Watch Dandy

Stick a fork in Basel, she’s done. LVMH has just announced they’re following Rolex and Patek to Geneva in April of 2021. And I choose those words carefully. Of all the ways you could announce the death of Basel, a sausage has to be in the story. Because, overpriced snags sold daily in the concourse outside Hall 1 came to symbolise all that was wrong with the way the fair, and the city, conducted itself when the watch folks came to town. Have you heard of extortion? If Basel and Baselworld didn’t invent it, they certainly perfected the art. But here’s the controversial part. I actually like Basel sausages. Quite a lot actually. And I partook, every year. At least once a day during the fair, sometimes twice, I’d emerge blinking in the light reflecting off that cheese grater thing and I’d stand in a line to receive a veal sausage on a piece of dry brown bread. I’d chew it down, with lashings of mustard and sauce, and then pour a beer down the neck, take an unsteady breath, straighten my tie and go back in and get to work. Job done. So this announcement is laced with sadness…

The post LVMH is out, Basel is dead, so here’s the three things I won’t miss and the one tasty grilled treat that I will… appeared first on Time and Tide Watches.