Time Of Exploration Swatch The Club Xmas Event


12 to 14-DEC-2008, Lisbon, Portugal

From 12 to 14-DEC-2008, the traditional Xmas event of Swatch The Club took place in Lisbon, Portugal.  For me, it was the second major Swatch event in Portugal, 10 years(!) after the fantastic EXPO'98 event in Lisbon.  I was curious to see how Lisbon would look like in the winter.

About 125 collectors from all around the world gathered during 12-DEC at the very nice *****-hotel Dom Pedro Palace.  Swatch Portugal had rented a few billboards at the airport and near the hotel showing the logo of the club event, so it was clearly visible in the city that the crazy Swatch collectors were in town!


The hotel is next to the Amoreiras shopping center.  This huge shopping center also contains a Swatch store (who actually had released a .beat special in 2000).


another nice billboard next to the hotel

On friday, the weather was great and as the official event began in the late afternoon, we had some time on our own to explore the city.  We enjoyed the great view from the Miradouro de São Pedro de Alcântara:


xmas time, sitting in a street café

We walked down to the river Tejo, to the Praça do Comércio:


Ponte 25 de Abril

A fantastic day which blew away some of my mid winter (3 deg.C, grey clouds, ...) depression :-)

At 5pm, the event officially started with a welcome speech by Skander.  All the usual suspects had come together...


A map had been handed out at the welcome desk to every collector:



Our mission was to explore the city in three major activities.  The first mission was Island Of Kings, the area of the Castelo de São Jorge.  Swatch had rented a few historic tram cars, so we could enjoy a first drink on the famous tram line no. 28:


xmas decoration at the main shopping street in Baixa


Finally, we arrived near the castle and again, we had a fantastic view of the city:


some short explanations by a local tourist guide


We walked up to the Castelo de São Jorge and suddenly, we were greeted by an african dance group and fire eaters:


Matthias had a lot of fun entering the restaurant as you can see on these pictures :-)  A nice menu awaited us in the restaurant Casa do Leão, located directly in the castle.  Actually, we had eaten there 10 years ago as well!


A first surprise was the arrival Skander, dressed up as a portuguese sailor:


Even bigger was our surprise when the Xmas event special was distributed during the first evening of the event, together with a medal and a compass to honour the completion of our first mission:


Every participant of the event received a unique special Irony Chrono Time Of Exploration (YCS525G):



Only 222 pcs of this special watch were produced!  It is a variant of the Irony Chrono Light Of Senses (YCS509G) which is part of the Seasons 2008 collection.  The difference is the color of the date field (green instead of white) and the color of the ring in the upper left of the dial (green instead of black).  The metal strap is also engraved "Time Of Exploration 2008":


So, this watch is very rare as only 222 pcs exist.  The watch comes packaged in a very nice wooden box with a number xxx/222 on the bottom:



The watch itself is not numbered.  More pictures of the opened box and other goodies from the event:


We had a great and relaxed evening at the restaurant and already enjoyed talking about the event special...

Click here to read page 2 of my report about the Time Of Exploration Swatch The Club Xmas Event 2008 in Lisbon.

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