It was with immense pleasure that I attended the IWC Open Day at Berry's Jewellers in Nottingham today.
It was a special experience enough to be able to talk with IWC's UK representative and try on some seriously high end timepieces, that I could never even start dreaming about owning. But, I also got to chat with Kurt Klaus: The retired watchmaker from IWC who gave them over 50 years of service and their wonderful perpetual calendar, which gives the correct date to the year 2199 and is all operated and set up from the crown. He was a truly humble down to earth person and seemed genuinely touched when I said it was an honour to meet him. He candidly talked about his perpetual calendar movements and his other acheivement at IWC. He then indulged me by signing my new 2010/2011 catalogue on the page highlighting the limited edition DeVinci that is dedicated to him.
I want to thank Berry's for inviting me to this wonderful extravaganza of horology. Their hospitality was incredible throughout and it was a pleasure simply to talk watches with them for awhile as well.
I even witnessed someone make the enviable decision to buy number 1 out of a limited edition of 50 Rose Gold/Blue Faced 1 minute Flying Toubillon Portuguese, which I had just tried on! I think the rep had to hastily wipe my embarassing drool off it.
I was a fan of IWC before today and would love to own many watches from their catalogue. However, today has left me in no doubt that they are closing the gap on the Patek Philippes, Vacheron Constantins, A Lange and Sohnes and Breguets of this world.
I left with great admiration for them, a smile on my face and a rather nice goody bag.
Here are a few pictures of this great occasion.
