More of my London trip (long post: TLDR)

Hey watch fam, wanted to do a longer post on my trip to London, so just wanted to preface this with TLDR.  I really enjoyed my time across the pond (yes overused turn of phrase, I know). I was there for work but got to spend 2 full days just doing what I was interested in and a big part of that was horological based activities. So, I started with the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, and geeked out over the Harrison chronometers.

For those that really are interested in this I highly recommend the Rebecca Struthers book, but seeing them in person is truly wonderful. And of course, it wouldn’t be a trip there if you didn’t do this:

My next stop was Bond street, which was a great experience. Note that I live in a town with no Luxury watch stores/boutiques. I have to travel over an hour to get to a place that sells any of the major brands (Omega, Tudor, Breitling, etc…), so seeing all of this in once place is overwhelming. First stop for me was Grand Seiko (yes I’m a fan boy). Seeing that many of these pieces in once place really brings home the value that the brand offers. I was able to try on the Tentagraph, and was not disappointed:

All the pictures make this seem massive, and it’s not small, but if you wear other 43mm chronographs this is no different. There are a number of things about this watch that don’t work for me, black bezel, spring drive, and the titanium bracelet. This was my first time trying on a titanium bracelet, and I totally understand why others have said it looks like it’s plastic. The light weight and look really drive that home for me, just my preference. But it was great seeing it anyway. My next stop was Chopard. I really have a lot of respect for this brand and it was once again, my first time seeing any in the metal. When I arrived and asked if I could see the men’s watches, and they told me that those are downstairs. So they took me to the “man cave”:

Very much tailored to the male audience. Behind me there was an entire shelf of scotch and whisky selections. I also want to point out that the person that waited on me was extremely gracious, overall a great experience here. I tried on one of the LUC watches, and the pictures really don’t do it justice. And truthfully $25k for a perpetual calendar is not outrageous.

I left there, and right next door was Breguet. I forgot to take a picture, but have to say if you have never seen one of the Heritage models in person, you really should. The attention to detail on these watches is phenomenal, if you are looking for something like this and are in this price range, these should definitely be on your short list:

I didn’t go into every watch store, and I wanted to go into A. Lange & Söhne, but only looked in the window. It was too depressing to know that these are way outside my budget for the foreseeable future, but again, just stunning craftmanship, so I’m glad I got to see them.

One thing to note here is that I saw more Patek Philippe stores than any other brand, they just seemed to be everywhere, not sure why. One thing I was disappointed in was, I couldn’t find any Glashütte Original or Union Glashütte, I was expecting find them at Watches of Switzerland, but was told they didn’t have any. But I did get to see two MB&F watches there, one of which was a Bulldog in blue. They don’t really appeal to me, but it was interesting to see them. 

Next I visited the Wonder Room at Selfridges. Wow, just having that many brands in one location is impressive, I didn’t count, but do they have more brands than WOS? This is where I tried on my first Zenith. I won’t say I was disappointed, but I will say I need to reevaluate if the Chronomaster Sport will stay on my short list. It really emphasized for me that I don’t love the multi-colored sub-dials. And the clasp is not great. But the El Primero movement is truly wonderful to look at. I think the pink is still an option, but at this point I don’t think I could justify this price point for any of the existing color ways. And I’m not sure if the clasp would be a deal breaker or not.

My next time related destination was the British Museum, for the watch and clock exhibit. They have 2 rooms dedicated to this, and it was fantastic:

One of the standouts for me was this lovely piece from 1650:

And of course, the George Daniels:

From there it wouldn’t be complete without Big Ben:

I also visited the other typical tourist sites, since I don’t know when I’ll ever get back. So I took in:

• Buckingham palace

• Westminster Abbey

• Tower Bridge

• Piccadilly Circus

• Trafalgar square

And as a musician it wouldn’t have been complete without this:

Thanks for listening, and as they say, “mind the gap”.  Cheers.