EDiTORiaL

Facing global Turmoil…

Sharmila Bertin

Under normal circumstances, I’m never anxious at all about writing this modest preamble that opens the doors to a wonderful, new issue. Words burst forth instantly like a roar of thunder, sentences line up like a bolt of lightning in my mind as, in the same breath, I bring them to life on virtual paper, aka a Word document. My writing tends to flow, is always sincere, and my editorial pieces are usually visible to the eye in one go, in just a few minutes.

But not this time round. Today, I can’t seem to find the words. I must confess, I’m already on my second version of this editorial, something that’s never happened before in over ten years of experience, I’ve never written a rough draft or sketched a detailed plan since high school, I rarely jot down notes and just let my pen (well, fingers on the keypad) go with instincts and inspiration.

I’m beating about the bush here because I can’t control the ambivalent sweet madness that’s currently dwelling inside me. My problem? Sharing the joy of seeing summer donning its golden cloak, holidays taking shape, swimming with a dive watch on the wrist and bursts of laughter to come at a time when everything seems to be going wrong on our planet, from the weariness of a pandemic that urged us to talk about life before whilst we imagined life after and filled ourselves with hope, through the terror of the atrocious war on European soil that strikes us dumb, to the fear of learning that we’ve only got three years left to take radical action to help our amazing Earth.

And yet... And yet... perhaps if we focus on what’s good, what’s beautiful and even what’s incredible, we’ll be able to face the global turmoil. I relive the emotion I felt a few weeks ago when I entered the hall at Palexpo that was hosting Watches and Wonders after two years of “physical” absence, the surprise upon discovering its transformation, the pleasure to touch and try on watches that gave me a buzz, the joy to meet up with our community dedicated to time and all the people I love, the sense of pride on noticing that a host of brands are now committed to an eco-friendly strategy. Oh, there are still improvements to be made to the formidable fabric, i.e. our industry, but its strength, its creativity and its resilience fascinate me.

And yet... despite the challenges we’re all totally aware of, life goes on like a sail left open to the wind, a watch that will never need to be wound up to continue to display time passing by. We all need to get away, at least spiritually-speaking, to dream, and yes, it’s true, I keep coming back to the power of our imagination and to what it enables us to achieve. The pages that follow are a getaway to a realm where the creative, technical, state-of-the-art, ancestral, artistic work of women and men, who I admire greatly, is celebrated. A place where watchmaking weaves its magic.