Four + One: Andrea Parmegiani Brings Youthfulness To The Italian Collecting Style
Andrea Parmegiani is a confident collector. As the 24-year-old son of Davide Parmegiani (one of the most respected watch dealers in the world), Andrea could get a pass for being shy, timid, and even overly deferential to his father’s decades of history in the watch business. And while he certainly speaks respectfully of and with the big collectors he works with on a daily basis, instead of being a clone of his father’s tastes, Andrea has worked alongside him – developing his own collecting style while sourcing rare watches as a part of a small team at Monaco Legend Group where his father is co-chairman.
Certainly, the pair’s close relationship helped form Andrea Parmegiani’s view, but after following him for some time on social media, I grew to enjoy Parmegiani’s taste and collecting as distinctly his own. It’s a more youthful take on the Italian market of passion and deep knowledge, but it’s also often something gem-set, like the Rolex ref. 1804 Day-Date in Platinum with a “Brooklyn Bridge” dial, diamond bezel, and diamond indices he was wearing when we first met in New York.
Surrounded by and learning from the best collectors in the world, I was curious to see where his tastes lie for his personal watches, the ones with a deeper meaning, and the lessons he’s learned from his father.
“Watches come and go, and you can’t always keep the best things for yourself,” Parmegiani told me. “It’s not good financial business, and it’s not good for customers to think you’re keeping the best things for yourself. So you can’t become too attached, especially if a good customer really loves what you’re wearing. But at the same time, you can find the things you like that are still rare or maybe even less popular with customers, and find your own space to enjoy your watches.”
The Four
Rolex GMT-Master II Ref. 116758 SA
When I think of Parmegiani, I think of gem-set watches. And his love of them comes from a young age – maybe chalk it up to being a kid fascinated with shiny objects, but he quickly gained professional exposure to the GMT-Master II SARU (with sapphires and rubies – and diamonds, of course) and its similar cousins.
“I remember the first day I went through the stock of watches my father had and I immediately was fascinated by all the SARUs,” he said. “He had all the metals – white gold, yellow gold – all the dial combinations – normal and full pavé – and all the stones, like the black stones, rubies, sapphires, and diamonds. Seeing all those, all the quality and variety and casework meant I fell in love with SARUs immediately.”
Part of that love was because he saw the gem-set GMT as more subtle than the extravagant gem-covered pieces he had seen in the past (though he’ll wear those too). “It was more subtle,” he told me. “It was too good to be true.”
This variation, however, is particularly rare with full pavé dial, blue sapphire and diamond bezel, and diamond lugs but born without the more common diamond pavé center-link bracelet. And it almost got away from him – a part of the lesson his dad taught him: that you can’t keep things for yourself, with rare exceptions.
“I was begging my father not to sell any of the watches from the SARU collection,” he told me. “But surely, with time, he started selling – that’s just business. One went, then another went, then another went. There were maybe three or four watches left in the case, including this one, which I liked the most. As he prepared to bring it to a client, he checked the papers and saw my grandfather’s name. At that moment he realized that my grandfather, who worked in jewelry, had bought this watch directly from Rolex, brand new.”
It became clear this one watch had to stay in the family, and Andrea is now its caretaker.
Vacheron Constantin Ref. 4072 With Multi-Scale Dial In Pink Gold From 1947
If you think it’s not worth digging through watches at fairs or flea markets, maybe this Vacheron Constantin will change your mind.
“This is a watch I could wear for the rest of my life,” he said. “I found this watch at the Parma [Italy] fair. I had a really nice Ovettone [Rolex bubbleback] with diamonds that I traded for this watch immediately, one for one.”
But it wasn’t just the watch itself that brought him to make the quick decision but rather a long personal fascination with the brand. “I always loved Vacheron, seeing all the Vacheron my dad has, and I even appreciate them at the same level as Patek. To me, Vacheron and Patek are the same quality just under-appreciated. It was a huge win to be able to trade the Ovettone for the same price, considering I know this watch is 100 times more rare.”
“I always have loved multi-scale dials,” he said about the dial with a central snail dial tachymeter as well as a double pulsation and respiration track on the outside. “And I’ve always loved vintage chronographs, especially ones from the forties and fifties. The tachymeter is very important for me because I like to use the chronograph function, especially when I’m driving. This might be a little less perfect for that, but I still think finding this was very special.”
“The chronograph has gotten a lot of use – with a very soft push to activate it – but it has a good ‘tick,'” Parmegiani told me. “But overall it’s in phenomenal condition and looked stunning on a bracelet.”
“The bracelet came later. With all vintage watches, I picture them in my mind on the perfect bracelet. I’m not much of a strap guy at the moment but with the bracelet, the watch really gains something. I went on a search for the perfect bracelet for the watch, and while this wasn’t my first choice – I would have rather have found a Vacheron bracelet – but eventually I found this honeycomb semi-elastic bracelet, and it’s grown on me.”
Asprey Daytona By The Bamford Watch Department
Here’s a watch you don’t see often. We covered the announcement of the watch back in 2012. This Rolex Daytona modified for Asprey with a black coated case and purple “Paul Newman” dial is a watch from the early days of Bamford when George himself was customizing Rolex and other watches to suit client requests and collaborations. It’s a surprising watch in person and incredibly rare, with only twelve pieces having been made. In fact, this is number twelve of twelve and likely the last Bamford-modified Rolex, according to Parmegiani. And he gave up nearly everything in his collection to get it.
