I have often said that watches are the ultimate form of self-expression. At six years old, when I saw a contemporary of my father's wearing a yellow-dial dive watch on a yellow strap, it stood out because it was so different from regular old boring finance-guy attire (read: a gold Rolex). When I saw that watch, I learned that watches are a way to tell others something about you. And for me, that has made watches, and the people behind them, fascinating.

My piece, The Opportunity for Watchmakers, focused on how smartwatches provide a seamless user experience. As an industry, it is our responsibility to educate first-time buyers and seasoned collectors about how to take care of their mechanical watches, and ensure they know when, where, and how to get their watch serviced.

Today I welcome URWERK Co-founder and head of design at URWERK, Martin Frei. Martin is a wealth of knowledge and philosophical thinking and at the roots of URWERK. He has designed URWERK’s watches with the human and collector at the center of the designs. He is fascinating and full of stories about the design and development of URWERK and the design language over the years. 

Something Benoît Mintiens said in our recent interview on my podcast Forward Momentum, really stood out to me. I asked him whether he felt a pull to protect the craft of watchmaking. His response floored me.

URWERK have a new “Lighstpeed” edition of their venerable UR-100 series, building on an incredibly popular URWERK model that has not only been a commercial success for URWERK, but has allowed them to lower their price point to offer a more attainable version of their incredible watches and satellite time-telling complication.

Ask any watch collector what they wish they knew when they started collecting and you’ll likely get a laundry list of advice. Watch collecting isn’t necessarily intuitive: there’s a required understanding of the brands, understanding the luxury conglomerates that own brands, the dynamics of vintage watches versus modern watches, the difference between independent watchmaking and microbrands, and understanding the retail environment.

At best, it’s a confusing landscape.

While hindsight is 20/20, there are three key lessons based on this that I have learned with time.

I’ve thought a lot about where watch collecting is going in 2024. It was clear speaking to collectors, retailers, and brands that things are changing. The shift towards more purposeful collections, emphasis on significance, and the rise of independent watchmaking are becoming clear themes for collecting in 2024. What do you see as a clear theme for watch collecting in 2024, or more specifically for your personal collection?

Coming up we have the last auctions of the year in New York. Christie’s kicks off the New York auction week on December 5th, followed by Sotheby’s Important Watches on December 7th, with the Phillips The New York Watch Auction: NINE bringing the week to a close on December 9th and 10th.