For its 6th installment, HighEnd Suisse organized by the folks of the Munich show asked,
brethren where art thou? Representing the white cross not black hats, Boenicke, CH Precision, Colotube, darTZeel, Ensemble, Goldmund, Holborne, Nagra, Orpheus Labs, Piega, Rowen, soundkaos, Stenheim, SwissCables et al were notable by their absence. Of the main and not so mainstream Swiss brands, only Klangwerk, Revox, Soulution, Vovox and Weiss kept the faith with this shrinking regional event. In an inversion of the popular upstairs/downstairs theme of BBC shows like
Downton Abbey, the most interesting finds this year were in the basement. Doing a leisurely walkabout after having spent nearly two hours with Walt Mollet of
MAC Leisurewear in Zürich for a pair each of boots—a properly hand-tooled Mexican-made Old Gringo with braided seams ended up with Ivette, a Spanish-made Sendra for yours truly— we finished the show in two hours on opening day. The well-washed hordes were expected for Saturday, with hopefully some afterburn on Sunday.