Sanskruti Mehta was born in Mumbai and is an avid traveller. She began her professional career at Donna Karan International, later moving to Dolce & Gabbana and Diane von Furstenberg in New York City. After living in Geneva to work in the Swiss luxury watch industry, she now resides in Mumbai.
Finally – back in my beloved Switzerland! I have to say, moving to India has been wonderful and the US will always be home, but my 18 months in Switzerland before coming to India and leaving the US were unbelievable! I got to work with luxury watches and travel the world, and as you can imagine, I was super excited to return last month to attend the world’s largest watch and jewelry exhibition: Baselworld in Basel, Switzerland. From there I skipped down to Geneva, where I managed to catch the Geneva Auto Show and even fit in some Skiing in Chamonix! Read all about my Swiss adventures and see my pictures right here over the next two days!
Part I: Luxury Watches at Baselworld! (with a quick design exhibition stop in Stuttgart)
Part II: Geneva Auto Show & Skiing in Chamonix (publishing tomorrow published!)
Baselworld (via Stuttgart)
My lovely friend Kathrin received me and over breakfast and we made an impromptu plan to drive over to the cute town of Stuttgart (in Germany) because there was an interesting design exhibition taking place (I love how you can just jump in a car in Europe, and in like 60 minutes, you end up in a different country.) So, the fun part was definitely driving with her on the Autobahn Highway and hitting 200 kilometers per hour! Besides the fact that I love driving (you can ask my friends, they think I’m nuts for voluntarily choosing to drive in Mumbai), driving in Germany is special because there almost aren’t any real speed limits.
OMG – the exhibition was phenomenal and I ran into two talented fashion designers, Sabine Mescher and Mila Miyahara. Their clothes are super chic and amazing!
But after this quick detour, back to the real reason why I was here – Baselworld! Let the games begin!
The star attraction was Hublot’s $5 million dollar diamond watch, which is comprised of 1,282 diamonds. Only a handful of lucky individuals were allowed to view it. The watch is currently in Singapore at the Hourglass shop, so you can try to sneak a peek at the beauty if you’re in that part of the world.
I’ve always had a thing for Patek Philippe… and the President’s message (below) captures my feelings for the brand perfectly. Patek is a family-owned company, and their primary focus is on quality and attention to detail. To ensure this, the president personally listens to the chime of every single minute-repeater watch that is produced before it leaves the premises. Talk about attention to detail!
A time-piece that was slightly off the beaten path, but super cool was HYT’s introduction to the world’s first-ever liquid watch.
My all-time favorite watch is Corum’s golden-bridge with their signature movement.
Not to be outdone, Rolex unveiled a beautiful collection of ladies watches this year that are worth a look on their website (I couldn’t pick just one favourite!). My amazing friends at Chopard have the most beautiful products ever, and man oh man, can they party like rockstars! Love them!!!
Since Kathrin had been the most amazing host, I surprised her by taking her to the Blindekuh restaurant (which she had never been to before). Yay! Nothing feels more amazing than showing your friends who live in a city a place in their city. Now, the beauty of this restaurant is that the waiters are all blind, and you walk inside a cube restaurant (leaving your telephone, watch, or any device that emits light into a locker) to eat in the dark. We ordered the surprise menu and spent our dinner trying to guess what we were eating…not only is the food delicious, but the experience is unforgettable!
What a fun week in Basel! For our next destination, Kathrin and I drove down to our former home city, Geneva. Stay tuned for more of my Swiss adventures in Part II, tomorrow!