Just back from a trip to Munich. Watches were not the primary reason for the trip (that was the city itself – I used to live just south of it and like to make a pilgrimage back every couple of years or so). It’s a lovely, welcoming city, I’d recommend a visit to anyone who has the chance, but it would surely be churlish to pass up the opportunity to look at a few Heuers, wouldn’t it?! The trip also happened to coincide with the Uhrenbörse (watch fair)... I have to confess that bit wasn’t at all coincidence really!

There are a number of vintage watch dealers around Munich, but also just about every gold exchange seems to have a Heuer or two. Much more so than I have ever found to be the case in London or Berlin, for example. Bunds are plentiful (I guess unsurprisingly) but I also spotted Autavias and Monacos along with pre-Carreras and a fair few of the 1940s chronos. An intimate knowledge of the city helps and means you can find some of these places “accidentally” – “let’s go down here, there’s a really nice cafe – ooo, look a watch shop!!”. There are only so many times you can get away with “accidentally” discovering watch shops of course :) It helps too that Munich has quite a well-defined centre, unlike London and Berlin – it means that you’re probably in the right place whereas London certainly needs you to know where to look before you start and could entail a lengthy trip to the suburbs.

There are a couple of places where the watch and antique dealers seem to concentrate – one such is Prannerstrasse, just a couple of corners away from the beautiful Theatinerkirche and not much further from Munich’s main square either – well worth the small detour for any Heuer fan. Uhren Meertz is always worth the effort – a whole shelf full of Heuers on display in the window. Autavias, Monacos, a Carrera, a minty Regatta and a pair of Silverstones and more that I don’t remember. No connection with them, so not promoting them other than that they do seem to have a fondness for Heuers and have some nice ones on display. A couple of further dealers on the same road turned up an early Carrera and a 2447.

But the main event was always going to be the watch fair on Sunday. It’s tucked away a bit, but a simple underground ride away from the main station. It’s hosted in a Sheraton hotel – it was quite a nice surprise on arriving there to see several classic BMWs on display in the foyer, another interest of mine (classic BMWs, that is, not foyers!!!). Three 328s, two of which were in racing bodywork (though the car was also a successful racer in the “standard” bodywork out of the box) and a 507 (a beautiful car, though more at home on a tree-lined avenue than a racetrack). Along with an M1 Procar (maybe ex-Lauda :) ), probably 2 of the 3 most desirable BMWs of all time. I’d already been able to see the 2009 F1 car too, so a good weekend on the BMW front. I can’t imagine a 507 driver wearing much other than a Jaeger-le-Coultre, but it’s no stretch of the imagination to visualise a pre-war Heuer on a hard-charging 328 racer’s wrist.

Anyway, back to the main course of Heuers. The watch fair can no longer be contained in a single large conference room, it spills over into a second. Busy isn’t the word for it, there are still obviously people out there as yet unaffected by the economic climate – so be prepared to use those elbows in your efforts to see everything on offer! It’s best to get round fairly quickly at first to try and take in everything on offer and make a mental note of where you want to go back to for a second look.

At some point Rolex fatigue will set in (where you would be happy never to see a Rolex ever again, even if it is a particularly mint Cosmograph) so a few stalls you can kind of dismiss at a glance but there is still lots of interest. I’ve never seen as many Heuers in a day, and that was without Jasper being there to add to the total! It helps if you’re looking just at chronographs as those will leap out at you more from the displays – Heuers especially so, or maybe that’s what my eyes have become tuned into seeing. Plenty of other interesting brands though – nice Sinns and Tutimas, and this is clearly the place to come if you want to pick up a nice Zenith El Primero.

There were reassuringly few fakes and Frankens too. I was maybe 3/4s of the way around the hall before I found someone who seemed to specialise in Carrtavias (including one horrible waste of a beautiful blue dial). The same dealer had a perfectly straight 1153 N too, go figure... There was a nice selection of dash-mounts on one stand, including what looked like a very early Autavia.

Price was obviously a hot topic of discussion at the fair. One dealer was complaining that some buyers were expecting bargain prices because of the current climate – doesn’t seem to have really softened the prices yet, though it will be interesting to see if the same is true in another six months if things carry on as they are. The same dealer had one of my watches of the show, a white register on black dial Carrera 12 Dato – there went my chance for one at a bargain price ;) Another was a pretty mint black 45 Dato, at a reasonable price.

A 110.573F and 110.515 CHN were going for marginally less than I paid recently but neither were on original bracelets, which mine are, so prices seem to be holding more or less steady for the time being. A few of the dealers were pricing a bit more optimistically and yet there were still some good deals to be had – a couple of nice red-tachy dial Carreras were on offer for several hundred Euros less than I expected. I might have taken the plunge on one if I hadn’t been adding to the collection so much already of late!

Another watch that made my wallet twinge a bit was a 110.571 NC (black one). I love these and want one for my oval case collection – unfortunately the case had been re-PVDed with a pewter finish and it is the stark black and whiteness of this watch that attracts me. If it had been the original finish, who knows...?

And a few more random mental notes from the show:

• I’m always surprised at how big Montreals are, whenever I see one

• I now know where all the Cal 15 Monacos have gone!

• Where are all the Cal 15 Carreras? Not a single one there

• The dash-mounts are smaller than I remember them being

• There were a lot of pre-war and 1940s chronos there

• There was a grey-dial Verona – very attractive sober-looking Heuer. Rare to see a Verona, wonder how many were made?

• Red is definitely my favourite Silverstone dial :) Makes a change to see a shouty dial on a Heuer, I wonder if I’d still like red if it was on an 1153 – might have to Photoshop one on and see!

• One stall had a selection of triple-calendars – all very attractive watches

• Quite a few Autavias, but not a single Siffert – has Abel really got them all? ;)

• Why is the Daytona’s fume dial so prone to aging ungracefully but the Carrera’s so resistant? First time I ever saw a ratty Carrera fume but the Daytona’s was worse

• Longines has made some nice watches

• Lots of the economy watches, none of which had been redialled to add a series name to the dial

Probably enough of an already lengthy report! It was a lot of fun to be there – I’d recommend it to anyone within easy travelling distance, not least because you can enjoy the city too!