~ Jorn:

Bali may have become a popular romantic wedding destination – thanks to Mick Jagger – it is also famous for world-class surfing and diving.  I piggybacked my first dive of the year at this only Hindu island in Indonesia, on my recent business trip to Asia.

(and yes, this is me below...)

The Oktopus Moonphase has been on my wrist in recent months, and it told me the current was strong in the Blue Lagoon as it was new moon. So we didn’t go for the night dive.

In any case, I was happy to have been able to start my dive season in such a wonderful place. Much like when I’m skiing, being underwater really takes everything off my mind. I can’t wait for my next diving trip!

Related Post:
The Reef Goes Cave Diving in Mexico
Testing The Instrument
Deep Freeze

~ Jorn:

Singapore is such an exciting corner of the watch world! It is a cutting-edge market for enthusiasts with a strong penchant for buying and collecting watches. Last week, we spent three days there and had the pleasure to engage some of the LW enthusiasts at an exquisite event in Singapore, teamed up with with one of my personal favourites, the world-renowned luxury leather goods maker, Berluti.

The event was hosted by our retailer, E’Collezione, in Mandarin Gallery, located at the heart of Singapore's main shopping boulevard. E'Collezione is a new and beautifully designed shop, which only carries a small select group of (currently five) exciting brands.

It was a magical evening with interesting people in elegant surroundings. The atmosphere was enthusiastic and the response we received was amazing.

I was thrilled to be able to meet and greet our customers and watch aficionados - each and every one had an interesting view to share. We were impressed by their level of watch knowledge and appreciation. Our customers sometimes know more about our watches and instruments than we do!

This is what we love about events - direct and open interaction. There were collectors whose posts I have read on online forums, and journalists with whom I have only emailed or talked on the phone. It was great to put faces to names and exchange on a more personal level.

Not to mention the prefect excuse to indulge myself a little in the smell of my favourite shoes!

We will be back in Singapore again in a few months time for our next launch. Until then, be sure to visit E’Collezione, ask for Jeffrey, who will look after you, and try out our collection.

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PuristSPro: Linde Werdelin Novelties In Singapore
More event photos: LWuniverse

~ Morten:

We are currently in the final stages of testing our diver’s instrument - The Reef. Professional and leisure divers all over the world are testing the instrument and we are receiving a lot of positive feedback on the functionality, usability and design. Besides testing our instruments - both The Rock and The Reef - with professional skiers and divers, we also continuously test them ourselves, so we are able to develop the best instruments possible.

Another very interesting and intense dive was one to the Mama Viña shipwreck off the coast of Playa Del Carmen. The water was warm, azure blue and the submarine life and colours were in a league of its own. By wearing The Reef in these conditions, it was possible to test the transreflective display, which lights up the display from the back using a reflective technology. We will explain it in another post what is it. It also comes with a backlight for deep sea and night diving. Basically, this means, the display is clearly legible be it at the surface or deep down in the sea.

Other diving spots, which are definitely worth exploring, is the well-known Tortuga Reef between Cozumel and Playa Del Carmen and the famous sites of Palancar and Santa Rosa – discovered by Jacques Costeau himself in 1954.

The trip was not only about experiencing the submarine life and environments, but also to enjot the beautiful nature and wildlife. One of the selected destinations was the beautiful Sian Ka’an reserve, which is a part of UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere Projects and is on UNESCO's World Heritage list.

Beside the area’s overwhelming tropic nature, it's both a wildlife resort and a great archaeological area. On the 1.3 million acres of land, only ~2000 people live and work. The challenge here is to preserve nature and wildlife while integrating human civilisation, which is why the reserve has large zones, where human activity is limited by permission of scientific research.

Throughout the dive trips, The Reef received many inquiring and curious probes as it looks and performs different than any other dive instruments. Be sure to follow our future dive excursions here on The Lab, as Linde Werdelin conquers the sea like Mr. Cousteau and Mr. Verne did...

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Testing the Instrument
Deep Freeze
The Blue Lagoon

~ Jorn:

What do graphic novels, watches and professional instruments have to do with one another? It might not have been obvious, but it struck us with total sense when we decided to take a fresh and rather illustrative approach to presenting and sharing our watches and instruments.

We took our ideas to a creative agency who brought us to renowned French duo Dominique Bertail, illustator, and Thierry Smolderen, scenario writer. (See: our rendezvous last year). As a young and innovative brand with a focus on qaulity and design, we felt that the art of hand-drawn illustrations was exactly the right medium to use to capture our spirit.

Together with the duo, we created a parallel illustrated LW Universe, and a story set in this universe called The Perfect Five. It is a journey that combines reality and fantasy with mind-captivating twists and turns involving four main characters.

Without giving too much away, the story revolves around five microprocessors developed for LW watches and instruments. Because of a fault and anomaly during production, these five microchips have been given unprecedented calculating power. If brought together, this power gives them the ability to solve one of the most intriguing scientific enigmas of all time… therefore, LW has set out to find the already sold watches and instruments with these five microchips.

