 As April drew near the anticipation of a new Basel fair grew in intensity. The organization was getting hectic since we wanted to cover as many brands as possible so days were spent on the phone with different brands to get appointments for product presentations. Hotels were booked and train tickets reserved. Finally THE day arrived, on April 2 we set off with the usual suspects, Alberto and Clement, to Mulhouse, a French city right on the border with Basel where we had booked (with difficulty) our hotel. The real fun was to start the next day when we would be attending the first day of the fair. We've decided to do a small write up on the fair, you may have seen different scans of the watches presented here but what I wanted to do was to present you the fair as if you were there with photos of the watches which are not press photos, and remember all opinions here are my own, sometimes biased, but aren't all opinions like that? :) We took over 1600 photos and I would like to particularly thank Alberto for carrying around his 10kg of equipment so as to bring you the best possible photos. One of the most impressive things about the Basel fair are the booths. Each brand having a booth to its image, something very high-tech for Ikepod, a sailboat for UN and a huge construction for Rolex. This year the most impressive thing about Rolex was their booth!
 Decoration of the floor!
 Well, let's start with day one and what was supposed to be the highlight of the fair: the Patek Philippe 10 Day Tourbillon PATEK PHILIPPE
 The ref 5101 is based on the manual 28-20/222 caliber with a 10-day power reserve. It comes in a platinum curvex case inspired by a design from the 30s, with a beautifully finished form movement. I find the watch quite attractive even though on the larger side. The tourbillon movement is mesmerizing, however the salmon dial is not very appealing. Finally the watch comes with a COSC certificate. About 15 of these will be produced per year.
 Another novelty is the Gondolo ref 5109, manual wind 215 cal. It's a rectangular watch inspired by an art deco timepiece that can be found in the Patek museum. The spade hands and Arabic numerals on the sand blasted dial give the watch a very distinctive and elegant look.
 Finally the 5070 chronograph was introduced in rose gold. All in all I found the three new models quite attractive and the 5070 looks really good in rose gold with a silver dial. Our second visit was at Nomos. NOMOS Nomos is a German brand that does not make any noise, does not invest in marketing "bla-bla" but makes some very appealing watches at excellent prices. Minimalist design for understated no-nonsense watches. We were greeted with open arms and had a very warm welcome where the whole collection was presented to us and had a great time. This year Nomos will be producing 2 new pieces: A Tangente specially made for Wempe's 125th anniversary, fitted with a crystal case back looking into the 3/4 plate and engraving on the movement representing the hallmark of the city it will be sold in (limited to 125 pieces per city).
 click here for a really huge view The new Tangente power reserve will surely satisfy the enthusiasts who are looking for a nice mechanical watch but don't want to dig deep in their pockets for that extra complication. The power reserve indicator is in the shape of a small crescent shaped cut away on the dial and slowly turns from black to white as the watch's mainspring winds down.
 We then went off to see the famous Shellman world time minute repeater with cloisonné dial. SHELLMAN At Shellman we met up with Mr. Yoshi Isogai chairman and founder of the brand. Shellman is in fact a big retailer in Japan specialised in high-end new and vintage timepieces (the only Philippe Dufour retailer in existence!!!). As Mr. Isogai explained he wanted to make watches with interesting complications at an affordable price, so he put quartz movements in his watches but then took extra care on the case and dials. And I must admit that the cloisonné enamel dial of the world time is stunning and need not shy away from the other high end brands using these dials
 prototypes:
 The next step was quite frankly surprising. UNIVERSAL GENEVE We had an appointment with their marketing person but when she was told that we were an internet site refused to present the products and just gave us the press kit even though when the appointment was made I had told her of ThePurists. Anyway, tough luck and so much for being open to new media forms! Click here to continue - page 2
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