It’s the start of a new decade, I’m so excited for a breath of fresh air and I have to be fully sincere with you excited to see the end of many popular vintage watches as well.

This past year 2019 has been a great one for me: I moved to my private office in 608 5th avenue making it a much more upscale, private and thoughtful experience for myself and my loyal clientele. I also decided to focus on more tasteful and unique watches rather than what the market at large demands.

My strategy paid off: a new breed of client is walking through my door everyday. He’s stylish, he wears a fine tailored suit or high end knit and he’s looking for a watch to complement his style. The watch will speak volumes about his taste, his sophistication, his pairing choices. The watch he picks doesn’t scream a price tag nor doesn’t indicate if he’s wealthy (and typically he is but wishes not to flaunt it!). “Guys I’m so glad to meet you at last” I say in my head..

Back to 2020 and the new decade I’m feeling around me a big thirst for freshness.

We saw the rise of the vintage Nautilus and it’s Gerald Genta peers from mid $ k teens all the way close to $100k along with streams of collectors gobbling vintage Rolex soaring from reasonable numbers to blue chip investment values.. Seeing watches soar so high is nice but it’s not what I’m after and not what I promote.

There seems to be a growing demand for tasteful and smaller sized watches, timepieces that are chosen cause they fit right on our own wrist! We have been so influenced by the Panerai and Offshore mentality prevalent in the past two decades of the new Millenium that a lot has been left on the side. We have been lead to believe that a man HAS to wear a watch that is at least 40mm for it to feel masculine. I have news for you: there’s nothing farther from the truth!

My mind runs to Goldberger, a prominent vintage watch collector and tastemaker that has been posting plenty of vintage Cartier wrist shots on his Instagram showcasing how sexy a fair sized watch can look on a grown ass hairy man. My mind also runs to another fabulous Instagram account, George Cramer’s, that has been a Cartier aficionado forever and is demonstrating how cool “classic size” timepieces can be. Last but not least I’ll mention Roni Madhvani who is a personal client of mine and he’s showing us on his Insta account his eclectic taste in watches : all about shapes and design (size isn’t a factor).

Now that we are on Cartier talk allow me to tell you that Cartier is on the verge of being the hottest and most sought after brand in watch collecting. Not only it’s appeal has been going strong for over 100 years but the uniqueness and “artisan made” feel of their vintage watches is truly sensational. You will quickly realize after searching to buy a vintage Cartier watch that it’s not so easy to find the right one for you.

There is an enormous quantity of modern and commercial quality Cartier watches out there and you’ll be overwhelmed. That makes my own search so much more exhilarating and the excitement of finally landing a proper one is really great. Vintage Cartier watches are rare!

The Cartier Santos Dumont is exactly to my point. Unlike any other watch I’ve worn. It’s not a timepiece it’s a gentleman’s accessory.

In this new decade I wish for all of us to pursue watches that are unlikely to be on anyone else wrist (by the way that’s the number one factor when buying a watch for my own collection) along with the pursuit of finding excitement in what appeals to our personal taste and to the Instagram like algorithm.

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