November GTG - Non Swiss Gathering

In November, we all got together and the two themes were Non Swiss watches and Thematic watches. In Part 1 of the blogpost, I shared the watches for the Thematic genre. In this part 2, what watches represent the non-Swiss?

When we say Non-Swiss watches, two other countries come to mind - Japan and Germany. But here, I feature a Russian watchmaker Stefan Vinogradov and a Singapore watch brand Feynman Watch.

This was the first piece Stefan made for me after visiting Singapore in 2015.

This year, Feynman Timekeepers unveiled their Feynman VI - this being the Founder's Edition.

Feynman is a Singapore brand and much of their work has focused on promoting local talent - not just the timepieces but also straps and accessories too.

Most notable is the promoting of enamel dials handcrafted by Charlotte Teh of Royal Insignia. Below a picture of the enamelling work of Charlotte on the Dragon piece for Feynman.

From Singapore, we head to Japan - plenty of choices here... Let's start with the Kurono Toki

And the new watch in town is this Credor Locomotive. In fact, there were 2 collectors with the Credor Locomotive but then one of them brought the Greubel Forsey instead... lucky us :-)

What about this Orient Star watch?

This is the Orient Star M34 F8 Date with a blue dial.

And this (below), the M34 Diver 1964 Titanium.

Then there is the vintage Seiko... This is the Seiko SCVL001 using the 6810 movement.

Outwardly, it looks like a quartz piece but when you turn over, you marvel at the mechanical movement within - just 1.98mm thin!

The next one is this Seiko with a Swiss 5328A movement. Born in the eighties, this small seconds timepiece created quite a stir when it was released.

And then there is the Grand Seiko... A High-Beat no less.

This is the 4520-8000 model.

Now on to a German. Nope, its not the usual suspect but an equally compelling piece from Dornblueth. This is the reference 99.0

Their signature rose gold plated UNITAS base movement decorated with Geneva stripes.

Le Blues is represented by this Le Forban La Malouine with a blue dial.

This 39mm divers comes with a unidirectional aluminium bezel

Then there are the other two that came off theme...

First, the Bvlgari Diagono Regatta (above) and the Zenith Defy Skyline (below) the timepiece is fitted with the El Primero 3620 high-frequency automatic manufacture movement with the very first 1/10th of a second indicator.

Of course the star of the evening was this Greubel Forsey Double Balancier.

Gorgeous is an understatement.

And then there was the food...

This is the chawanmushi topped with very sweet Dungeness crab meat

And this is the Signature wild caught sword razor shell with fried shallots (above)

And this, the pan-seared "hotate" yesso scallop

And my favourite - the crispy grilled wild caught Steenstrup's bay squid made into a pancake. And while it might be a pancake, no flour was used! What a meal. I missed out the Donabe as I was busy eating and mingling. But miss the table shot? Definitely not!

It was another evening of fun with friends - excellent range of watches and great food. What more can you ask for?

November GTG - Small Gathering, Big Big Watch!

We get together every now and then to share watch stories and share our collecting passion. This time around, our two themes were - Non-Swiss watches and thematic timepieces. What I mean by thematic pieces will be like the Omega Snoopy, Zodiac pieces, Miffy etc. You get the drift. Let's start with the Thematic pieces that came to the gathering. Gathering was held at Naked Finn located at Gillmann Barracks.

The first timepiece is a Zodiac piece made for me by the very talented Stefan Vinogradov a Russian watchmaker.

I met Stefan and his wife Svetlana back in 2015 when they visited Singapore and we discussed about customizing my first Dragon piece. This is the second piece from Stefan and the movement is very well decorated - by hand.

Next up is the original Blue Miffy watch by De Rijke and Co.... Then the Orange...

And a picture of the two together.

Before I go to the obvious, here's a Popeye for you by the folks from Undone.

Now, what about this Snoopy by Citizen watch?

Bet you have never seen this before! What a cool Snoopy!

What about the Timex M79 Peanuts Masked Marvel? Another unusual Snoopy amongst the many Snoopy timepieces around.

The most famous of all Snoopy watches must be the range from Omega. These three are owned by one individual. The first edition above.

This is perhaps the most sought after second edition - the white dial version.

The first two editions are limited editions but the latest 3rd release is a regular production piece.

What's a theme without Mickey? Party will be incomplete!

And here we have the Unimatic Modello Uno U1S-HS2 "Diver"

Some times when some collectors come as they wish for whatever reason but it could be a blessing in disguise... In this case, it's our lucky day!

What a treat! The Greubel Forsey Double Balancier! The one watch to rule them all. How often do you get to handle such a stunning and breathtaking piece?

What an amazing piece of engineering! And we are all glad he "just grabbed what was there" and didn't follow the memo.

So often, these gatherings will surprise us with pieces that are lesser known and this is exactly why we have themes around our gatherings. Stay tuned for Part 2 when we show the timepieces for the second theme - Non Swiss watches! If you missed our last gathering, click this link to see the report.

About Naked Finn, if you have not been there, you should. Great ambience and great food too.

We started with the Signature chilled piquant rice vermicelli (bee hoon) topped with sakura ebi. What came next was the Sugarloaf cabbage with in-house anchovy butter.

Food was excellent and I am sure if you visited Naked Finn, you will agree with me. More to come in my next report.