There is something apposite about the fact that David Göttler’s first watch was “a classic old pocket watch on a
chain I could clip to my trousers”. The German alpinist, famed for his ability to scale the world’s punishing, high-
altitude 8,000m mountains, is happy to embrace the man-against-nature challenge in the spirit of a 19th-century
Romantic, eschewing modern life-saving devices such as an oxygen cylinder. This year, Göttler climbed Everest
without supplementary oxygen to a height of 8,650m, just 200m below the summit. Of the world’s 14 such mountain
challenges, Göttler has conquered five. He has a profound philosophical love of these otherworldly and treacherous
environments, known bleakly in mountaineering parlance as “the death zone”. “I love the endless scope for
exploration—not only physical exploration, but exploration within oneself,” Göttler reflects. “Time is all and nothing at
the same time. It can heal and it can hurt. I try to embrace time as my companion.” His companion during training is a
digital sports watch to indicate altitude and “point me in the right direction”. Otherwise, his favourite timepiece is the
Alpine Eagle Watch from Chopard’s new collection associated with the Eagle Wings Foundation, a multidisciplinary
environmental project designed to raise awareness of the importance and fragility of Alpine biotopes. —K.Q.David Göttler
ALPINISTPhotograph by SCANDERBEG SAUER
Photographed at Glacier 3000, Switzerland on July 12, 2019 wearing a Chopard Alpine Eagle watch in steelAUTUMN 2019 VANITY FAIR ON TIME 83