From 6 to 10-DEC-2006, the traditional Swatch The Club International Xmas event took place in Saalbach Hinterglemm, Austria.  Several things were unusual about this event:  First of all, the program was completely secret, so the following days came as a complete surprise to all club members.  This was a good idea in my opinion to keep the tension :-)  Next:  There was no snow at all in Saalbach (height:  1000m!) when we arrived.  Due to the warm weather, the second Swatch Snow-Mobile event had been cancelled at the beginning of december, so one of the highlights of the event did not take place, unfortunately.  Nevertheless, 130 swatch collectors from all around the world came to Saalbach for the event.  We all gathered in the late afternoon of 6-DEC at the Aparthotel Adler,  a **** all inclusive resort:

We all were considered as "agents on a special mission" (probably on the "Xmas special quest" :-), so I received my first instructions via SMS on my little old mobile phone:

Overall, these SMS instructions worked very well for me (and most of the collectors that I talked to), this allowed some easy last minute changes of the activities...  We met at 6pm at the Goasstall, where the first evening dinner took place:

Henk is the first in queue...

Soon after, "Santa Claus" arrived with a goat. 

Santa Claus gave a nice welcome speech, removed his red coat, and quickly converted into.... 
Head of Swatch The Club:  Skander "James Bond"!

We had a nice dinner and  lots of new stories to share...

At the store of  the Goasstall, it was possible to buy merchandise for an event that never took place :-)  including the special Fun Boarder swatch Snow Mobile 2006 (SULM102) with a nice paper sleeve around the box.  The paper sleeve version is very limited (maybe around 200-300 pcs), it was only available at the store and for the collectors at the event.

See more pictures from the Saalbach Xmas event (helicopters and more!) on page 2 of my report!

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