Purists - Tenth Anniversary Celebration
WORLDTEMPUS - 10 June 2011
Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear PuristS, happy birthday to you. A three-day "International Gathering of the Tribe" in Sin City proved to be a major focal point of the Las Vegas shows - which included JCK, Couture, and other satellite exhibitions - that just ended at the beginning of this week.
What started out as Thomas Mao's private Internet page for horological commentary has, a decade later, blossomed into an original and interesting site for connoisseurs of fine timepieces that includes forums and articles.
More than 100 delegates of the online horology community PuristSPro attended from all corners of the globe. The meeting's focus was on independent watchmakers and manufactures promoting traditional horological values in the modern world. As the site has long been a supporter of independent watchmaking, an "independent's day" was included on the agenda. A number of these lone craftsmen produced special editions for the anniversary: Paul Gerber, Kari Voutilainen, Peter Speake-Marin, Ludovic Ballouard, Maximilian Busser, Bart Grönefeld and Donald Corson - the latter, an autodidact watchmaker, with his own UFO-Tourbillon. The audience was inspired by the stories of these men and their watches.
The other days were focused on manufactures with a "purist" approach to watchmaking and included Chopard, Audemars Piguet, Montblanc, Bulgari and DeWitt providing interactive sessions and presentations. The enthusiastic attendees, many of whom had interacted on the PuristS forums daily for years but never met in real life, reported having enjoyed this time of celebration and sharing.