Category: Personal

Over the weekend I picked up three different speaker docks from the Digits Apple Store to review. Even though all three do the same thing they’re not really direct competitors, either because of the price difference or because of their abilities as you’ll see in my short reviews below.

Logitech S715i
The Logitech speaker was the smallest and most portable of the three. It’s also the only one that comes with built in rechargeable batteries which makes it really convenient to take to the beach and other places where power outlets aren’t available. The speakers are loud although the sound isn’t the greatest with pretty weak bass but that’s to be expected due to the size. One thing that really bugged me about the speaker dock is that I couldn’t connect my iPhone to it unless I removed the iPhone bumper which was annoying. Overall a fairly decent speaker that doesn’t win on style or sound but is priced competitively at KD35. Personally I’d check out the Jawbone Jambox first if I was looking for portability but that also costs twice as much.

Altec Lansing iMT800 Digital Boombox
When I first pulled out this boombox from the box I was a bit disappointed. I had just finished with the Monster Beatbox and compared to it, the Altec Lancing felt very plasticky, light and flimsy. It also didn’t sound as good nor was it as pretty. But it did have some features the Beatbox lacked and one of them is the built-in FM radio tuner. If you’re a fan of Linda on the Superstation you’re going to really want this. Another feature is the fact that it has three inputs, one iPhone/iPod dock and two auxiliary inputs so you could hook up 3 iPods if you want. Finally and more importantly is that the Altec Lansing can run on 8 large D-cell batteries which actually is a useful feature. Now because of the size of the Altec Lansing I thought it was competing with the Monster Beatbox but turns out they’re currently selling this for KD34 which suddenly makes this not so great speaker dock a really great deal. It sounds a lot better than the much smaller Logitech, it also has a small digital screen that shows you details like artist and album name as well as having the ability to run on batteries if needed. I actually emailed Digits back to confirm they hadn’t mixed up with the price. Turns out they’re having an offer on these and I’m guessing because of the newer iMT810 version.

Monster Beatbox by Dr. Dre
This by far was the best sounding speaker of the three. Even compared to my Bang & Olufsen BeoSound 8 the Monster Beatbox sounded really great with a lot more deeper bass. It was also the easiest of the three to operate and it also had the most solid build. The Beatbox is pretty simple with just an iPhone/iPod dock in one corner and a volume knob on the other. To give you an idea of how big a sound the Beatbox has, I live in a two story apartment and while I was sitting upstairs Nat was listening to music downstairs and I couldn’t tell if she was listening to music off our home theater or the Beatbox (turned out to be the Beatbox). The amount of bass it gives out for it’s size is just ridiculous, it really does shake the house. I did have one big issue with the Beatbox and that is the fact the dock can’t hold an iPad. I know you’re probably wondering who would want to use an iPad as a music dock anyway and the answer is anybody who’s tried the iPad version of Spotify. I use it with my BeoSound 8 and it’s unbelievably cool so much so that while I’m home I no longer listen to my MP3’s. The iPad Spotify app is fantastic plus I prefer to keep my phone on me and not plugged into a speaker dock. But that’s nit picking a bit which is fine since this is a review. Price-wise if you’re interested in the Beatbox, Digits are selling it for KD100 to my readers. Just tell them you saw this price on my blog and you’ll be able to get it for KD100 which is around KD20 cheaper than Amazon (not including tax and shipping).

Just to be clear from the get go, this isn’t a review about the Galaxy Tab 2 as a tablet nor is it a review of Android’s new ice cream operating system. I have an iPad and I wouldn’t replace it with an Android device. The reason I got the Galaxy Tab is to replace my Archos 7 portable media player and this is what this post is about. So Android fanboys can put down their keyboards and relax.

Back in 2009 I bought the Archos 7 to use as my media player for when I traveled. Before the Archos I was watching movies on my tiny iPod screen (the classic iPod not the touch) so moving to the larger 7inch screen was a huge improvement. Not only that but my Archos also had a large 160GB drive, a replaceable battery that lasted 10 hours and would play any non-HD video format without requiring any time consuming format conversion. Over the years though I’ve started getting more and more HD files and the Archos started to choke. It couldn’t play a lot of the new formats and it also couldn’t play most of the HD stuff I threw it’s way so I started looking for an alternative.

