Editors’ Picks: The Watches We’d Like To Inherit
Some of the best stories in the watch world are created when watches are passed from one generation to the next, as watches make excellent heirlooms and are often carefully considered as elements of one’s inheritance. Heck, Patek has been leaning on the concept of an inheritance-quality watch for decades.
For this outing of Editors’ Picks, we offered a compelling hypothetical – what watch would you like to inherit? From Cartier to Patek, snakes, and Stella dials, here are the watches we hope will one day be passed down to our wrists.
Tony Traina: Cartier London Tank With A Kickass Caseback Engraving
If I’m lucky enough to sneak onto some relative’s will and inherit a watch, it better come with a story. It better not be something I could just buy from a retailer or a friendly neighborhood Instagram dealer.
My head is spinning with hypotheticals, so I’m imagining inheriting a watch from my grandfather that no one even knew he had. I don’t know much about my grandpa – he died when I was relatively young – but I know he dropped out of law school in Chicago (no coincidence, the same law school I eventually attended, so I’ve always felt a kinship) to serve in World War II. Most of his service was in London and the U.K. Like so many servicemen, he came back after the War and started a family.
In my imagination, he would return to London some two decades later, this time with my grandma. Perhaps it was a vacation to celebrate all three of their kids finally making their way through college.
Feeling totally luxurious and out of character, they would’ve found themselves walking down Bond Street and stumbled into Cartier London to buy something nice to celebrate their years of hard work. A gold Cartier London Tank – why not?
They would’ve gotten it engraved on the caseback to commemorate the occasion, and Cartier would’ve sent it up to their engravers on the top floor right then and there. A nice cursive “With Love,” and the date, or something simple. Nothing too flashy, just enough to know it’s his. Enough to know it’s more than a simple Cartier Tank. It’s also a story.
Rich Fordon: Patek Philippe Ref. 2545
Before a recent resurgence in popularity, the classic, dress-styled Patek Philippe wristwatch was considered to be nothing more than an “old man” watch. This criticism has even been levied against watches like the ref. 1518 – to some, one of the most iconic watches ever produced, yet to others, it gives off a vibe that only a grandfather can pull off. I have always loved small watches and, as a bigger guy, have received disparaging comments while wearing them.
A great vintage Patek has always been on my wish list, something like the reference 96 OG Calatrava, and, if fake inheriting a watch, why not fulfill this fantasy? This way, the disparaging remarks can be quelled with, “Well, it was my great-uncle’s, and he meant a lot to me,” or something.
While I’m in this fantasy inheritance world, why not showcase a niche reference? The ref. 2545 is the waterproof sibling of the 96 and quite rare at that. Even more rare is a Tiffany-signed example because my great uncle had great taste, of course.
Malaika Crawford: Rolex Day-Date ‘Stella’ Dial Ref. 1803
How do you narrow down the choices when picking an imaginary inheritance watch? I say go glamorous because this is a made-up fantasy. Why let anything interfere with your perfect watch in your perfect dream world? But let’s keep it realistic enough that you can still imagine it existing in your daily rotation and not in a bank vault somewhere. I want to inherit a part of the person and wear a part of them on my own person.
Image via Phillips.com
It’s no secret that I’m a gemstone-set/stone dial watch junkie. And while this technically doesn’t feature gems or semi-precious stones, it’s aesthetically adjacent and a little easier to wear, and this dial is the perfect “turquoise” blue. I’m partial to very eccentric women of note with very opulent collections of accessories: I have always adored Saint Laurent muse Loulou de La Falaise adorned in her chunky coral and turquoise beads; late fashion empress and Costume Institute doyenne Diana Vreeland; as well as legendary designer and original nepo baby Paloma Picasso.
I am so jewelry-obsessed that in moments of boredom, my brain naturally plays its own highlight reel of every semi-precious stone Saint Laurent accessory ever. This watch isn’t gem-set, but it’s evocative of an aesthetic that I love, packaged in a wearable aesthetic. If I’m inheriting a fancy watch, it needs to be something I can actually wear. I nearly led myself down the imaginary path of inheriting a vintage coral Serpenti with rubies for eyes. But this feels perfectly in-between glamorous and (sort of) practical.
