Post
by Nuvolari » January 6th 2021, 7:01pm
Well, damn. I actually liked them. A few years ago I took the short train (BART) ride into San Francisco for some sort of watch symposium. In prior years WatchTime used to host a high-end cocktail party and dinner with a speaker that offered an overview of what was going on in the global watch world with various brands. I held a gawddamn $455,000 - a skeletonized double flying tourbillion so damn soul-consuming that I just about knocked over the glass of champagne I had set down to look at the “watch”, a brand that now “escape”’s me... I also got a chance to speak with “that Roland guy” from RGM, who seemed to be a pretty damn cool dude.
I left with a lot of swag, but I bought no actual product - than the ticket to attend, about the price of a concert.
They stopped doing that... it was probably difficult to break-even on the event, but it sure was fun.
Then, after a few years of nuthin’, a bunch of odd micro and semi-haute watchmakers and/or assemblers put together a NEW event in San Francisco.
It was fr-fr-FREE... so, there was no booze or grub. Instead there was a less posh but still cool low key event of aspiring up-and-comers showing off - and, unlike the WT event - actually selling their latest watches or leather straps.
It was very low key, and everyone was super cool. That’s where I met Jimmy Collins, really dig the PVD coated chronograph they made, and he made an agreeable deal with me (he didn’t have a lot of stock and his plan was to leave with none. We shook hands, I spoke with him a little longer about... skiing? Surfing? We were all over the map... but that’s why it was cool to walk up to the counter - meet a guy, seems like a cool dude, you have common interests, oh - and he makes a small batch of watches using various movements depending on how much you want to spend... Out of a huge number of buying moments THAT was definitely my favorite watch buying experience.
I really liked that Jimmy Collins guy.
It wasn’t until I was on the way out that I saw the table where Mercer had set-up shop. Again, the sales team seems really down to earth and completely approachable. I saw this damn blue dialed diver, I believe called the Voyager II? It had a stunning deep-blue sandwich-dial, and one of the first blue ceramic bezel insert I had seen on an everyday watch. And he made me a sweetheart deal... but I wasn’t supposed to buy anything at all. And I was already holding the Collins chronograph under my arm, soooooo...
Damn that Jimmy Collins guy!
Though I do still like that chronograph I purchased - a very low number (#9) of a couple hundred.
But I don’t see those damn Voyager IIs anywhere ever these days...
It makes sense you like their watches, it seemed they made a good product... but it’s easy to move money around trying to generate income while instead losing your ass...
I suspect it may have been difficult to maintain a profitable price-point in such a crowded marketplace.
“Could somebody please let me know what the fuck is going on here?? It's like walking into the local Safeway to do some grocery shopping and finding a bunch of ghey midgets cornholing each other in the produce department.” - Conjurer
