Hello everyone and welcome to another
edition of What's On My Desk. And today I'm going to finally talk about my
collection quote-unquote and I'll explain why in a second after the intro. So, a lot of you guys always ask me, "Roman why don't you show off your personal collection, you know what are you wearing
and so on and so forth." and I've always told you guys the same thing I don't really have a collection. I don't collect watches, I sell them. There are pieces from time to time that I tend to hold on to for either ever or for a long time, that I decide to wear them until I get tired of them. And pretty much for the most part everything is really for sale. Because this is the business that I'm in,
at least for me. Obviously things like my wife's watches
are never for sale, this is all her personal watches. But when it comes to watches at me, I have the opportunity and the ability then I should say I'm lucky
enough and blessed to be able to swap out watches like underwear, because this is the business that I'm in. Of course there are some sentimental pieces that I hold on to the most likely will never sell, you know like some of my A serial
Audemars Piguet you guys often see it, it's actually not here, it's at home. Single Red Submariner which is also at home, which you guys saw me wear one time, was like the first vintage Rolex I've ever bought. But for the most part I'm not a watch collector, I'm a watch dealer. And therefore, I switched my watches out
daily. Also lately, just so happened that whenever I tape an episode I happen to be wearing a vintage timepiece. And so, you would see me that all I wear is
vintage timepiece, that's actually not true. So, what I decided to is literally reach into my safe. And oftentimes you guys see me go back into my safe, that's sitting there right to the right of me right now and pull stuff out. That's actually not our company safe, that's my personal safe that I have in my office We actually have a bank vault that's downstairs, that holds all the goods. "Our vault contains at least 10 different currencies from all over the world." "At any given moment and we were prepared for every kind of financial necessity." But the stuff that sits in here is the stuff that I wear. So, I decided to rather than tell you what's in my collection, how about I show you what I'm actually
wearing right now. Both on the vintage end and the modern end. On the vintage stuff, you've seen a lot of this stuff. I actually keep the vintage pieces in this cool roll that I picked up at a trade show, This is like a custom-made roll, the leathers supposed to be that same leather that Hermes uses, which I don't really believe. But this is where I keep my vintage stuff and this is where you're gonna find a Tudor Snowflake. No, this is not a Rolex again this is a Tudor. "Roman, what are you doing wearing
Tudor's?" Well I look at this Tudor, it's a beautiful vintage snowflake. And it's called the snowflake or nicknamed snowflake obviously due to the dial. I love the way the dial has aged over the years, I love the way the bezel has aged
over the years. It still has the original bracelet, which is kind of flimsy. You know the watch is pretty old, but I love this particular watch simply due to its looks. I've told you guys before, I don't care if it's a Seiko, Tudor, AP or Richard Mille if I like something, I wear. So, this is one of the vintage pieces that I kick around once in a blue moon that sort of sits a my safe. Once I get tired of wearing a particular watch, I'll put it back in stock, take it back downstairs, or sometimes it's all somewhere and then I have to give away. I recently showed you guys a new addition, which was the 1931 original Jaeger-Lecoultre reverso. Still has the original buckle which is pretty rare. And I'm still doing a little bit of research on this, because reverso's from that era normally had a second dial here at 6 o'clock, this one does not. Very cool watch, very inexpensive. Relatively speaking some of the other vintage stuff, I picked this watch up for around $6,000, which was really a favor from a dealer friend of mine. 'cause he knew I buying it for myself. But I'm gonna hold onto this guy for a little while. Another daily wear, which is sort of a modern / this is not really vintage it's more of a modern watch. It's my, it's the yellow gold Daytona diamond dial with the upside down six. I may have shown you guys this watch before, just the same. I like gold watches, right. For Rolex, for some reason a gold watch is synonymous to me with yellow gold. An old yellow old watch, like a Daytona, like a Yacht Master and that's why I particularly like that watch. You guys have seen this guy before, the Blancpain Fifthy Fathoms that I picked up from Adam Menta. And we talked about this watch in a collab that we did together and I think I may have shown it to you before as well, and I spoke about this watch as
well. This is another one that I wear, I put on a nato strap, I think it looks pretty cool. What else is in here? Oh, there's also what I would say is the
rarest modern Daytona. This is the coveted white gold P serial Daytona that I have, it's on an aftermarket rubber strap, but
