SEA DWELLER
Wristwatch magazine. This opened up the entire world of deal-
ers, collecting and information gathering. Suddenly I had access.
I traded words for watches, churning out nearly 100 stories and
assembling a random collection. Ulysse Nardin, TAG Heuer, Panerai,
Breitling, Dodane, Tudor, Omega, Doxa, Aquadive, Ball and a host
of other not-so-known brands wove a stainless-steel snake through
every available drawer in my office. And while I amassed better
made, more expensive and vastly more complicated watches, I kept
coming back to Rolexes.
WATCH GUY
Several years later, at Book Expo in Chicago, I encountered author
Jay McInerney (Bright Lights, Big City) and we struck up a con-
versation over his vintage red dialed Submariner. He called me a
“watch guy.” I cringed. Did that mean I was one of those watch
douchebags who posts selfies while wearing a Hublot Big Bang,
driving a rented sports car and smoking a Partagas Churchill? He
clarified, “you’re a watch guy’s watch guy.” That either meant I was
a super-douchebag, or someone who transcended the category
altogether, like Matthew McConaughey in Interstellar. I assumed the
latter.
What struck me through the conversation with McInerney was his
approach to collecting. He didn’t wander around waiting for deals
to come his way, he had a collecting strategy. He identified certain
models and acquired them for any number of reasons: emotional,
historical or aesthetic. Where I was a gatherer, he was a collector. I
needed what he had, I needed a strategy and a guide.
Through a trade I acquired a blue-faced two-tone Submariner,
which I wore for six months before seeing it on too many billboards,
so Mr. Blue had to go. A fellow collector advised that I check out
Albert’s jewelers (www.albertsjewelers.com) in Schererville,
SUMMER 2017 | INTERNATIONAL WATCH | 163