Well I did say I would post from Basel but to be honest I was just too busy and I knew that there would be keener bloggers than me doing a better job... that and the fact that I destroyed a Flash card with lots of material on added to my lack of post Basel posting....

Anyway highlights the Tudor Monte Carlo although next to the original it looks pretty pedestrian, had a very nice chat with Zenith and had a look at their 'running tenth' chronograph... larger than the original but a pretty nice watch all the same. Other brands impressing.... Galshutte Original, Hamilton (some of their LAB stuff was V cool including a Digital display watch powered by an auto movement with display back), Pita... their Oceana watch is pretty cool..., Breitling, Rolex, were pretty inaccessible and although TAG was it was full of 'ultra fans' crowding around windows with girls dressed as Greek virgins pointing the way. Pretty weird that.... as was the Patek place were you could not see t5he watches for the bobbing heads of people staring at the watches.

Omega was pretty cool with lots of displays and friendly staff. In fact all of the SWATCH Group stand were cool and as you would expect nice and open but lots of the others were sales, sales, sales and only interested in PRODUCT SHIFTING.

I met Peter Speake Marin the Brit watchmaker who was a ray of normality in a world of bling, he showed me some of his work which is pretty spectacular...

I met up with a few faces from the online world including Bill Yao, (what a nice bloke he is) and I generally drank too many beers after a long day....

Essentially the story of basel is you wouldn't go there on holiday... pretty grim industrial place with a quaint 'old town' but the whole of that continent is stacked with quaint nicer old towns....

The story from what I saw was of 'heavy' smokers, 6ft Russian model concubines and the old adage still holds true...

You can't be too rich and you can't be too thin....

http://www.vimeo.com/10363150

ATG Baselworld from ATG Vintage Watches on Vimeo . Video shot for my Forum members at the Baselworld Watch show last week.