nevertheless it's comfortable to wear. But this indeed is the rarest one of them all, they made a least amount of these. When they produces Zenith Daytona, the first quarter of 2001 and hence the first quarter of P serial is still a Zenith and they made very very few of these. I've still having a hard time finding one with papers. So, when you guys have a P serial white gold Daytona with paper feel free to offer to me. And of course, the recent newcomer you saw the original Breguet type 20. This is what else is in this roll and I've spoke about this watch already. So, no need to reiterate. But, that's what's in my vintage roll as I call it. But, I don't just wear vintage watches. I also love modern watches, oftentimes you'll find me wearing a lot of AP's, a lot of modern AP's. And the reason for that is because, I told you guys it's my most favorite brand, I'm super biased towards AP. And I sort of practice what I preach I guess you can say and I do wear a lot of AP's. In fact today, I am wearing probably my favorite looking 41mm Royal Oak Chronograph. I love the way the blue dial is done, I love the white sub dials I love everything about this watch. I, listen I love AP. What's not to love? this is one of the hottest models on the market today and rightfully so, it's comfortable watch to wear it's a nice size of 41 millimeters. Although, I do like the original 39 mm Royal Oak Chrono in stainless steel. And again, I spoke about the 39 mm blue dial before. I think it's the next collectible, I think it's a great watch. What else is was sitting in my safe. Well, you guys also know I'm not the conservative type. Sometimes I go super conservative with vintage pieces, but sometimes I like a little bling. And often, you see me wear my 39 mm Royal Oak but also have a diamond encrusted
Offshore. This is the 42 or technically 44 mm, which is the diamond-encrusted offshore white gold fully iced out. This is original, I don't wear aftermarket we spoke about this before. This is the original offshore and this was the the granddaddy of them all when it came to bling. When I say bling, I mean to something that's within reason, not Baguette encrusted pieces. 'Til this day this is a pretty hot watch, they didn't make very many of them. They made this some white gold and yellow gold. That's one when they first came out and then later they followed with a rose gold version of this. I still love this watch and again anybody out that tells you they put on expensive things to drive expensive cars just because they can appreciate the craftsmanship. Most likely is lying to you, most of us do it for the head turner factor right? And I'm no different than any other human
being, sometimes I like to show often. This is definitely a watch to show off. And now, is this something you're gonna see me wearing on a daily basis or wearing often? No, not really. Usually for some certain events and so
on and so for a certain place. If I'm out in Vegas I'll wear this, if I'm out in
Miami somewhere I will wear this. This is one of those FU watches, you know when you want to show off you obviously gonna put a big gold diamond-encrusted watch on and it will have exactly that effect, if you know what I mean. What else was in my safe? I pulled out the bumblebee. That was my best impression of the voice from the movie, sorry. I like the bumblebee, just because of its color combination. I've said it before, there's a reason why they make things a bumblebee. It's pretty obvious, because of the yellow bright striking yet mean at the same time because of the ceramic black bezel, because of the carbon case the watch is light and comfortable to wear. Often, I actually swap out this band for a rubber band so that I can go swimming with the watch, I haven't done so yet. I mean theoretically you can go swimming in a leather strap, will it hurt? Not really, as long as you dry it out
right off the fact they made this color it's certainly not good to go swimming
with a leather strap, it's not something I recommend, but I have done it before, it's not that big a deal. But for the most part, what I end up
doing is for the summer especially as I end up taking the strap out putting it on a regular rubber strap, which let's say it comes with a rubber clad and I can enjoy myself at the beach with this watch. Although, it's like old black and stuff I still feel it summery watch. I feel like the yellow makes it more summery I don't know. What else was in my safe, a couple of Patek's 51 67 on a bracelet. Again, one of those hot pieces that are trading a damn near twice is retail value. That's impossible to get, one thing I will tell you about this watch is this bracelet is coming off. I am not a big fan of the 5167
Aquanaut on a bracelet. I like the watch on a rubber strap, I think it's just a better look. In fact, lo and behold, I happen to have the rubber strap and the buckle. So, before I put this on I'm actually gonna put it on the buckle and the strap and then I will wear this watch. I think this bracelet is absolutely hideous. I still don't understand why people are
