I am back in Basel after my son’s medical emergency that got him an exciting trip in an ambulance and me a number of speeding camera flashes as I raced to the hospital! Luckily, it was nothing serious and he woke up as right as rain and I was able to jump back in my car and return to my watch adventures at BaselWorld.

I think I caught up quite well today as I covered 9 km of BaselWorld carpet and tried on a total of 106 fantastic timepieces (thank you  Sharon for counting). I would love to talk about all of them, every single movement, case and dial, but today I feel like talking about the people behind the watches. Every watch has a story and every story has a storyteller and today I met some great people who had the most fabulous stories to tell.

At Bell & Ross it was the CEO Carlos Rosillo who shared his brand’s connection with the military, both past and present, with a passion that was contagious. At Jacob & Co. I sat down with Jacob Arabo who spoke about his own personal journey into watchmaking from his first summer job with his father’s friend repairing watches, to creating complications of the highest order. We heard new stories at Chanel and new adventures at Manufacture Royale; we contemplated time itself with Bettina Fleury at Armin Strom and we celebrated the opening of a new Chronoswiss manufacture with Christina Golze.

But the most inspiring story of the day was told by Nayla Hayek who I had the pleasure and the honor of interviewing with my colleagues Susanne and Sharon. Ms. Hayek’s story was not only one of passion, dedication and hard work, but most importantly of family—fathers, sons and brothers—but also of colleagues, partners and friends.

The secret of success in our industry isn’t only measured in the numbers of watches sold, awards reaped, or money made, it is also measured in the relationships that we build that make it all possible.

So I started my day with a sense of my own family and I ended it with a note on my work family…without whom I would not be able to create such beautiful magazines, and without whom I would certainly not have half as much fun.

 DAILY STATISTICS

Weather: 2 | 17 °C and sunny, sunny, sunny.

Km covered around the show: 9 km

Brands seen: Bell & Ross, Jacob & Co, Rolex, Girard-Perregaux, Armin Strom, Manufacture Royale, De Bethune, Chanel, Harry Winston, Chronoswiss, Maurice Lacroix

Watches tried on: 106

Worst part of the day: Waking up at 5:30

Best part of the day: Interviewing Nayla Hayek