outside, the buildings are somewhat old world and quite unassuming.
Inside, however, it is very modern (and very quiet.
Makes my work environment seem like a market place by comparison).
We were introduced to, and exchanged a few pleasantries with,
Georges-Henri Meylan, the president of Audemars.
He seemed to be a very easy-going and friendly person.
My only regret was that I didn’t see what he was wearing.
Perhaps it was a Grande Sonnerie ? Or
maybe it was a simple, ultra-slim hand wind ?
What fun he must have deciding which watch to wear !
Georges-Henri eventually left us in the capable hands of Martin Wehrli,
whose enthusiasm for the brand matched (or perhaps even exceeded) our own.
A most knowledgeable gentleman, he was more than happy to answer our
questions. And we had plenty.
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