Giant of a Sale Slated at Expo
Get your bids in soon--$250,000 and up, please--for the world’s largest wristwatch, on sale now at Expo 86 in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Big as he is, even William (the Refrigerator) Perry would find this yellow timepiece a bit bulky. It weighs nearly 78,000 pounds and stands 80 feet high, keeping watch over the Swiss pavilion at the Canadian exposition, which winds up Oct. 13 after a five-month run.
“We already have several inquiries,” Josef Abderhalden said Tuesday, the day a New York Times ad listed him as the contact for interested bidders. Among the companies that have phoned are shopping mall developers, an amusement park operator and some Las Vegas hotel operators. (Do gamblers really care what time it is?)
The parties have chimed in with bids of between $300,000 and $500,000, but Abderhalden said he could bide his time for a few weeks to get the highest price. So far, no Southern California companies have called.
A resident of Grenchen, Switzerland, Abderhalden is the manager for watch projects at Eta, a subsidiary of SMH, a Swiss holding company with interests in microelectronics and watchmaking. Eta’s products include the ubiquitous, colorful Swatch watches that have been a fashion trend for the last couple of years.
As a promotion for watchmaking, one of Switzerland’s biggest industries, the manufacturer built the giant parts and assembled them at the Expo with the help of Vancouver companies.
The cost, absorbed by SMH, was close to $1 million (Canadian), Abderhalden said. “We only had some minor problems, and the watch was always accurate,” he noted. From Expo’s beginning in May, he added, the Swatch watch became a favorite meeting place.
If the Swatch watch is too dear or too heavy, consider one of 64 4-foot-tall Omega clocks that have kept Expo visitors up to date throughout the grounds. Of these, a news release said: “At $3,000 each, they promise to be one of the more tasteful, upscale souvenirs of the year.”
It has been raining in Vancouver, but Abderhalden offered assurances that the gigantic, computer-equipped Swatch watch won’t rust, thanks to a zinc coating on all exposed steel. And yes, Virginia, it’s still ticking away.