I wanted a 7inch screen, a large hard drive, a replaceable battery and the ability to play HD files without an issue. Surprisingly I didn’t find a media player that had all that so I started being more flexible with my requirements and in the end went with the Galaxy Tab 2 with a 7inch screen. The screen size was correct, it would play any video I threw at it and the battery life was fairly decent coming in at around 6 hours of non stop video playback. But it only had 8GB of internal memory and the battery couldn’t be swapped. Two issues I figured I could solve easily. The Galaxy Tab has a microSD card for expandability and I figured I could take multiple 32GB cards with me on long trips. I also wanted a swappable battery for long trips and although I couldn’t swap the battery on the Galaxy Tab, I realized I could purchase one of those Mophie PowerStations which charge gadgets using a USB port and just run my Tab off it during long flights. Of course the Tab is also a full fledged tablet so I could if I wanted to browse the web or perform other tasks on it if I needed to.

After taking the Tab on two trips with me I’ve come to the conclusion that I made the right decision. Although I’ve lost some of the features that made the Archos 7 so great I did gain three important benefits (among others). The first is that the Tab is much lighter and thinner than the Archos 7. This makes carrying it in my shoulder bag a lot more pleasant. The second thing I also gained is a much better screen with improved visibility from all angles and better touch sensitivity. I’ve also thrown a whole bunch of video formats at it including 720p HD movies and the Tab has played every single one of them without an issue.

So if you’re looking for a great media player this is what I recommend you get. I purchased it from Amazon back in May and it cost me KD82 in total and that includes shipping to Kuwait using DHL’s Borderlinx. I couldn’t find it in Kuwait back then but they might be available here now. [Amazon Link]

Late last month I picked up the Fuji X-Pro1 camera from Xcite to review and after spending a lot of time with it I can confidently say I loved it. How much? Well I wouldn’t mind it over the much more expensive Leica M9 but more on that later. I took the camera with me to Lebanon while on vacation and I carried it around and shot with it as much as I could.

The first thing I loved about the camera is the way it looks. When I first saw pictures of it online I was like I need to have it! It’s a simple black boxy looking camera that has a very timeless look to it. It’s bigger than I expected it to be but not that much different from the Leica M9. One thing that’s a lot different to the Leica is the weight. While the Leica M9 is a pretty hefty camera, the X-Pro1 is a lot lighter and that’s a good thing. I walked around with the X-Pro1 strung across my shoulder and I never felt the camera was bothersome or heavy. On the other hand I’ve walked around with a Leica M9 slung over my shoulder before and it’s presence was felt very quickly. Although the camera doesn’t look very ergonomic it felt comfortable in my hands and during use.

The X-Pro1 is a 16MP camera with a sensor that’s similar in size to most DSLR’s. I had the very bright 35m f/1.4 lens for the review and it’s really the only lens you need. The 35mm lens is equal to a 50mm lens on a full frame camera and that’s generally considered the most popular focal length since it’s close to what the eyes see. There are two knobs on the top, one for the shutter speed and one for the exposure. The camera also has a quick menu button which brings to focus the most commonly used options and a customizable FN button which in my case was calling up the ISO list.

Carrying the camera around and shooting with it was a lot of fun. The camera has a hybrid viewfinder similar to the Fuji X100 which is always fascinating to use. The hybrid viewfinder is something unique to Fuji and it’s basically an opticalviewfinder with information digitally displayed on top of it. There is also a switch on the front of the camera which when pressed turns the hybrid viewfinder into an electronic one. I didn’t use the EVF much since I’m not a fan of them but many people will appreciate it’s accuracy over the hybrid viewfinder. Although I read online about the camera’s focusing issues I didn’t run into any while shooting with the camera. I didn’t shoot any sports or fast action but I was shooting with the camera wide open and in different lighting conditions and maybe only once or twice did I have difficulty getting focus. ISO performance is another thing this camera is good at. At ISO1600 the noise is barely noticeable.