TanTan Wang: Rolex Double Red Sea-Dweller Ref. 1665
I’m not really a vintage guy. Don’t get me wrong – I completely understand why vintage watches are so cool. They just have never resonated with me on my wrist. I think part of the reason is that I value my own stories with each watch I own, and with modern watches, I know that I will be the one making the stories that go along with the watch. However, for this prompt, I think inheriting something theoretical like a Double Red Sea-Dweller would be the perfect way for me to appreciate a vintage watch, with it being potentially the only vintage watch in my collection.
I’ve always loved the two lines of red text on the dial of the 1665, and to me, vintage Sea-Dwellers have always seemed like the more interesting option when compared to the Submariner, due to the helium escape valve and lack of cyclops. It just seems different. If this were a watch that I would inherit, it would be amazing to know that the stories associated with the watch have been a part of my family, and so it would be a vintage watch that I could look forward to continuing my legacy with. While having one in amazing condition would be cool, I think one that is quite well-worn would encourage me to take it out with me into the real world.
Vic Ottomanelli: Bulgari Serpenti
I’ll be up front – I just freaking love snakes. They can be both beautiful and terrifying, and I appreciate the fact that they’re one of Mother Nature’s many incredible wonders. So, if I could inherit a watch – or what I like to consider a human-made work of art based on an organic work of art – it’d be the Bulgari Serpenti. And, if I’m allowed to be picky, it’d be a black one.
I like to wear alternative fashion, so it’d be pretty easy for me to match this bad boy with one of my outfits. I love the way it coils around the wrist like a bracelet, but also functions as a watch. To me, it’s a marvelous combination of jewelry and watchmaking that would make me smile and fill me with pride every time I looked at it. It’d be an inheritance that would absolutely be cherished forever (albeit an imaginary inheritance).
James Stacey: Seiko 6104-8110 ‘Captain Willard’
While I firmly believe that any inherited watch is a cool watch, some are cooler than others. For me, the ideal inherited watch would be one that represents a time that has passed and packages that old-school vibe along with the perfect “grandpa” charm. Since we’re dreaming big here, and since Rich kind of stomped on my plan to pick a Series 2 2597, I’m going to pivot hard and say that I’d love to inherit a well-loved, family-owned, Seiko 6105-8110 “Captain Willard.”
Image via Phillips.com
Sure, a gold Patek or some jewel-like, mid-century creation is great, but I’d love to inherit something a bit more blue-collar, something I could have seen my father or grandfather wearing while cutting the grass or going for a swim in the lake at our cottage. That said, it still needs to be as cool as possible, so I offer up a gorgeous, weather-beaten, and entirely vintage Seiko 6105 as my hope for my eventual bequeathment. I could wear it all the time, and it would be fun to hunt through photo albums to find the edge of the characterful case peeking out from shirt sleeves in black and white.
Jonathan McWhorter: Vacheron Constantin Ref. 7390
An inherited watch is going to inherently feel special. Therefore, I’d love to inherit a watch that I would reserve for special occasions: a dress watch. Though I would more than likely end up wearing it all the time, I don’t like to let my watches sit still for too long. My imaginary inheritance is one that I was fortunate to have handled in person on a Hodinkee video shoot once upon a time – and I still haven’t been able to stop thinking about it years later: a Vacheron Constantin ref. 7390.
It’s not a watch that is particularly rare or historically significant, but for me, it doesn’t necessarily have to be so. There’s not much to it: a funky dress watch in precious metal, maybe a stone dial (hell yeah, brother), automatic(!), in a 6mm-thick case (!!) – all making for a really interesting watch on its own that can make any occasion feel special. Besides, money is fictional; the real value comes from personal sentiment anyway, for which there is ample real estate on the solid caseback.
Hodinkee
