What did I do!? And other thoughts from Day One of Wind-up.

Windup fair day one is in the books. Couple hours in the car and about an hour in the train and what an event. 

To start; the event was exceptionally well organized and spaced out allowing attendees to very easily walk up and handle countless watches firsthand. Very few glass displays in sight, just walk up to a table and begin playing with watches most never see in person. In addition, more times than not, you were able to actually interact with the owners and designers. Want to talk to Nicholas at Fears? Done. Peter of Jack Mason? Done. Chase of Oak and Oscar? You get what I am getting at. 

Then for fans of W&W like me, getting to interact with the team there was great. It is always weird to interact with podcasters/youtubers where the listener/watcher knows way more about them. Then listened to a panel with the founder of James Brand, Ryan Coulter, as well as Kat Shoulders and others discuss everyday gear. 

Then it happened; Met the team at Studio Underd0g and ended up taking advantage of the opportunity to order a Watermelon. They were so nice that I wanted to support them for what they are doing. I bought a Seagull-based watch...what is wrong!?

Then I fell in the same personal trap by talking to the team at Baltic. Ended up picking up the Bi-Compax with Blue Gilt. Gorgeous watch with a very distinct dial. Initial quick take after a day; It is a beautiful watch, but DO NOT put it under any macro lens. In the auto world, we have the ten-foot rule, which is how good a car looks from a distance of ten feet. This is the watch version; lovely to the naked eye on the wrist, but you do not want to see the details as the finishing does not hold up. Not complaining, how often will I look at it with a loop or macro? Rarely. Other than that normal Seagull issues, at $500 it is on part with others, but I'd argue, like the MR01, hard to beat the design at this price. So that is two Seagull-based watches in a day. The world is ending I say. 

The one highlight of the show besides the awesome folks? Farer premiered their new upcoming Chrono Classic (just went live on their site). Built with a Dubois Deprez DD2022 movement in three distinct colorways, it quickly became a new fascination and a day one pre-order. So much so, that I had every intention of purchasing the Fears Brunswick in salmon, but after seeing the salmon Chrono Classic (called Meredith), it became the salmon watch I wanted to take home. It will be limited, but how they are pulling off a watch of that calibre at that price point is astounding. Calling @ChronoGuy.

That is no knock on the Fears; while I liked the original Brunswick, they also showed off their new  Brunswick 40 line, which is spectacular. I was immediately more drawn to those in person/on the wrist than the classic cushion case. This new watch had a tank-like build quality and felt like they were worth 2x what they were asking. They are currently for sale at the Collective for $3500. I needed to sit on that decision, but I can truly see this being added to the collection real soon.

Thanks for @Max and the great team at WatchCrunch for hosting the afterparty. Look forward to the next one.