Swiss Made, Swiss Experienced
Day 1: Arrival
This is the story of the Omega Seamaster Aqua Terra Worldtimer on a week-long excursion to its origin of manufacture, Confoederatio Helvetica, La Suisse, Die Schweiz, Switzerland. Its 43mm diameter, combined with a 50mm lug-to-lug and chonky 14.1mm height might suggest an uncomfortable intercontinental journey, but the on-wrist wearing experience begs to differ. Sloping lugs and a supremely comfortable (and surprisingly premium-feeling!) rubber strap hug my 17cm/6.75 inch wrist rather snugly. Indeed, as someone who normally suggests purchasing a watch first with the steel bracelet option whenever available, I can wholeheartedly recommend skipping the bracelet here. It makes the watch wear bigger, strangely doesn’t feel as premium as the strap/deployant combo, and honestly makes the watch look too metallic. Anyway, enough technical stuff, got a plane to catch.
As a frequent connoisseur of the Swiss Alps, stablemate Chopard Alpine Eagle normally pulls watch duty on these trips, but a knock against the case and a resulting escapement running +5 seconds per minute had me bringing the Alpine Eagle for a completely different purpose: A trip to the Chopard boutique for some extended time with the maker. I had some time to kill between my 6:10am landing and the 10:30am opening of the Zürich Chopard boutique, and that afforded an opportunity for a quick photoshoot with the worldtimer along the banks of the beautiful Limmat River.
After the boutique visit, I catch my train onwards to the city of Bern, where I am reunited with some friends. Then the jetlag catches up to me and I find myself able to do no more for the day. Well, no more besides a fun excursion down to the Aare River and swimming down-current in it. 150M of water-resistance and a screw-down crown ensured the watch never had to leave my wrist.
Day 2: Switzerland Day!
This was only to be a weeklong trip in Switzerland, but it included August 1st, known as Switzerland Day, or the day the original Swiss Confederation was allegedly founded just a short time ago in 1291. I am told that it is the sole day in the year where fireworks are legal, but the festivities don’t end there. A stroll through the old town of Bern, and especially near the parliament house reveal public concerts, long lines to exhibits, and bring-your-own public BBQ grills. The lovely golden hour hues illuminate the dial of the Aqua Terra Worldtimer especially delightfully.
Day 3: Ide Bärge (into the mountains)!
On day 3 it is time to go breathe mountain air. Freshly armed with a 4-day Berner Oberland Pass, I rail my way over to one of my favorite experience-to-tourist ratio (meaning the most experience for the fewest throngs of tourists) spots in Switzerland: the Haslital. On the way I make sure to take a wrist pic with a train as if to show that Switzerland being both the global cradle of watchmaking and the home to one of the most punctual rail networks in the world is not merely coincidence.
My destination that morning is a place I’ve passed through once before on my hike-through of the Via Alpina in 2019: the Planplatten/Alpen Tower. This time, however, my relatively delicate choice of footwear exhorts me to ride the cable cars to the top. The views, even when less well-earned, do not fail to please.
A quick glance at my home timezone on the watch, US central time, tells me it’s still a tad early to be sending showboat photos of the Alps to my friends back home. I instead descend back down via cable car to the valley and continue my way aboard the Panorama Express train to my abode for the night in the town of Sachseln. The route passes through what I humbly regard as the most idyllic Swiss village of all time, Lungern. The tourists pull out their phones to record the moment. I do not, for I am now a veteran around these parts and no longer participate in such tomfoolery.
Day 4: Charting Unknown Valleys
The veteran bit above ends up being ironic as the next day I set off to the Engelberg valley, an area I am not familiar with. After missing a bus, impressing a local with my Swiss German skills, and a slightly frightening and rickety gondola ride later, I reach my destination, the Fürenalp. A younger me would have preferred a cloudless day, but the present-day me knows clouds add to the mystique of the mountains and make photographing watches easier.
I stay up here a while, soaking in the distant cowbells and waterfalls, dreaming of an alternate reality where I’d grow up in such a place. Then I gently land back onto reality and offer to take a photo for a group of Swiss folks, whose dialect sounds like that from Zürich. After chatting with them a bit on the gondola ride back down, squished in there shoulder to shoulder, and then commute back to Sachseln for the evening. I spontaneously decide to milk the remaining bits of daylight with a swim in the lake, and am simultaneously rewarded with beautiful evening sunrays in which to really show off the Worldtimer.
Day 4 & 5: Winding Down
Day 4 is mostly uneventful as I head back to Bern to spend time with friends at church. Day 5 is anything but, as I head back into the Oberland to hop on a cruise across Lake Brienz to the Giessbach Waterfalls. This feels appropriate since the Aqua Terra dials have boat deck themes after all.
The watch played an important role that day as I constantly needed to keep track of the time to get back to Interlaken in time to purchase groceries before venturing further into the Lauterbrunnen Valley to make a meal for some friends of mine. It’s haying season and a hearty dinner like Älplermagronen hit all the right notes that night. The evening rays illuminating the Jungfrau massif on the opposite side truly dance off of the sunburst dial of the worldtimer in spectacular fashion.
I unfortunately couldn’t stay too long in that beautiful valley. I had a plane to catch starting very early the next morning, so I return to Interlaken and tuck myself in for an early night.
Day 6: Conclusion
I make it back home after a series of trains and planes in almost exactly 24 hours. Exhausted, I place my trusty world-timing, world-traveling companion of a watch into its spot in the watch box, but only after quick-jumping the hour hand back to US Central Time of course. Its METAS-rated accuracy ensured I never had to reset the time during the whole trip, its 150M water-resistance rating ensured I could dip in a lake and a river with it, and its striking dial made sure I never got bored looking at it.
Happy 733rd birthday, Switzerland. Thank you for giving us the gift of watches.