You will be able to follow the endeavours of The Perfect Five characters in the following magazines: IW Magazine (USA), Time Werke (Singapore), Rejoles & Estilograficas (Spain), Tiempos de Rejoles (Mexico) and QP (UK). See behind the scenes here on The Lab. You can also download our exclusive offer of LW Universe wallpapers through the forum main page on Watchuseek.com.

As they say in the world of graphic novels and illustrations: to be continued…

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The Born Identity - including trailer clip Part II
A Stroke of French

~ Morten:

This year's Easter skiing was set to be back in my favourite resort, St. Moritz in the Engadine valley in Switzerland. With the best Easter weather and snowfall in twenty years, the beautiful slopes in St. Moritz were bound to be explored after ten busy days at Baselworld - one last trip before we wrapped up the ski season.

We stayed at the Suvretta House, a fairytale castle dates back to 1912 and has always been the centre of glamour and luxury in St. Moritz. It is located on the outskirts, in a quiet area close to the slopes. The hotel is a 5-star active resort both in the winter and in the summer.

Attached to the hotel are 140 expert ski guides, with many of whom I have had the pleasure to ski in past seasons. This year, I teamed up with ski guide Diego Del Negro and went on some pretty amazing trips in the area. Diego has been working with us for years and testing the Land Instrument, now The Rock, on his many ventures in the Engadin Valley.

Throughout the week in St. Moritz, we were skiing in both the Corviglia and the Corvatsch areas. These are the two mountainsides which frame the city of St. Moritz. Great powder, no queues at lifts and only few skiers in the off-piste areas made it all come together.

One of the trips that really blew me away was when Diego took me to Piz Nair at 3057m. From here, we skiied down the backside of the mountain and went through Val Suvretta. The powder was amazing and we had the whole valley to ourselves. The valley has no lifts and it’s all off-piste. Would recommend anyone to take this trip, however only with an experienced guide who knows the area. It’s easy to get to Piz Nair with the lifts; besides going down Val Suvretta, there are also many other routes, some more challenging than others.

The St. Moritz area offers so many possibilities – not only in skiing, but also in leisure, shopping and dining… and not to mention the breathtaking views down the Engadin Valley. Each time I visit, I look for new and exciting things for our Ski Guide. This time, I have discovered two more spots worthy of our recommendation in the Ski Guide: restaurant Kuhstall in the Corvatsch area, and mountain restaurant Salastrains in the Corviglia Area.

Kuhstall is a mix between modern and contemporary style, in a very stylish yet cozy setting. In the summer, this place is used as a cow stall when the cows are brought up from the Zurich area to graze in the mountains. The food is traditional Swiss.

Salastrains is an Italian restaurant with a Swiss inspiration. It’s located in the Corviglia area right on the piste at 2100m. (see their website for 360° views) We had lunch there. They served a great Italian antipasto followed by a very delicious osso buco. And their wine menu was really something out of the ordinary. After lunch, a cup of coffee on the terrace to enjoy the majestic views makes this place a must-do in the Corviglia area. Both of these places will of course be added to our next Ski Guide update on SQUA.RE and iPhone application.

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~ Jorn:

Three nights in Verbier was all we had time for. I nipped off with my wife from the end of a week-long watch fair in Geneva. While being at the fair was exciting, you need a break after a week there.

Now, you can’t blame me for jetting off to a ski resort and leaving my team behind. Our new iPhone application needed testing. As you may know, we have launched the Linde Werdelin Ski Guide for the iPhone, together with an online version on SQUA.RE. The smart thing is that we can update the Ski Guide anytime we want, directly in the iPhone App and online. If a hotel or a restaurant has gone up in rating with more and better features, we’ll update in our Ski Guide. By the same token, if a place has lost its good service, you will not be hearing about it again.

The beauty of this real-time mobile/online system is that, the discoveries I made in Verbier were all published and live shortly after. For example, Le Rouge which opened last year is a cool restaurant, bar, wine cellar and après ski terrace.  We checked it out, all six of us were impressed by it, so you can now find its information in both the App and the online guide on SQUA.RE.  When our next printed ski guide comes out, it will of course be featured as well.

I’m off to Turkey tomorrow. This is my first heli-ski trip this year and a serious one at that. Five days of hopefully four lifts in the morning (from 7.30am!) and four lifts in the afternoon - approximately 8.000 vertical meters a day. This does wonders for your legs!

I will tell you more about this next time.

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~ Morten:

The year has drawn to a close at Linde Werdelin. What a year for everyone. The world may not have entirely come through the other end of the tunnel, but we can all start to see the light.

As for me, the year turned out well. Some great things happened and we ended the year on a high note with the launch of the SpidoLite SA All Black, The Rock, the Ski Guide, and deliveries to customers. I was especially thrilled about the deliveries of the collection. I started the designs back in 2002 with the original idea of combining a timepiece with a sports instrument. The idea has evolved, and we now have a complete collection of watches and instruments. After all these years' hard work, to see them finally realised, it is the greatest joy and satisfaction.

The joy and satisfaction not only come from overcoming all the challenges to bring the idea to life, but also from the increasing amount of feedback we receive from our customers who appreciate the level of quality of and the thoughts behind each LW watch or instrument.