I have a few issues with the camera but none very major. First the on/off button gets switched on by mistake all to often and I can’t even count the times I found the camera on when it should be off. I have a similar issue with the aperture ring on the lens, it’s too loose and easily rotates with a minor bump or rub. Another more important issue is manually focusing with the camera. Manually focusing using the hybrid viewfinder isn’t an easy task since there are no markings on the screen to aid you and you can’t estimate using the focus ring on the lens since the focus ring works digitally (it also rotates infinitely).

Now the difficult part is deciding if this camera is right for you. If you’ve always wanted a Leica M8 or Leica M9 then get this camera. Other than the fact the Leica is nearly 4 times more expensive, the X-Pro1 has another advantage and that is the fact it has auto focus. The lenses are also like 10 times cheaper so really it’s a no brainer. If you’ve considered the Sony NEX-7 at one point then you should also consider the X-Pro1. I think the NEX-7 is a great camera but let down by a terrible collection of lenses. Personally I want this camera but I can’t seem to figure out when I would use it. I have the Panasonic GX1 which is my compact camera I take on vacations and dinners. Then I have the Nikon D800 which is what I use for my important stuff. The Fuji would have to replace one of those two but it wouldn’t be able to do the job of either of them right. It’s not compact or versatile like my GX1 and it also doesn’t have the large full frame sensor of my D800 or the lenses to compete with it. As I said earlier, deciding on this camera is the most difficult part.

The camera is selling as a kit for KD646. The kit includes the X-Pro1 camera, the 35mm f/1.4 lens and the original case kit. It’s only available at the new photography section in the Xcite store in Avenues. I just found out the camera kit is actually available at three Xcite branches:

X-PRO 1+X35mm Lens+X-Pro 1 Case (kit) – KD646 – Available in Rai, Fahaheel & Avenues
X18MM (Prime Lens) – KD159 – Available only in Avenues
XF60MM (Macro Lens) – KD182 – Available only in Avenues
EF-X20 (Shoe Mount Flash) – KD58 – Available only in Avenues

I’ve been really looking forward to watching this movie since I first found out about it back in December and now that I’ve watched it I have mixed feelings about it. The movie is directed by Ridley Scott who also directed the original Alien movie among other blockbuster hits and although I read that Prometheus isn’t a prequel to the Alien franchise, it’s hard to believe it’s not after watching it.

Plot: A team of explorers discover a clue to the origins of mankind on Earth, leading them on a journey to the darkest corners of the universe. There, they must fight a terrifying battle to save the future of the human race. –IMDB

The movie has a lot of intese parts and the plot is incredibly good but I did find it a bit slow paced as well. A lot of people in the theater were getting restless and even I was starting to doze off which is why I have mixed thoughts about it. The movie right now is stuck between being a quick action packed movie like The Avengers or an epic 3+ hour adventure similar to Lord of the Rings. It should have either been shorter and faster or longer and deeper. Ridley Scott spent a lot of time showing the viewers some really interesting things but then when the movie finally picked up pace, it ended very quickly. I could easily see a sequel come out of this or maybe even a prequel.

As I said at the start, I have mixed feelings about Prometheus. I didn’t leave the theater thinking the movie was great but it’s been 3 hours since I finished watching it and I’m still thinking about it so it’s good in that sense. Worth watching, just don’t expect it to be action packed.

I watched the movie in Lebanon so it was uncut. The movie contains one scene where a couple make out and have sex. It didn’t contain any nudity just kissing but it would most likely be cut in Kuwait and that scene plays a crucial role in the movie. Other than that scene there are a few scenes where the female characters are wearing basically a two piece swimsuit, no idea if that would get cut in Kuwait but they’re also important scenes in the movie.