“This watch came to me at a time that was building my collection of watches,” he told me, “This included a Patek ref. 3970 on an integrated bracelet that was the first watch I actually bought myself.”
It was during this period that he came across something unexpected. “We were in Milano, and I was going through a closet when I saw this box from Asprey. I asked my dad about it and he told me to open it. ‘You’re going to love it,’ he told me. I lost my mind.'”
In fact, Davide Parmegiani had bought this watch when it was released after seeing it in a window with two other friends while walking through London. He actually went so far as to buy all three of the set (a Submariner and Milgauss were made in the same style) at retail but then tucked them away.
Andrea certainly became obsessed and quickly gathered every watch he had bought to that point and offered them up to trade for this unusual Rolex.
“My dad had a big valuation at the time for the watch, already $100,000, but I think he got the better deal. Of course, my dad sold the 3970 – it’s business, after all – and I miss that watch. But it’s incredibly special, as the last watch of the collaboration that George Bamford and Asprey did. I like the Bamford Daytonas, and I’ve owned a few of them. But I’ve always preferred to keep this one. It’s not just a custom watch, it’s something that has a lot of meaning behind it. It was a watch that drove Rolex crazy because everyone wanted these instead of a standard Rolex in steel, and I think having a part of that history is special.”
Rolex ‘Zenith’ Daytona Ref. 16559 SACO
Keeping with the themes of chronographs, gems, and Rolex, which ties a lot of this collection together, here’s the most recent purchase in Andrea Parmegiani’s collection. It also breaks the rules of Parmegiani being a strap guy, but can you blame him? Here we have an extremely – and I mean extremely – rare Rolex Daytona ref. 16559 SACO. That means sapphire cognac (in Rolex speak), for the incredible sapphires set on the watch. Then there’s the peachy mother-of-pearl dial that shifts in the light. Think it’s too “extra”? Andrea gets that.
“I love how Rolex did the diamonds on the lugs on these Daytonas,” said Parmegiani. “Some people think it’s too much. For me, it’s just all about always about how watches are a reflection of my own taste and what I think of the watches themselves. I really don’t let myself get influenced by other people’s judgment. I really like to enjoy the things that I wear, and I enjoy this a lot. This is like a talisman for me. Wearing it makes me feel strong, confident, and like I am being true to myself.”
The watch has special emotional meaning that ties back into why he loves gem-set watches in the first place.
“My grandfather worked with precious stones with jewelry, which probably formed my attraction really to precious stones – rubies, sapphires, emeralds, and diamonds. With the 18k white gold, I think it really adds contrast and allows these stones to come out, and I think of him when I see that.”
Let’s get back to the rarity one last time. There are only six Daytonas that were made with the combination of cognac sapphires, diamonds, and cognac baguettes on the lugs, Parmegiani told me. But even more, when I showed a picture of this watch to a friend of the Parmegiani family, he remarked that there are only two known with the light mother-of-pearl dial seen here. As they say in the auction world, “find me another.”
The One
Aston Martin V8 Vantage ‘X-Pack’
Vintage or new, the Parmegiani family loves cars. From the Porsche 918 Spyder that was parked in the garage when I first visited their office to the Lamborghini Miura, Mercedes 300SL hard top, the Ferraris, and even the Fiat Jolly that Andrea drove us to lunch in as we whipped around the Monaco F1 hotel hairpin (causing me to worry we’d tip or I’d simply fall out), his taste for European cars matches that of his watches. But he also loves American muscle cars, so this Aston Marking V8 Vantage “X-Pack” represents the best of both worlds.
“The X-pack is the last evolution of the V8 Vantage, with a little more power and wider fenders,” said Parmegiani. “I’ve been a fan since I was a kid because the car really does it all. I always loved American muscle cars. This car is exactly a full-on American muscle car, but with the British style that makes it so elegant and much more classy.”
“My dad always had one when I was a kid. When my sister was born, my mom told him, ‘you have a daughter now, it’s time to sell your cars and be responsible.’ Then when I was born, he said to my mom, ‘I have a son now, it’s time to buy cars again.’ So he always had one of these around. Sure, he’d sell them to buy a better car or more interesting car, just like watches – but eventually, it was time for me to get one myself.”
“They made quite a few examples of the car, maybe around 350 or 400 ‘X-Packs’ if I recall. I’m not really sure. I don’t know cars like I know watches because, in my family, cars were never the main profession.”
Parmegiani sees this both as a celebration of family history and a safe space to collect for himself. Since cars aren’t the main item sold by Monaco Legend Group, there’s less of a chance that the X-Pack might get “requested” by a client someday, unlike a lot of the watches he holds dear. But he also hopes that maybe some day he’ll earn the right to build a slightly broader collection that he can call his own.
“My dad has a few very rare watches in his collection that he’s collected over time, but he’s earned that right,” he said. “I have to spend my time in this space as a dealer, selling and making connections of my own, money of my own, so that maybe someday I can have a few grails. But until then, the fun comes in the experience, building the knowledge so you can be the best at what you do and get to see so much of it even if you have to let it go.”
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For more information about Andrea Parmegiani and the Monaco Legend Group visit their website.
Hodinkee
