There are certain questions one can ask a watch collector that would strike an almost existential terror into the heart of any seasoned hoarder. The concept of selling all but one watch is almost painful to many obsessed with this hobby, as First World a concern as it may be.
Asking someone what their Grail Watch is, is one thing. Mooting the possibility that something such as an Exit Watch exists is allowable (in the right context). But forcing a curator of fine things to choose between his assembly, is somehow like asking someone to choose between their children (often worse, because, let’s face it, you don’t choose your kids).
I jest, of course. As a child-free workaholic unhealthily overtaken by wristwatch accrual, I’m exactly the kind of target to whom this question may almost seem offensive.
NOMOS Glashütte × Ace Jewelers Orion 38 De Stijl Limited Edition - Credit NOMOS
Personally, I like being asked challenging questions of this nature, but I have actually known several people in the same position as me to recoil in disgust when such a query has been posed in the past.
“But why,” they spit, enraged that I might be so bold as to ask in the first place. “Why would I have to? It’s totally ridiculous!”
Is it? I know we all like to think our lifestyles are on an ascending trajectory in perpetuity, but we’ve all lived through cataclysmic global events that reveal just how unsteady the seemingly solid ground beneath our feet can quickly become.
The financial crash. COVID. The wars breaking out around the globe. Nothing is certain. Therefore, the prospect of having to offload your entire collection (save one remaining piece with which to tell the time in the technology-lite post-apocalyptic world we’re describing here) to replenish depleted coffers becomes an uncomfortable possibility.
Two years ago, I had about 70 watches. That was too many to wear and enjoy. For a long time, however, I held onto them. I saw them as hard-won objects. Many of them had emotional significance. Some were tied to people, places, successes (and failures). I wanted to preserve the past while obtaining yet more trinkets to signpost my life for future me.
NOMOS Glashütte × Ace Jewelers Orion 38 De Stijl Limited Edition - Credit NOMOS
Then I had a nice pair of sunglasses stolen on holiday and it changed my perception of ownership. Not just of sunglasses and not just of watches, but of all things.
I thought about rebuying the same pair of sunglasses so it was the money rather than the emotional object that had been stolen, but I decided against it. I decided the important thing wasn’t the money, or the object itself, but the connection.
As with many connections, they are strongest (or, at least, most keenly felt) at their beginning. When I first bought those sunglasses I felt like a king. I’d owned them for about three years at the time they were stolen. By that point, they weren’t my most recent pair of sunglasses, not even my second, or third most recent pair. They were simply part of the rotation. I loved them, but it was an old love. It had been usurped in my upper consciousness by new things. I could not deny they had been important to me, but they were no longer the everything they once had been.
NOMOS Glashütte × Ace Jewelers Orion 38 De Stijl Limited Edition - Credit NOMOS
And then I turned those thoughts back on my watch collection. I looked at the Omega Speedmaster Broad Arrow Replica from 1998 that I bought for myself when I joined Fratello Watches in 2020. Speedmasters were (and still are) Fratello’s thing. RJ Broer, the founder and leader of team Fratello, is the man behind #SpeedyTuesday. Owning an Omega Speedmaster while working for Fratello wasn’t just encouraged; it bordered on mandatory.
I remember the pride I felt when I first unboxed that watch. I remember the joy that coursed through me when I put it on for the first time. I remember the reactions to it when my non-watch-loving friends (Muggles, as I call them) saw it and recognised the brand name on the dial (thanks to James Bond and the Olympics, of course).
That watch made me feel a million bucks and I resolved I would never sell it. Never.
Then my sunglasses were stolen and it dawned on me, however little I wanted to admit it, that this watch no longer made me feel the way it once did.
NOMOS Glashütte × Ace Jewelers Orion 38 De Stijl Limited Edition - Credit NOMOS
I felt sad for a moment. It was almost like the end of a relationship. Suddenly, you see all the good times. You remember the games you watched with it on your wrist. You remember the nights out — the revelry you’d enjoyed together. You forget the many times you looked it off in favour of a sexy little Czapek, or a slinky Hamilton, or a quite frankly middle-aged and barely ticking Kienzle that was unquestionably knackered but still had a lot of love to give.