Detail is extremely important. It is easy to judge a design by its look. I am a functionalist, a design feature is there to serve a purpose. On top of making the watch and the instrument work together, my designs are created to last, so that one can continue to discover something interesting in them in the next 30 or 40 years. For example, the facets of the LW watch case reflect the light differently from different angles in different environments, which is visually more interesting. If it doesn't occur to you to look at the side profile of a watch, try to pick up a LW watch, you will see that the case tapers slightly downwards at both top and bottom ends. It brings low gravity to the watch to help the instrument fall on top of it securely. Besides, our wrists are not flat, there's a certain degree of curvature which can be accommodated to allow a watch to sit comfortably. Not to mention it helps fit nicely even when you wear a suit.

I will share with you more about our designs and continue to reveal what we come up with in The Lab next year. I am really looking forward to 2010. We will be receiving the Oktopus within the next month, showing the Rose Gold SpidoLite SA at Geneva Time Exhibition in January, and unveiling the new special features in the Oktopus at BaselWorld. I can't wait to show you all this.

Until then, I would like to leave you with a 14-second video for the launch of our Winter season and wish you a fantastic New Year with a new spirit!

~ Jorn: 

If I should pinpoint one clear difference between then and now, it would be the difference between the way Morten and I see the whole Linde Werdelin idea. In the beginning we were making watches to be used with the instruments, but not as separate pieces.

Today we see the watches and instruments as two individual families – you have a watch in one hand and an instrument in the other. Basically we would be limiting ourselves if we looked back at the beginning and thought: If we have a chronograph in the instrument, then there’s no use of having one in the watch. That didn’t make sense in the long run, so we put that thought away and rethought the idea.

You can compare it with other brands like Bang & Olufsen or Apple – you might buy a TV or an iPod but you don’t necessarily have to buy the whole product range to make it work. It’s a choice of your own. Some people ask us, why customers don’t always buy the instruments, and our answer is clear: They buy the watch because they love the idea of having the possibility to add something extra and because they love the watch as a timepiece. It’s a unique feature that no one else offers.

Some people come to us with skepticism in their voices when they ask us if they really need the ski instrument for skiing. Well, do you need a seatbelt, when you’re driving? Maybe and maybe not. But it sure feels nice to be safe, right? Avalanches may occur, so a Linde Werdelin ski instrument could give you vital information and warn you about possible dangers on the slopes.
You can see our ski instrument – and dive instrument for that matter – as a safety tool that also gives you some handy information. You cannot dive without knowing several features and keeping track of time, but you can ski without the instrument of course. But we know for sure that it’s all about being prepared for the worst and that’s where our instrument becomes more than a handy and useful tool.

~ Jorn:

After several posts by my business partner, Morten Linde, it’s about time to introduce myself. I’m the London-based partner from the Linde Werdelin duo. I’ve known Morten Linde since preschool. And already from that age, I had watches close to me.

My father ran several watch and jewelry shops in Denmark. I remember those years when he got back from the annual watch fair in Basel. I can still picture his briefcase, full of the new masterpieces from great watch companies, and myself, eager to discover the latest creations.

I got my first watch from my grandmother when I was around five years old. Throughout my younger years I followed the development of the watch business. The first digital watches were not only technological masterpieces at the time, but also a threat to the old, proud traditions in the world of traditional watches.  

Even though the times were tough, the business survived. When it comes to remembering one certain watch from those years, I would mention one of the first Cartier Santos. It was THE watch to have – it was revolutionary in its design. It won my heart from the minute I saw it.

You might as well have seen the great interest in skiing from our Linde Werdelin universe; and that also is strongly connected with Morten’s and my passion for the winter sport. I’m pretty sure that the first time I went skiing, it was around the same year I got my first watch. My family and I went to Switzerland for two or three weeks and it was all about skiing – and it has been like that ever since.

When I’m on my skis, it really clears my head – it’s the only time when I truly relax.  It's no surprise that we have developed a ski instrument as a perfect match to a Linde Werdelin watch. How that idea came up and what the instrument has to offer I will share with you next time.

During our last road mapping meeting – which basically is a product development brainstorming session, planning, coordination of launches for the next three years etc. – I once again was reminded of the business we are in. And I love it.

I am very pleased to be working with watches as I see them as a far more interesting product compared to many other products on today's market.

Pretty soon we will go back to Paris, to meet the two talented French gentlemen who created our graphic parallel universe. Last year, we contacted an agency in Paris who specialize in illustration communication – a world that the Swiss watch industry had not yet embraced – when we came up with the idea of using illustrations to present the Linde Werdelin universe. 

We were excited that Emmanuel Larrat of our agency, Module Étrange, came up with the extremely talented creative duo, Thierry Smolderen (pictured below) and Dominique Bertail. 

We are looking forward to a continued relationship with the talented French creatives and see this graphic illustration universe as a strong communication route that makes Linde Werdelin stand out. The latest cover of iW magazine is a great example of how we stand out from the crowd.

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Oktopus Tattoo