As we all are well aware, the 90th annual Baselworld fair and watch exposition is taking place in--oddly enough--Basel, Switzerland between April 12 and April 19, 2007.
From 1917 until 1973 (the year and month yours truly was brought forth screaming and wailing from the warm confines on my mother's womb at the tender age of ten,) the fair was known as MUBA, or Schweizer Mustermesse Basel where a special section for watches and jewelry was presented.
In 1973, the fair was renamed EUSM, Europäische Uhren- und Schmuckmesse, the European Jewelry and Watch Show. It wasn't until 1983, that the now familiar Basel was born and Herein began ARRIVING exhibitors from around the world. And in 2003, an icon was established in Baselworld. Sorta like Disney World, minus the rats.
Basel, Switzerland, the place annually besieged by wide eyed seekers of the correct time is itself an lovely little city. From Wikipedia:
"Located in north-west Switzerland on the river Rhine, Basel functions as a major industrial center for the chemical and pharmaceutical industry. The city borders both Germany and France. The Basel region, culturally extending into German Baden and French Alsace, reflects the heritage of its three states in the modern Latin name: "Regio TriRhena". It has the oldest university of the Swiss Confederation (1460)."
With a population of 172,120 and an area of only about 22 kilometers, this city has managed to become the nexus of watch collecting, outside of Geneva. It is where two different ideals, watchmaking and watch collecting, merge to form a workable understanding that not only saved the Swiss watch manufacturing dynasty in the 1980's, but has managed to sustain it throughout the years and no doubt well into a future that you, not I will ever live to see.
Please feel free to peruse these links and see what the world of watchmaking has to offer. I will be posting some comments of the various presentations invariably; whatever catches my eye, or makes me question the existence of a creator, whether man or god.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basel#People_from_Basel
http://www.baselworld.com/go/id/ss/lang/eng/
http://forums.timezone.com/index.php?t=threadt&frm_id=85
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