On Friday last week, my wife and I had the privilege of being invited by a local AD to attend an IWC sponsored dinner in Philadelphia. We dined at The Wine Room at Nineteen, The Bellevue Hotel. The quest speaker was Benoit de Clerck who spoke briefly to an assembly of about 40 or 50 IWC collectors. Ben is a very personable Belgian who cares very much about the Collector’s Forum. He reads the English Forum, but chooses not to participate in order to be impartial.
I had the pleasure to sit next to the Eastern Regional IWC Sales manager during dinner. She has been with IWC for over 20 years. It was a real treat to be with such an knowledgeable expert on IWC watches and the history of the company in the USA and worldwide. There were many different IWCs on wrists Friday night from vintage to new. I wore both my IWC PPC and the IWC VC Portofino.
We were given a “goodie bag” after dinner. In addition to the 2008 Annual Catalogue and a copy of the summer of issue of Watch International, we got three items that were new for me. First was a new IWC baseball hat and bag commemorating IWC founding in 1868. Additionally, we got a new IWC coffee mug and an IWC candle that are now part of my IWC memorabilia collection.
As you can see on the menu, we were well fed.
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The IWC candle:
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And, last, but not least, the new baseball hat and coffee mug:
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The AD held a Watch Fair on Friday, Saturday and Sunday at their store. It was very crowded with seventeen luxury Swiss manufacturers presenting their collections. The hit in the IWC section was the IWC Reference IW504210, the Portuguese Tourbillon Mystère in 18 ct. red gold (5N). It is a magnificent watch that I was able to put on for a brief time. Unfortunately, it was too crowded to take pictures.
Thanks for looking,
Bill