If you haven’t watched the Prometheus movie trailer then watch it now [Here]

For the past 10 days I’ve been sleeping on an AeroBed Mattress while waiting for my furniture to arrive and I think I’ve spent enough time with it to give it a proper review. I purchased the AeroBed mattress from Ace Hardware and brought it with me here to Lebanon since I wasn’t sure where I could find them here. Ace had two or three different versions but this queen sized AeroBed was the only one that came with a motor to inflate it. The other air mattresses required the purchase of a separate pump (different options available) but I didn’t want the headache and instead wanted an all in one solution.

The air mattress came in a small box that included a storage bag and aqn electrical pump. I had to purchase a 220v to 110v converter since the electrical pump that was included in the box worked on the US standard 110v. To inflate the mattress it’s a very simple process, just plug the pump into an electrical socket and then place the pump over the plastic ring located on the side of the mattress and rotate until it locks into place. Once the pump locks into place it will automatically activate and start pumping air. The mattress starts inflating instantly and within 60 seconds it’s ready to use. If you prefer the mattress to be firm you can let the air pump work for another minute or two before removing it.

The mattress is surprisingly comfortable and I really wasn’t expecting it to be. The top side of the mattress has a velvety texture which allows the bedsheet cover to grip onto it stopping it from sliding around. That combined with a coil construction (the mattress isn’t flat but has large dimples) helps reduce the feeling that you’re sleeping on what basically is a large balloon. The only negative thing I found is that the sides of the mattress are not very firm so if you get too close to the edge there is a high chance of the edge folding under your weight resulting in you rolling off it in the middle of the night.

If you’ve got relatives coming over for a visit or if you have friend’s come over often then this could actually be a practical solution. When deflated the bed takes up very little space and when inflated it’s actually very comfortable. I wouldn’t recommend it for camping just because it requires a power source to inflate. The cost of the AeroBed was around KD30 for the queen sized version and I found it at Ace Hardware. Here’s a link to the [Product Page]

When I started blogging back in 2003 I really didn’t want to do it. My friend proposed the idea and I told him I thought blogging was stupid but I’d try it just for fun. Now, a decade later I’ve left my full time job at an ad agency to blog for a living instead.

Some people saw this coming, others are a bit surprised and many don’t really understand how blogging can be a job. Honestly even I’m having difficulties grasping that concept even though it’s a really simple idea.

I used to work from 9 in the morning till 7 in the evening and three times a week I had gym from 8 to 9 so I never had time for anything else. I never had time to go meet with people, pass by art exhibitions or even see my friends. Now that blogging will be my full time job I should have a lot more time to do all the things I wanted to but never had time for.

Things aren’t that simple since without a “real” job I can’t get my residency renewed and banks also don’t seem to like me unless I have a salary coming in every month. But I’m working on it.

Other than that issue I’m looking forward to this since I’ll have so much more free time on my hands to do whatever I want. I might help Nat out with her work, I’m thinking of maybe doing my Masters, taking one hour Muay Thai sessions at Core, signing up again at Sidekick for some Jujitsu and maybe even take Scuba diving lessons or some other activity I previously never had time for. One thing I’ve always wanted to do is ditch work and drive to Entertainment City instead. I can’t ditch work anymore since I no longer have a job but maybe I can wake up in the morning and pretend I’m going to work and then go to Entertainment City? I don’t know I’ll have to see how I can get that idea working right.

But, more importantly, I will now have a lot more time to focus on this blog, I have a couple of projects that have been pending for ages which I want to get a move on, I also have the Kuwait Blogs app I need to fix because right now it keeps crashing and even my 248AM iPhone app needs an update as well. I’ve even handed over my blog’s media to a media company called Dot Backspace so they could take care of the blog’s advertising while I focus all my attention on the content.

I’m excited (and a bit worried) about blogging fulltime but I’m also looking forward to it. I’m currently in Lebanon for the next 10 days on my summer break so I won’t really notice anything different until I get back to Kuwait and realize I don’t have to wake up at 7:30 the next day to go to work. We’ll see how things will pan out.

