Salon QP Review (Fine Watches Exhibition at Saatchi Gallery, London)

[Ssouthall6]

Hi,

 

Living not too far from London and being reasonably recently single, the obvious way to spend a Saturday afternoon these days includes jumping on a train and checking out the new watches that are all making the headlines at the fine watch exhibition, Salon QP.

 

Tickets were a modest £25 which included several optional seminars and 15 small rooms worth of exhibitors. The headline names included MB&F, Tudor, Nomos, Cartier, Hermes, Mont Blanc, JLC, Piaget, Tag and GPHG.

 

 

First room housed Tudor who had clearly taken the event as an opportunity to try to start to make their mark on the UK market. Until now they have concentrated their efforts on Asia and the Americas and are keen to break away from both Rolex here whilst stressing that whilst the movements are not in-house, they are a quality, budget option. And it wasn't long before I had the Pelagos and Black Bay on my wrist.

 

 

First thing I noticed was how light the Pelagos is. The titanium is self-oxidising, minimising the impact of minor scratches. Will be interesting to see how the ZF and J12 factories efforts live up to this standard. The AR on the Pelagos was better than any other Tudor watch on show. It really caught my eye and is now on my list as a potential next purchase.

 

 

The BB was a bit disappointing - as you can see the crystal gave off a heavy glare, that said it is a nice looking watch and the rep is pretty good by comparison.

 

Tudor's display cabinets and a few vintage watches below....

 

 

 

 

Next up was Hermes, who had a small but stunning display cabinet where the watches were almost hidden. I was wearing a Hermes belt that Sead sourced for me so I didn't hang around at this point (despite it being virtually indistinguishable having compared the two previously)

 

Hermes had made an impact in the run up to the event with their GMT effort - I didn't get to try it on obviously so here are some pics

 

 

 

Mont Blanc was nearby and they were a big talking point. As well as showcasing their beautiful moonphase watches and a new Timewalker, the big thing on this floor was the Metamorphosis II

 

 

http://instagram.com/p/vJymvsq13K/?modal=true

http://instagram.com/p/vJymvsq13K/?modal=true

 

Other highlights

 

- nicest of Tag's offerings, mostly pretty boring

- Zenith tourby, photo didn't do it justice

- Limited edition Zenith Rolling Stones

- Sinn U2, just really for comparison for people looking to buy the rep. Was surprised how similar it was to the rep. The 6100B Regulateur on the other hand, which I own, surprised me. The rep is quite dull and plain whilst the gen sparkles.

 

- New Nomos watch, an upgrade on their previous world time. The girl who went through their range had a lot of time for me and was really nice and very pretty as well. All of their staff were very approachable, all fluent German and English speakers. Saw the Tangente in the flesh as well and the Rodina is so funny - virtually the same watch.

 

- Uhrwerk. Sure I saw something in the Puretime section a while ago about this - here's the gen

 

And finally, MB&F....

 

 

 

Cartier had a new skeleton Santos and a watch with the minutes section completely transparent, I caught them at the end but my battery was dying at this point.

 

Any questions, happy to answer!

 

[mrrusty7]

Great post