But then the moment changed to something else. It was a moment of elation, because, I realised that although that watch no longer made me feel the way I used to about it, it had not lost its power to make someone else feel the way I used to about it.
From then on, the question became serious. Which would be the last watch I held on to if all of them had to go?
There were some obvious contenders. My most worn watches are very different but equally beloved. I have a Glashütte Original Seventies Panorama Date in Vibing Orange (reference 1-37-02-11-02). It’s my favourite. It’s my go-to. It’s cool, versatile, and easily the best bit of horology I’ve ever bought at full price for myself.
NOMOS Glashütte × Ace Jewelers Orion 38 De Stijl Limited Edition - Credit NOMOS
But even though it’s limited to 100 pieces and is my “favourite”, it isn’t quite the watch that means the most to me.
The other watch from the top two wrist time commanders is my Laventure Sous-Marine Bronze with a black dial. This dive watch was Swiss independent Laventure’s second release. I also snared the first that debuted on Kickstarter to a lot of raised eyebrows before the brand exploded to become one of the industry’s most sought-after makers. I wear this all the time in casual and sporty settings. It’s my one true beater. I love it. But if push came to shove, could I really exist with just a bronze watch in my collection? No.
My Breitling Aerospace has a special place in my heart. I borrowed my friend’s Aerospace for my graduation from the British School of Watchmaking because I didn’t have any money to buy myself a watch befitting the occasion. I swore that one day I’d own an Aerospace in honour of that moment. I now do. Even though mine is a Limited Edition commemorating the Everest Skydive (that I didn’t take part in), if I sold it, I could buy another, or one I covet even more (like the rare Flying Monster model).
NOMOS Glashütte × Ace Jewelers Orion 38 De Stijl Limited Edition - Credit NOMOS
My Czapek × Fratello Antarctique Viridian Green… My baby… The fruits of my labour. The result of the collaboration between Czapek and Fratello that I instigated along with my dear friend Xavier de Roquemaurel. Could I really ever let that go? In reality, the answer would almost certainly be a resounding, “NO!” but this a mental exercise I dearly hope I never have to put into practice.
The Antarctique is the best watch I own, but it does not strike the best balance between versatility and emotional significance. That title, as much as it pains me to say it within earshot of my darling Czapek, goes to the NOMOS Glashütte × Ace Jewelers Orion 38 De Stijl Edition.
It has one drawback: its 30 m water resistance. However, in six years of ownership, it’s never been a problem, however, it would be remiss of me not to mention it when the last four watches I considered and dismissed all have water resistance ratings of 100 m.
But there are key reasons why this would be the last watch to leave my collection. Firstly, the brand NOMOS Glashütte gave me the platform to build the career I enjoy today. I was plucked from the watchmaker’s bench in 2016 to head up the brand’s retail network in the UK. Over the following three years, my territories expanded to include Benelux, Scandinavia, Eastern Europe, and Southern Europe, as well as training retail staff in the USA and Canada. This watch was the first I bought from the company after my good friend and Co-Host on The Real Time Show Alon Ben Joseph and I, brought it to market to celebrate the centenary of the De Stijl art movement in the Netherlands. It was the very first collaboration watch I had worked on and it set the stage for the many models I’ve since been lucky enough to bring to life.
Secondly, my enduring relationship with Alon. Even though I left NOMOS at the end of 2018, we remained close, eventually launching our own Podcast together in 2022. We talk every day and both of us are grateful for the opportunity we had to meet all those years ago. This watch is a testament to that friendship and reminds me of it every time I wear it.
And finally, because it is a white-dialed strap monster! It’s slim, lightweight, muted but interesting, and capable of rocking and colour leather, fabric straps, and even those made of rubber. It can be worn with anything, anywhere. Its shirt-cuff-friendly thickness means it works as a dressier piece, while its 38 mm diameter and ultra-fine bezel mean it wears much larger than you’d expect, thus working well with casual attire.
Simply put, simplicity wins the day. And, for me, there’s no watch that does that better in my ever-shrinking collection, than the NOMOS Glashütte × Ace Jewelers Orion 38 De Stijl Edition.