I’m currently in the process of moving into my new apartment here in Lebanon so I’ve been pretty busy. Things have been hectic and everything that can go wrong is going wrong which is why I’ve bitten all my nails and have found new love in this amazing French cornflakes that’s stuffed with what tastes like Nutella. It’s really strange how suppliers are here in Lebanon, I’ve dealt with maybe two professional companies but the rest are just a pain to deal with. People here complain that they don’t make a lot of money and I think I know why… they simply don’t want to work. Everything should be done in the next few days and I already shipped some furniture I bought from Kuwait here so I’m currently waiting for them to arrive. Might post pics once everything is done but still undecided.

I spent nearly two months on a really strict diet and working out at Core Fitness 5 times a week trying to bring down my body fat percentage to 12% before I traveled to Lebanon and hit the beach. That didn’t happen (I blame Geneva) and I ended up at 13.6% which is still pretty cool just not what I wanted. I’ve now been in Lebanon for 5 days, I still haven’t gone to the beach and I also haven’t been able to hold my diet.

Whenever I travel I find it impossible to stick to my diet. The only way I actually stick to my diet in Kuwait is with routine, I know I am going to have eggs with turkey for breakfast, grilled chicken cutlets with grilled zucchini for lunch and turkey again for dinner. I don’t mind having the same thing every day but once I’m out of Kuwait I just can’t stick to that very simple plan. It’s been 5 days since I’ve been here and I think I’ve probably put on weight. Sucks.

BTW if you’re curious/nosy, I was 84.7KG when I first joined Core 2 years ago and I had a body fat percentage of 20%. My weight back in 2005 was 90.6KG.

Last week I had a shipment of wireless surveillance cameras get confiscated by Kuwait Customs. For some odd reason they’re cracking down on the import of any kind of surveillance equipment and to get an exception you’ve got to do a small runaround. This post will show you how to get that done quickly.

Aramex passed me my package clearance paperwork on Wednesday and I headed to the Kuwait Airport cargo area the following day. At first I thought clearing the package was a similar process to clearing other packages from customs so I printed a map I had created and instructions I had posted a few years back and started using it as my guide. But I quickly found out that was the wrong process for this case and instead I needed to head to the Aramex office in the cargo area.

[Google Maps]

The Aramex office is located right at the other end of the cargo area and you need to walk there under the sun since there is no shaded pathway. I highly recommend you go there in shorts, a tshirt and a baseball cap. Seriously it’s a miserable walk. Once I got to the small Aramex office the guy there signed the documents and told me I should head to another office back on the other side of the cargo area where they will have my package. So I walked back in the blistering heat and quickly found the second office by asking someone. Once inside I handed my paperwork to an officer who then went to a back room and brought out my shipment. He filled up a bit of paperwork, handed me one of my cameras from the box (I had ordered 3) and told me I should now take the paperwork and the camera and head over to the Kuwait security department near the VIP airport.

[Google Maps]

I walked back to my car and drove around the airport twice until I found the building. It’s located opposite the long term parking lot but to get to it you need go in by car from near the airport arrivals entrance. Once I got to the heavily protected compound (it has high walls topped with barbed wire and security cameras pointing in every direction) I then had trouble finding parking space. They have a tiny parking lot that was fully packed so I was forced to park in a no parking zone right next to a your car will be towed signed. Once inside I headed into the first building but turned out it was the wrong one and needed to go into the second white building that was a short walk away.

I went inside to this second building and headed up to the first floor and then walked all the way down to the end of the corridor and into an office on the left side (before the couch). There were two officers sitting, as soon as they saw me they told me I needed to go into another office two doors down on the left where someone would fill in a request for me. I did that and came back to him and he looked at my box and asked me why I got the camera? I told him I wanted to be able to monitor my apartment in Lebanon while I’m in Kuwait. He was like why didn’t you buy it locally? I told him I couldn’t find this specific model locally and it’s always cheaper online anyway. He was like ok, go next door and photocopy your civil id card and come back. I did and two minutes later I get back only to find the officer gone. The second officer who was sitting on the couch told me he’d be back. 10 minutes later some other officer comes and decides to finish up my paperwork. I had to write a letter stating that I was planning to use the cameras for personal use and then had to sign it and give it to him. He then finalized my paperwork and I had to go back to the Kuwait Airport cargo area back to the office that had my package. I showed them the paperwork there and was then allowed to take my cameras and leave.

