THE JOURNAL
Illustration by Mr Raphaelle Martin
How do you build a watch collection that really means something to you? For most people, it comes down to personal style or the pursuit of an obsession forged in the fires of youth. Perhaps an interest prompted by a family connection – to the military, perhaps, or the world of racing. For Mr Simon Strübin, however, the stars aligned when he represented Switzerland at the 2010 Winter Olympic Games as part of the men’s curling team. Returning home with a bronze medal, it all clicked into place. His lifelong interest in IWC Schaffhausen watches combined with the high point of his sporting career. From then on, it was all about bronze watches. Strübin now has six, the latest being the MR PORTER 10th anniversary limited-edition Pilot’s Chronograph.
“I grew up in a small village right next to the Zurich Zoo, called Dübendorf,” says Strübin, 42. “And it has a long curling history. Back in the 1970s, there was a farmer’s family who started a curling club. My parents played and I started when I was eight years old. I always told my grandfather that I was going to be at the Olympics, but I was a big Sebastian Coe fan and I always thought it would be in running.”
At the time – in the mid-1980s – curling wasn’t an Olympic sport and wouldn’t be until 1998. Interest in the sport rose throughout Strübin’s teenage years and spiked when a Swiss team took the inaugural men’s gold. Team skip Mr Patrick Hürlimann later coached Strübin and teammates, who had spent the 1990s turning a casual hobby into a competitive outfit, although Strübin is firmly modest about his abilities and prefers to credit his attitude for the step up.
“I wouldn’t say I’m that talented,” he says. “But I’m pretty driven. You need a little bit of talent, I guess. Most good curling players share affinities with ball sports – we are good golfers, often – but, as in most sports, the talent side is actually the small part.
“It started to get serious when I was about 15 and we entered the Swiss Junior Championships. The sport really took off, not just in Switzerland, but all over the world, when it was announced it would be a medal sport. We suddenly had five teams in Switzerland competing at a high level, so you first have to beat those guys. And then you have to beat the rest of the world, which is a different thing.”
Strübin and his teammates did just that and triumphed at the World Championships in 2004. The 2006 Winter Games beckoned, but it was not the walkover he expected.
“We qualified for the Olympics in Turin and being world runners-up two years before, we automatically thought we would medal there,” he says. “We underestimated the Olympics. They are such a big deal, especially if you’re in a sport that is not in the headlines all the time. In the end we finished fifth.”
His determination kicked in. What had been an amateur pursuit needed to become something more if that disappointment were to be overcome.
“We were lucky to be amateurs at the Olympics in Turin, or at the World Championships, but to reach the next level, you have to do it full time,” says Strübin. “We quit our jobs one year before Vancouver and practised really hard. And I mean, it’s curling. You don’t earn a lot of money.”
The sacrifice paid off with a place on the podium, but left Strübin and his team with a dilemma. Should they stick at it for four more years and go for gold?
“We had a lot of competitors and in curling you can play at a high level until about 50, depending on the position you’re playing. And experience is good. As an athlete, you need to decide whether you want to go on longer and longer or whether you want to do other things. In the end, the whole team quit. I had the opportunity to carry on with other guys, but I had also made a deal with my wife: either a third Olympics or a third child and when our youngest son was born, the decision was made.”
Hanging up the broom, he returned to the family business as a real-estate trustee and set about commemorating his success through watches. “In many ways, I’m glad we didn’t win gold,” he says, “because that would be a much more expensive watch collection.” A brief pause. “OK, you always want to win gold, but you make the best of it and bronze is a really nice material to wear. I love it because the watch changes, taking up a patina.”
Although Strübin had had other watches in his youth – right back to the obligatory selection of Swatches – it was local player IWC that had already cemented its place in his affections.
“I received my first one when I was 20, as a gift from my parents,” he says. “By 2010, IWC had already released its first bronze model, the Aquatimer Charles Darwin special edition, so I went after that. And from then on, it was clear I had to get my hands on every IWC bronze watch that was available.”
It is a charming and personal way to build a watch collection, one that continues with Strübin’s recent addition of the MR PORTER x IWC Pilot’s Chronograph limited edition, and shows no sign of stopping there. Bronze, having been dismissed as a fad more than once in the past decade, looks to be here to stay in the watch world. Strübin admits that as soon as a new model is announced from IWC, he’ll be interested.
So far, his brand loyalty holds fast (there was no interest in the official Olympic Games watch from Omega – “Too commercial”) and he has not been tempted by bronzes from other brands. In all honesty, it’s a surprise that other athletes, Swiss or otherwise, haven’t followed suit.
“Yeah, I guess I’m the only one,” says Strübin. “Well, one of my teammates, he has a bronze watch as well. He’s a landscape architect and he uses a lot of bronze in his work. The other two guys, I don’t think they’re that interested in it.”
The watches, however large the collection grows to be, will one day be handed down to his children, along with the medal, which spends most of its life in a safe (occasionally, Strübin says, it makes an appearance in protest at what he calls “participation medals”). But what about curling? Is that being passed on to the next generation?
“Not really,” he says. “My eldest, at 13, is more into gymnastics. My wife’s happy with that. I think she’s seen enough curling games. I still play from time to time and we try every two years to play a tournament with our old team from Vancouver. We still believe we can beat anybody, which we obviously can’t, but it’s nice to get together for a game.”