Swatch Gold & Pioneer Event Berlin 2015




 Berlin, Germany, 14 to 17-MAY-2015

From 14 to 17-MAY-2015, the traditional Swatch The Club Gold & Pioneer event took place in Berlin, Germany.  About 139 Gold & Pioneer members from all over the world (more than a dozen countries) participated at the event, including 14 new Gold members (out of 16 Gold members selected by Swatch). 

On thursday morning, we met at the very stylish (lots of pink designs!) and modern **** nhow Hotel in the eastern part of Berlin, very nicely located on the Spree River.


Greetings in the lobby

Lots of German and international artists (musicians, comedians, ...) have already stayed at this hotel.  If you don't know H.P. Baxxter:  Maybe you know Scooter :-)

As always, it was great to meet again, lots of familiar faces, lots of "Hello!", "How are you?" etc.

So it was great that the event started with a Welcome lunch at the hotel.  Claude Bravi (head of Swatch The Club) opened the event with a short welcome speech.

A special table was reserved for the new Gold members.  The mood was great as you can see (lots of excitement).

Outside, the first activity of the day, the Gran Tourismo Challenge was prepared.  Swatch The Club and the event agency had rented (probably almost) every Trabbi, Käfer, Lada, ... that was available for rent in Berlin.  More than 40 cars were lined up outside near the river.


The car fleet also included some very special cars (extra long Trabants etc.)


This was our car

Inside the hotel, the instructions for the city rallye were explained.  The club members were distributed randomly among the cars (also a good way to make new friends).  Every team received a road book which included several tasks which had to be solved in the next hours.

During the trip, every team also had to shoot several selfies which had to be posted on Facebook using the hashtag #gnpevent15.  Most of these selfies are probably private again right now :-)

The first stop of the trip was at the Gendarmenmarkt between the French Church (Französischer Dom) and the Deutscher Dom (not to be confused with the Berliner Dom).  At each stop, a friendly member of the organizing team was waiting for us.  She had some additional questions for us, not listed in the road book.


Second stop:  Brandenburg Gate (Brandenburger Tor)

One particular task was to estimate the distance to the Siegessäule (Victory Column).  We failed miserably and we guessed only 600m.  It is about 2100 meters.  Oops.

Third stop (back again in the eastern part of Berlin):  The East Side Gallery.  It is the longest open air gallery in the world with 1,316 meters of artworks.  Swatch artist Jim Avignon also has painted a part of the wall.


My team from Italy and UK with our friendly driver from Berlin

During the trip, we also met quite a few opposing teams...


All is going well!

Fourth and last stop was at the Soviet War Memorial in Tiergarten where we met Trabi XXL.


On the way back:  More opponents...  Everyone seemed to have a great time!


Looking hard for a solution of the riddle.

After the Gran Tourismo Challenge, we had a short break at the hotel before we left for the dinner at the Bar Jeder Vernunft (a mirror tent but also a play with words as it also means:  "without any good sense").

Obviously, it was a "Swiss Evening" as Julia and Guisy greeted us in a Swiss dress. 


A Swiss motto for the evening

During the dinner, Swatch Creative Director Carlo Giordanetti gave a nice welcome speech.  The winners of the Gran Tourismo Challenge got their prizes, we had music and yodelling entertainment and much more...

For some collectors the highlight of the evening:  The upcoming Swiss Collection (in the stores starting 01-AUG) was presented, the motto for this collection is Grüezi All!  This collection is part of the Fall / Winter collection 2015 / 2016.

New Gent
Swiss Around The Clock
(SUOR106)
Gent
Schoggi
(GC114)
Gent
Die Glocke
(GB285)
New Gent
Moitié-Moitié
(SUOW118)
Gent
Gornergrat
(GM183)
Irony Chrono
Muuu
(YCS585)

Click here to read page 2 ("Workshops and a cruise lunch on the Alexander von Humboldt") of my Swatch Gold & Pioneer Event 2015 report.

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