paying premium for this watch on the bracelets. Not that there's not a premium on a rubber strap, there is, but what do you think about the bracelet on the 51 67 Patek. I personally think it's pretty hideous, doesn't match the watch. I just, again, C- on this one Patek. I think you could have got a lot better. I also had the coveted 5712 Nautilus watch that everybody wants. They watch their trades are twice as retail value right now, the market is absolutely nuts on these. I like this particular watch honestly, due to the fact that it is extremely comfortable on the wrist. It sits extremely well on the wrist, it's very very light. This is the watch that's actually fairly large and it's the perfect size for my small wrist. As far as I'm concerned, this is probably the most perfect fit for me. The Royal Oak is too big, so is the 51 67 actually. I had one of these when they were trading in the mid 20's, I've had one of these when they were trading in a mid 40's. And you know prices is all way up to 70 now and even some people are actually charging over 80 for them. I love the way the watch looks, I absolutely love this dial, I like the way the date is positioned, I like the way the powers reserve is positioned, the seconds hand, everything about this watch, I actually
like. I like this much better than the 5980 chronograph. I think the 5980 chronograph, the functionality and the way the dial is set up, I'm not really into that. Or the 5726 Moon-phase I really don't dig the dial. This is just a cool, cool looking watch. You know often times, I, I will put that on just because this is the one of the hypest watches in the market today. Sometimes I need people to see me wearing certain things, but for the most part I just wear what I like
first and foremost. And I truly, truly do like this Patek 5712. It's probably one of my favorite Nautilus is out there. I've liked it since the day it came out
and I like it 'til today. So, let's recap for a second. As I said to you guys before I'm not a watch collector, I am a watch dealer. Numerous times I've sold pieces off of my wrist. It's good to separate personal from business and that indeed this is my business. If I was in the car business and I was switching cars every other day and somebody wanted to buy that particular car, I would sell that car. It's very hard not to fall in love with the stuff that you sell and I fall in love with every single watch that comes through. But I made a conscious decision, that if I'm gonna be fall in love with every piece and wanting to keep every piece for myself personally instead of my kids having a college plan, I'm gonna have a huge watch collections and that's not what I'm about. Yes, there are pieces that I personally own. Yes, there are pieces that I will never sell. But as they say never say never, you
never know what an unreasonable offer may come through in a watch that I've owned and all of a sudden I want to sell it. If somebody tomorrow comes over and
offers me $120,000 for my Royal Oak A serial I certainly will sell that watch, it's common sense. I'll probably get out and get another one, but I feel it's the right way to do it. And the reason I feel it's the right way to do it, again unless we're talking about, let's say a watch that maybe even given to me by my father, but that's not the case. Because, we came to this country with $2 in our pocket. So, my father didn't give me a fancy watch ever. But if that was the case for example, Yes, there are certain things that you will never sell. My vintage Rolex Sub the single red that I
have, which was the first vintage watch I've ever bought. That's a watch that I seemingly will never sell but nevertheless you never know. As the prices are going through the roof to them people already ask it upwards of $28,000, $30,000 for a complete one. I think if it hits the $50,000 mark I may have to sell it. But I own that watch for eight grand and I can take that money, reinvest it back into the business and make a lot more. Sentimental value oftentimes can mean a lot more than money. So, most likely that Rolex will never gets sold. So, I know you guys are watching and saying, "Roman, you got a tough job, you get to change your watch 3x a day and get to wear something different every single day must be really, really
tough. It's not, it's actually a lot a lot of fun. I enjoy watches, I love watches this is the reason I'm in the watch business. I love talking about them, I love wearing them, I love everything about them. I love their history, I love their looks, I love the different desires, I like the innovations, I like the bulk nuts-and-bolts, although I often don't get into that in my episodes but I love watches and that's just the bottom line. And as I said before, I feel that I'm
blessed, I feel that I'm lucky that I get to do this all day every day. As they say, "You don't work a day in your life, if you love what you do." and I absolutely love what I do. So, I hope you guys enjoyed a little glimpse into my "collection" or rather what am I currently wearing. Maybe I will make this regular episode every so often, maybe if every few months just kind of give you an update on my personal safe what's in there and what am I wearing. If you liked this episode comment below, let me know your thoughts and let me know your thoughts on some of these watches that I've showed you. and they collect the collection of things that I currently wear. If you got any questions again comment below I can answer those on Q&A. Other than that remember like, share, subscribe. If you enjoyed this content share with your friends for those that you may think enjoy this content just the same. And I'll see you guys next week with more
watch reviews at the videos.
