Watching Watches With Luca Musumeci @IWJG-NYC-2014
This past Monday, here in New York, the doors opened to the single-most preeminent vintage watch and jewelry trade show on earth, IWJG. Hundreds of blue-chip dealers and distinguished collectors gathered to do what they do best: display, talk, and trade some of the world’s most superlative wristwatches.
Luca Musumeci, born and raised in Italy, dresses as if Brunello Cucinelli manages his wardrobe, has as many watches as I had comic books when I was five, and has exquisite taste in everything, literally. He’d curate a collection with his eyes closed and could hear a Rolex being wound a mile away. For clarification, let’s just say he knows his stuff and I’d wager my Rolex that he could beat me in Rolex trivia any day, that’s if I had a Rolex.
I strolled by his booth in amazement, eyeing watches that I had never seen in person, and watches I never knew even existed. A 6239 double-Swiss underline with a graduated 300 bezel, a mint 6542 1st generation (the real Pan-Am watch), a yellow gold 6542, a unique 1680 prototype, and a 6011 in pink gold with an elegant Mattonella bracelet, are just a sample of what's in Luca’s extensive collection. Though with every near-peerless Rolex ever manufactured laying in the case in front of me, what grasped my attention was the 1803 (Daydate) in pink gold, Oxblood Stella dial, fitted on a hyper-rare Milano bracelet--a super-collectors' watch.
At $27,000, I was pleasantly surprised by the price, but still I was left watchless.
Some Quotes From The Show:
“Until I get one of these for myself, let me know if you can find anything good under $500.”-L.R. (The Watch Adviser)
“Find one yourself…all you need is time machine.”-Anonyomous dealer
Luke Rottman (Executive Editor: thewatchadviser.com)