Day 3 of the 2024 Watch Fair: After an Amino Acid Charge, I Checked Out FP Journe, Tag Heuer, and IWC [Geneva Diary]

Watches & Wonders Geneva 2024, a watch trade fair, is being held in Geneva, Switzerland, from Tuesday, April 9th ​​to Monday, April 15th. Masamasa Hirota, editor-in-chief of Chronos Japan, reports on this major watch industry event in a relaxed diary format. On April 11th, the third day of the fair, I started at the FP Journe headquarters after a quick amino acid boost. Afterward, I covered TAG Heuer and IWC, continuing from yesterday, at the trade fair, and then attended an international dinner at A. Lange & Söhne in the evening.

Click here for past reports!
"Watches & Wonders Geneva 2024 Diary by Masamasa Hirota, Editor-in-Chief of Chronos Japan"

http://www.webchronos.net/blog/113426/

April 11th, Day 3 of Watches & Wonders Geneva 2024, from FP Journe headquarters

　Day 3 of hell. I woke up in the morning. I ate a meal of yogurt and cup noodles. The amino acids were amazing. I took the bus to the FP Journe headquarters. I arrived in 30 minutes. It wasn't open yet, so I had tea at a nearby creperie. Georges Muller, founded in 1962. In the morning, you can get tea for 2 CHF.

　I saw the new collection at FP Journe's headquarters. It's rainbow, but the colors are set symmetrically. As expected, the quality is impeccable. The strap also has no parting lines. According to Nathan, the public relations representative, they deliberately chose artificial stones instead of natural stones this time to keep the price down and to achieve a uniform color. It's nice, but I don't think I'll be able to buy it.

　I received a LIPP meal voucher as a souvenir. Yay!

　At 11:20, I met with Stefan Ihnen, IWC's head of development. He had prepared everything. The Eternal Calendar is incredibly simple. It's the most complete secular calendar in history. "We could have made the moon phase more accurate, but we were asked to fit the size, so we limited it to one day every 45 million years. Of course, we don't know if the Earth will still be around in 45 million years." Incidentally, there are apparently 22.7 trillion ways to calculate the moon phase. I respectfully correct that. My apologies.

　I popped into the booth of the mysterious guy I was talking to yesterday about who collaborated with Vianney Halter. Beauregard was started by a Canadian jeweler. Their first product was Telos, and the latest one in the photo is a collaboration with Vianney Halter, so they're incredibly luxurious. The founder is such an eccentric (and I mean that as a compliment) that he sources stones directly from the mines, so it seems he got along well with Halter, even though he had never met him before. "I buy stones by the bucket." Long live the stone expert!

　One-on-one interview with TAG Heuer. I also spoke with Carol Cazapi. We're the same age and have known each other for a long time, so our conversation was a bit casual. I asked her why she didn't use the TH02 as the base for the new Monaco Rattrapante. The Vaucher is just too good. "That's a good thing, I wanted to do haute horlogerie this time, so I didn't think about the cost." Knowing her, of course she modified it. It's really become a completely different watch. I thought 1672 million yen was a bit expensive, but seeing it in person made me understand.

　I photographed the missing parts at Cartier. I had them take various photos. The dials are amazing, as expected. Companies with highly polished prototypes generally perform better. I don't know what the causal relationship is, though.

　Nomos is participating in Watches & Wonders for the first time. They showed up because Peter Kesselmann was there. But even without him, it would be a good event. This year, Nomos is featuring 31 colors. It seems to symbolize the year, which is nice. When I asked company president Uwe Arendt if he was trying to provoke other companies, he laughed.

　I'll be showing up at the IWC photo shoot later. I don't need to be there, but I'm an IWC fan. I think the Portuguese 42mm is great.

　Afterwards, we stopped by Hublot for an A. Lange & Söhne international dinner. Four people from Japan attended. We heard stories from a variety of people. Anthony de Haas said that the Odysseus was a direct order from Rupert, the founder of the Richemont Group. No wonder they couldn't make something half-hearted.

　It was physically exhausting, so I left early. We gathered at 7:00, and by the time the appetizers were over, it was already 9:30, which was tough lol. Everyone who stayed was amazing. On the way back, the chauffeur had such great Japanese (vocabulary), so I asked him why, and he said his ex-girlfriend taught him. It was a real eye-opener.

The usual bonus