It's a little over a year since my 25th Wedding Anniversary trip to Geneva, during which my wife and I were lucky enough to visit the TAG Heuer Manufacture in Le Chaux de Fonds (eternal thanks to David at Calibre11 who suggested and arranged the visit) where we were shown around the factory and the museum by our warm and friendly guide Paul Buchs. It was an incredible and incredibly unexpected experience (since it was arranged quite soon before the trip) and while Paul did say that we were welcome to return in the future and I would really love to go back, I'm not 100% sure if that will ever happen. Honestly, I can't quite explain the excitement I felt getting off the bus and walking through the car park, over the TAG Heuer logo printed on the tarmac and up to the front door, it was truly a surreal moment for li'l ole me!
I'm not much of a traveller to be honest, before last year we hadn't been overseas for over ten years... but we enjoyed this holiday to Geneva so much that we are considering returning to Switzerland and Zurich next year (we previously visited Zurich in 2005). Zurich is a good bit further away from La Chaux de Fonds than Geneva which makes it a bit impractical for a journey there (and it's probably too soon to ask for a revisit anyway), but we're looking forward to revisiting this beautiful city and perhaps revisiting the Rheinfalls at Schaffhuasen, which is the largest waterfall in Europe.
I recently posted my photos from our 2005 visit to my personal blog and when we were there last time there was a 'Bear Festival' going on with hundreds of decorated teddy bears everywhere, some of which (obviously) were themed with watches and two with Omega in particular.
I've actually just watched a video about Zurich which tells me it is the largest city in Switzerland, this confuses me slightly as I don't remember it as being that large and I would certainly not have thought it was as big as Geneva. Probably we only saw part of it last time then (we have a bit of a habit of doing things like that) so there should be plenty to see next time!
I'm sure most of you have read my post about my visit to the TAG manufacture and if you haven't then if you look to the right margin of the page you will see a big photo of the factory, just click on that and it will take you straight there.
I don't want to repeat myself too much, but it was a couple of hours that was filled with highlights, including seeing the watches being assembled, Alec Monopoly's studio, the design process and notably a 'Grand Monaco' prototype that never made it into production. But for me the museum was the absolute highlight; time flew by in that darkened room as my eyes wandered from one spectacular piece to another and another and another. For a confirmed 'TAG Heuer Enthusiast' like me you really couldn't imagine anything more thrilling!
This video of TAG Heuer ambassador and Formula E driver Jean Eric Vergne
scooting round the manufacture makes me smile as it brings back so many memories.
I cannot overstate how beautiful Switzerland is, it's so incredibly clean and 'cared for' and a pleasure to walk around. I'm sure there are less beautiful parts that I haven't seen, but comparing the streets of London to the streets of Geneva is an eye opener for sure and I can't recommend a visit enough. And coming from someone who doesn't really like travelling much that's quite a statement!
The only thing I would say is that when we visited last year it was ten degrees hotter than it should have been, which did rather put a damper on the chocolate munching side of our trip... we were given some Goldkenn chocolates in the reception of TAG Heuer and by the time we got back to our hotel they were not just soft, they were liquid! So this time we will be going about a month later to make sure I can fully indulge my sweet tooth, so we'll probably end up getting snow!
Still, I can think of worse places to get snowed in!
Hopefully you will forgive me the indulgence of this post, normal service will be resumed tomorrow, and on Sunday we have our next interview to look forward to, this time it's Calibre11 member Pitfitter446's turn in the spotlight.
No comments:
Post a Comment