While there I noticed a variety of other cameras that were held. One guy I met had ordered a helicopter with a camera built in while I noticed another guy was trying to clear a spy camera. So if you’re planning to order any kind of surveillance camera you should know there is a high probability it will be held right now but clearing it isn’t too difficult. The whole process took me around an hour and a half but should take you less now that you know where to go.

Over the weekend I was at the Avenues and ended up passing by Xcite’s new photography section. Two things grabbed my attention, the first is the fact they have 4 incredibly expensive Nikon lenses on display including the 400mm f/2.8 which I’d love to have at the next Gulf Run event. The second thing that grabbed my attention was the Fuji X-Pro 1 camera.

When the camera was first revealed online my heart sank into to my stomach since I had just purchased the my Panasonic GX1 and there was no way I could buy this as well. The camera was everything the Fuji X100 was except it was better in every way.

Once I got home I sent an email to my contact at Xcite and asked him if they’d be able to hook me up with one to review and they did. Not only that but I’m traveling to Lebanon for two weeks and I’m going to have the camera with me there which is perfect since the X-Pro 1 is a great camera for street photography which is something I like doing in Lebanon.

I’m going to be using the 35mm f/1.4 lens with the camera and expect a thorough review in around 10 days time.

Update: Below is a picture of the X-Pro 1 next to my GX1.

Two days ago I get an email from Smoke House telling me they’re planning to launch a Hashi burger and if I was interested to try it out. Hashi turns out means baby camel and since I hadn’t tried camel meat before I figured why not.

I wasn’t too sure what to expect, I’ve tried ostrich meat before and found it very lean and chewy so I figured camel meat would probably be the same but maybe have a stronger flavor. I wasn’t expecting it to be good but thought it would at least be worth trying just for the experience.

It turns out camel meat actually tastes pretty much like regular beef. I had the burger with caramelized onions, cheese and BBQ sauce, strong flavors which slightly overpower the patty but in this case a great combination since hashi meat is slightly drier than beef so the toppings helped keep things juicy. I’m not sure why other places don’t have Hashi burgers as well, could be a good diet patty due to the fact it contains less fat than beef.

Smoke House haven’t introduced the burger yet nor do they have a price for it but they’ll be updating their Twitter account once they do as well as their website. Fahad if you’re reading this I didn’t have lunch so I could have this burger and I won’t be having dinner. Diet still on.. kinda.

I tend to flip flop between shipping companies A LOT and most of my long time readers know that. Not sure why shipping companies can’t stay consistent but I love the fact we have options to choose from. Two years ago I said goodbye to DHL Borderlinx, they had increased their prices, started charging based on volumetric weight and their customs clearance thing was very random.

Last week I decided I wanted the new Galaxy Tab 2 7″ as my portable movie player for my trips. It was May 23rd and my travel date is May 31st so I needed the Tab before that. I hadn’t used DHL for over 2 years but based on feedback I had read I was told they would be fast. I placed the order on Amazon and this is how it went:

I placed order from Amazon on May 23rd
Package arrives to my DHL mailbox in the States on May 24th
Package ships from my DHL mailbox in the States on May 25th
Package ready for pickup in Kuwait on May 29th

That’s fast and best of all I didn’t pay any tax since their US mailbox is based in Ohio. Shipping cost me KD6.5 and there were no custom duties. Total price I paid for the Galaxy Tab including shipping to Kuwait is just KD82.5!

In my “WiMD Internet – 3 Months Later” post I noted on how my connection’s overall speed had decreased. Turns out the issue was with the wireless connection from my building to their tower since after running tests with their server I noticed I was only getting around 5Mbps instead of 10. The problem has now been fixed and I reran the speedtest and here are the updated results:

I was satisfied with my connection when it wasn’t performing at it’s best since I hadn’t really noticed a drop but now that it’s back to normal I’m even more confident I made the right choice going with WiMD.

