Why Rolliefest is horology fanatics’ favourite time of year: vintage Rolexes, Universal Genève watches and other classic pieces
Collectors of rare watches gathered at the Metropolitan Museum of Art last month for Rolliefest – it’s invitation only, and tickets are at US$1,600
It was only the first day of Rolliefest on September 26, and grown men were already emotional. “This is a room of my favourite people,” actor, director and watch aficionado Fred Savage gushed to me on the day.
The room in question was not small. More than 200 watch geeks had gathered in the entrance hall to the Metropolitan Museum of Art for the beloved watch show-and-tell. These were the crème de la crème of global horology, all dressed up, flicking their wrists so their brethren could get a peek at the objects of their desire.
We were in fine company: I spotted the nattily dressed collector Morgan King of Los Angeles, the Cartier-wearing TikTok maestro Mike Nouveau and the tall bespectacled gentleman dealer Eric Wind, who’s responsible for most of my own vintage pieces. I rushed over to him with my 1960s GMT, worried that a very expensive spider crack was starting to form on part of the dial. Ten seconds later, Wind issued his diagnosis: “There’s a little hair stuck under the crystal.” He saved me five figures’ worth of depreciation.
Rolliefest is the love project of Geoff Hess, a watch industry veteran and currently the global head of watches for Sotheby’s. This was the third one held after similar events in 2019 and 2023. It’s a chance for watch nerds to show off their timepieces to one another, but without the domineering presence of watch companies and with no sales allowed.
It was two days of (mostly) men doing things I’d never seen before, like giving one another spontaneous gifts (an heirloom gold pin, for example) and talking movingly about the two-tone Datejust their grandfather had left them (“My Grandpa was my hero, and he wore this every day.”) The atmosphere was warm, bordering on gooey, our surroundings were gorgeous, and the martinis were first-rate.
“Collecting watches reminds us to slow down,” Hess told us during a dinner at the Metropolitan Museum’s Temple of Dendur. “We’ve gone down rabbit holes no one even knew existed.”
The watch luncheon, the heart of Rolliefest where all the watches come out to play, was held on September 27 at the Aspire space on the 102nd floor of One World Trade Center. (A sign apparently meant to deter thieves announced it as a “marine biology conference.”)