Geoff Hess, Sotheby’s head of watches for the Americas, talks about the latest timepiece trends and connoisseurs' most coveted models.

 Welcome to the Jewelry Connoisseur Podcast, and now your host, Sonia Esther Soltani.

 Welcome to this new episode of the Jewelry Connoisseur podcast. I'm your host, Sonia Esther Soltani, Editor in Chief of Rapaport. Today we're going to discuss a topic we've never covered in this podcast before, which is luxury time watches and vintage watches. Our guest is Geoff Hess, The head of watches for Sotheby's, for the Americas, a collector himself, passionate, a scholar of watches and vintage watches, and he's going to tell us who's buying, what they're buying, why they're buying, and he has good news for watches collectors, he says the fun is back in collecting. So enjoy this episode.

Hi Geoff lovely to having you on this podcast today. How are you?

Um, well, thank you for having me. It's a real pleasure.

We're going to discuss a topic that I know is very close to your heart and you're the expert. How is the vintage watch market doing? Tell us all.

And what have been the most exciting watches you've seen coming up at auction at Sotheby's recently?

That's a great question. When people ask that question. , very often, the proclivity is to run to talk about the most expensive watches,

No, no, the most exciting for you as a, connoisseur.

That's great to hear. I have one last question for you, Geoff. You gave us such a fantastic overview of the market, the collectors, what's happening at Sotheby's, what's going to happen at Sotheby's. What is the watch that is missing in your collection, the holy grail of your collection?

Great question. Let me tell you little story if I might for a minute. Somebody once coined the phrase, the collecting arc. And what does that mean? And that is a journey that so many collectors, find themselves having been a part of. Nobody starts their collecting journey with a million dollar vintage watch. People start by buying a simple entry level watch. It's more likely to be new. And then they eventually say, you know, I want to get a different iteration or rarer version. And then maybe they discover a vintage one and then they want an even better one. And then they want a rarer one and they go up the chain and climb the arc . After a period of time, oftentimes people start to say, that's a very expensive watch that I've acquired. I've really climbed to the mountain. I'm at the top of the summit, and I kind of miss having that the other watch that I had months ago. That was simple. That was little less complicated. It may be less expensive. I think I'm going to sell my most expensive watch and rediscover some of the things that I collected when I started, and they start going down the mountain again, and you sometimes find yourself, collecting watches and rediscovering the joy of those entry level watches. So the answer to your question, I could answer it in a few ways. I could say, sure, there are some very rare Daytonas that I would love to own, you know, again, my Instagram handle is Manhattanrollie and rollie comes from Rolex. And that's the brand that I love most, but it bears noting I'm a big Lange collector, a big Panerai collector. I collect Heuer and a lot of brands, but I feel like to some degree I've conquered. and discovered so many different references from each of those brands. I hate to say it. I'm 54 years old, so I've been collecting for 30 years, so I've had quite a bit of time to do it. And I'm starting to rediscover some of the more simple watches that I collected years ago, watches that I let go of because they were more entry level. So yes, there are some very fancy, exotic dial, Paul Newman Daytonas that I would love to acquire someday that are always on my radar screen. But you know, there are some much simpler watches that I'm discovering now as part of my journey and I think that's been a great joy going through that collecting arc. and it's something people don't necessarily think about all the time, but it's really true.

Thank you so much for sharing this with us. I love it. I love the collecting arc and I think a lot of people will relate to that as well. Geoff it's been such a pleasure having you on this podcast. A real connoisseur .It's the first time we dedicate the whole episode to timepieces, to watches. So it's very special and I'm so glad we did it with your participation. So thank you very much, Geoff.

Well, I can't thank you enough for having me. I've really enjoyed it and I appreciate your thinking of me and Sotheby's. Thanks so much.

Thank you for listening to the Jewelry Connoisseur podcast by Rappaport Jewelry Pro. This episode was hosted by Sonia Ester Soltani and produced and edited by Vanina You can find all our episodes on Spotify and Apple Podcasts and read more about diamonds, colored gemstones, high jewelry designers, estate jewelry, and the latest jewelry trends on Rappaport. com slash Jewelry Connoisseur. Please subscribe to get all our new episodes and if you liked this one, leave us a review.