On the Mend
The Swiss watch industry has not recovered from the Great Recession of 2009. But Baselworld showed that it is recuperating. In Switzerland's watchmaking region, in the weeks before the mid-March opening of the annual Baselworld watch and jewelry fair, people were calling the 2010 show le salon des tous les d��sespoir �C the exhibition of the desperate. Surprisingly strong retail watch sales in December, which buoyed spirits at the SIHH exhibition in Geneva in January, were not enough to cure what ails the Swiss watch industry. As Credit Suisse noted in a comprehensive survey of the Swiss economy in January, The watchmaking industry is currently in its most severe crisis since the traumatic watchmaking crisis of the 1970s. Swiss watch exports fell a gut-wrenching 22.3 percent in 2009.The Great Recession hit watchmaking harder than any other industry in Switzerland, measured by the unemployment rate, according to Credit Suisse. Heading into 2010, watchmaking had the highest unemployme

Traser H3 Aviator B��cker Watch Collection
This newer collection from Swiss Traser H3 is their first aviator watch collection that I am aware of. it is also the only aviator style watch that I am familiar with that utilizes tritium gas tubes. Traser is actually part of MB Microtec, which is the only firm in the world that makes the small illuminating gas tubes and on Traser watches they call it "Trigalight." There are three watches in the collection and they are each meant as an homage to the three most famous German B��cker planes of the pre WWII era. Each watch is named for the plane it is in honor of. While not needing to couple with a classic plane, it is a common thing to do with aviator watches, and such "couplings" are common with most any type of watch for that matter. B��cker started in the 1930s and made a series of very agile and study planes use for a variety of purposes including stunt flying and pilot training. See the plane below the watch it is meant to represent. Each of the watches comes in a 46mm wide stainles

Alternate straps for 15202
Just curious....I love the bracelet, but are there any options?Many thanks

Local Boutique has 2 Silver Snoopys... and I can't buy one.
I walked into my local Omega boutique and started chatting up the young salesman. I am new to the watch game and haven't purchased anything from this boutique expect a NATO strap for my PO. I usually pop in when I see this particular guy working because he is really cool, and I am uncomfortable with boutiques otherwise. He mentioned that they have 2 silver snoopy watches. This is my grail watch. I would wear that thing rain or shine. The catch is that they are waiting for one of their good customers to call asking for one. He also said they would probably sell it to someone if they were to buy a side of the moon watch as well. I would buy the Snoopy in a heartbeat, but I could not really afford both since I just bought a GMT. I'm not upset because I understand the whole best customer practice, and I really don't have a relationship with the boutique. I just hope the people who buy them are going to love it as much as I would.

I received my KERMIT from Italy!
Hello everybody! Some great news...Finally it became reality! I have my KERMIT! I bought it from a dealer in Italy via Chrono24 (I live in spain myself) I trade in my 114060 with some extra euro��s for a 16610LV RRR from 2008, with box and papers in mint condition. It took about a week to receive the Kermit after I first send my 114060 to Italy.. Everything went really smooth.. I found it a little scary though, as I never purchased a watch online..I went to my local AD yesterday so the Rolex watchmaker could have a look inside the watch to see if it needed a service. It is in perfect condition, as the seller told me, so he recommended not to service it. It took him about 20 minutes to check the movement. He also tested the watch in several positions. They really treated me very good. After the check up, the Rolex watch maker sat down with me to explain everything he checked using his Ipad to show me the exact components of the 3135 movement. They were very pleased and impressed to see a