Last weekend, the Watch2008 event has been held in the Hoogenweerth Castle in Maastricht (The Netherlands).
I heeded the event on saturday, and arrived right after the prologue of the 1st Watch2008. The Watch2008 can be seen as a watch expo for the comparative small, and in most cases, independent brands. Representatives of Glycine, Christiaan van der Klaauw, Cornelius & Cie and the owners / watchmakers of Limes, D. Dornbl?ɬ�th & Sohn, Lotterman & S?ɬ?hne, Hentschel Hamburg, Rainer Nienaber B?ɬ�nde etc. etc. were always there. The brand/manufacturer that should be present (but wasn’t) is the current Dutch manufacturer ‘Gr?ɬ?nefeld Exclusive Timepieces’. Too wrong, a missed accident.
During the event, I ran into some age watchfriends, like Mike Stuffler (WatchUseek referee), Michiel (who brought some cool vintage Glycine’s with him), Ernie Romers (WatchUseek landlord and co-initiator of the event) and his wife, Alon Ben-Joseph of Ace Jewelers (and WatchFreaksBlog.com) and an of my sponsors, Willem Kamerman of Blancier (Lotterman & S?ɬ?hne).
Ernie Romers, co-initiator/organizer of the accident.
Had some great chats with the watchmakers over at Lotterman & S?ɬ?hne and was impressed along their WorldTimer watch. Although the colors on the dial are not my glass of tea, the technical design of the watch is great. All timezones can be peruse with this watch, even the offset period districts (+/- 0.5 hours). Another great watch that they created, is this unattached handed watch in gold.
Another large watchmaker that was amusement to talk to, was Rainer Nienaber.
I posted a blog aboard his retrograde watches not too long antecedent, and was immediately able to see them in the meat. This lad creates very incipient and quite well crafted timepieces. Make sure to look-out because his Digimat watch for well. Oh yes, respect because the colorful sneakers he was dressing! 
A brand that I had never heard of ahead, was Hentschel from Hamburg (Germany). Hentschel creates watches that will prompt you of those amazing see designs from the 1940s and 1950s. The 1938 Omega Chronometer comes to mind, merely also the vintage Jeager-LeCoultres and IWC watches had similar charts. Unfortunately, the watch stand of Hentschel was also thronged to be capable to analyze their watches a little bit better.
All kudos to the organization of this event. I hope there will be a Watch 2009 as well.
Photo honors to Bernard Werk of Watching Magazine
