Having arrived early morning with sleep still in our eyes, we
hopped on the SBB’s (Swiss rail) red-silver train at Zurich’s
Flughafen stop with cups of black coffee in our hands for
the 40-minute trip to Luzern, only to be told by the hotel
receptionist with straw-coloured hair, sporting a plastic smile, that we
had to spend the night in a nearby hotel. However, she assured us that
the next day we would be transferred to Western Flora, the hotel we
initially had booked. It was 10 am when we reached the neighbouring
hotel but missed the already paid breakfast (stickler for time, the Swiss
live by the watch).
Munching a chocolate muffin, I waited for the pick-up, which would
take me to my maiden assignment at the ’09 Basel Watch fair. Hardly
had I taken my first bite, when a middle-aged gentleman appeared from
nowhere and asked: “You waiting for the Villeret trip?”
We drove past vineyards, snow-capped mountains and the occasional
train passing by to reach Le Locle, hour-and-a-half drive from the
busy, high-rise, inviting shop windows of Luzern--the touristy city selling
everything that can be termed as high fashion; and hamari Deepika
Padukone beaming from posters.
A dapper-looking Alexander Schmiedt, the brand’s business director,
was there to welcome me at the stand-alone Manufacture building and
made me feel privileged, saying, “You’re the first Indian journalist to
visit this place.”
In October 2006, the Richemont Group purchased Minerva, a small
manufacture specialising in handcrafted watchmaking in Villeret, and in
the spring of 2007 at the SIHH in Geneva, Montblanc made known its
plans for the renamed Institut Minerva de Recherche en Haute Horlogerie,
and debuted an initial series of limited-edition chronographs. In
2008 it launched exclusive jubilee additions to the Montblanc Collection
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Over the years,
Minerva Villeret
has held fast to the
working methods
associated with
Swiss watchmaking
at its best: the ar t
of haute horlogerie,
which is practised
largely by hand.
Hiren Kumar Bose |
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