I found out about Instajelly from a Forum user and after trying it out I think it’s the best web Instagram viewer out there. I like the way it displays all my images in a nice clean format and I also like the fact you could read the comments and then comment on photos all from within the website.

I think I’ve kinda slowly slowly been moving away from Twitter towards Instagram. Pictures are always a lot more interesting than words. Anyway you can check out my Instagram account using Instajelly right over [Here]

For my last post on my trip to Audemars Piguet I’m going to take you inside their facilities and show you their environment and some of the people behind the watches. By looking at some of the pictures you could easily mistake it for a scientific laboratory since all the watchmakers wear white coats and majority of them are looking through magnifiers and even microscopes.

For some parts of the tour we were required to enter a sterilized room, put on coats and even wear plastic bags over our shoes so that we wouldn’t bring any external contamination inside their sterile work spaces. The watchmakers are all very talented and experienced craftsman and not just random people sitting at an assembly line slapping parts together. There is no assembly line, each watch is hand built and decorated by professionals.

A watchmaker at work. [YouTube]

A lot of time goes into every watch and into every single part that is inside the watch. To give you an idea of how extreme their craftsmanship is we spotted one guy working on a part so small I couldn’t take a picture of it. It was part literally the size of a pixel and it turned out it was an extremely tiny screw and he was busy polishing it. Imagine a part so tiny you could barely see it and yet he was polishing it. Keep in mind that’s also a part no one other than him would probably every see again since it will be hidden inside the watch. That’s extreme detailing and really lets you appreciate the amount of work and crafting that goes into every watch.

Video showing how the Royal Oak face dial is made. [YouTube]

We were mostly allowed to take pictures of whatever we wanted except for the area where they make the carbon forged watch cases. They’re the only watchmaker that makes carbon forged watches and I guess they didn’t want us snapping shots of secretive information like oven temperatures or specific machinery. But you can watch a video of the process on YouTube if you’re interested [Here]

After visiting the main AP building the following day we headed to their other division called Renaud & Papi located around 2 hours from Geneva by car. That’s where majority of their extremely complicated movements get developed and built. Those guys are ridiculously smart and talented which is why they’re considered the best in the industry and work on complicated movements for other high end brands like Richard Mille and Harry Winstone. I saw one girl who was working on a Tourbillon using a microscope and I still don’t understand how they can do it. The Tourbillon is smaller than a 1 fils coin and is a very complicated movement to build with lots of different parts and layers that go into making it and here she was building it using just tiny tweezers and very, very steady hands. Amazing talent.

I spotted two Richard Mille watches while we were there that were being built, the Jackie Chan Dragon edition which costs over a million bucks and my favorite the skull watch which costs around $700,000. I love it because the watch has a huge skull in the middle with a Tourbillon hidden in the mouth and also because it costs seven hundred freakin’ thousand dollars. That’s so in your face I have billions and billions of dollars that I can afford to buy a watch with a skull head inside that costs nearly a million bucks so I could wear it with my cool ripped jeans and nike sneakers on weekends. Unfair and unbalanced world? Most likely, but that doesn’t bother me.

One last thing I need to mention. When we were done with the tour of their facilities we were taken into this large conference room with cabinets stretching from one side to the other and filled with rows and rows of all their watches. We got to check them all out and try them on and my favorite from the bunch has to be the new Sebastien Buemi watch (pictured above). We were also given a sneak peek at the new Schumacher watch thats going to launch at the end of the year but I’m not allowed to describe it or say anything about it. Maybe I can mention one tidbit and say that it’s going to be a 44mm but that’s all I can say.

It was a great trip and it was something that was on my things to do before I die list so I now get to cross it off. I’m really grateful to AP for inviting me on this trip. All the AP employees and watchmakers were very profesional and patient with us. Their work environment is a very tranquil and peaceful place and we were definitely not a quiet group yet they were all very friendly and focused even though at some points I had my camera very rudely close to their heads trying to get my shots. Great people, beautiful country and a wonderful experience.