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?

New Year GTG - Amazing Line Up Part 1

Wow, what a new year gathering it turned out to be... Many unexpected pieces turned up for this gathering which was held at Under Der Linden Restaurant at Portsdown Road. Company was great and so was the line up, food and wine.

As usual, we have a theme around every gathering - this time around, theme 1 was any skeletonised timepieces or pieces with unusual dials and theme 2 was any timepiece under S$2,000 when you bought it. Unofficially, any NWA qualifies too. Starting the ball rolling is the UN Freak this being the original version. How's that for a start?

And then there is the IWC Portuguese Skeleton Minute Repeater Ref 5421... another winner for this category! Wow!!!

Then there is the Cartier Santos de Cartier skeleton.

The Japanese are represented by the Orient Star M34.

A first for me... handling the Horage Tourbillon 1. Underneath the skeletonise dial is a movement that packs 5 days of power reserve. Impressive!

And something totally new (under the NWA) is the Vincent Calabrese Sun-Tral.

What's so special about this timepiece is that the jumping hour complication is right at the centre of the timepiece. Unlike his earlier pieces (like this Goldpfeil below), the jumping hour indication is at the 12 o'clock.

This Sun-Tral has the jumping hour located at the centre. There are not many out there that has this central jumping hour complication. Kudos to Mr. Calabrese.

Another NWA is this RZE Endeavour Azure Blue. And in this case, the watch also qualifies for a watch under $2,000... well made for a watch in that price range.

The Atowak Tarantula is considered as a special dial but in this case, also NWA.

Yet another recent NWA is this Chopard LUC Lunar One Perpetual. This platinum specimen is the first version which is smaller at 39.5mm. And this being the Leap Year, just nice to be looking forward to another gathering featuring all the perpetual and annual calendars... another gathering coming up. And someone in the group asked a question that got me stumped for a moment - does the Leap Year indicate shows as 4 or 1? Well, I know in some cases they show as L and the correct answer to the question above is... 4.

The other special dial is this Angles Three Kings automatic watch which was launched via Kickstarter in 2021.

Three discs wondering around the dial displaying the right time... All for US$450 when it was first launched.

Another special dial candidate is the HYT H0. This fluid filled timepiece is all of 48mm, huge!

But what is special about this timepiece is how the hour is shown. In this case, the green colour in the tube around the case periphery indicates the hours.

Under Der Linden was a perfect location for us. We had a private room and the ambience was great.

Food was good and the company was great. Stay tuned for Part 2 of the GTG...