Many customers — both on the selling side and the buying
side — use Barr to trade out of watches. On the site you’ll
find a Purple Dial Day-to-Day from 1979, which came
from a famous artist whose name Barr can’t disclose, but
who traded it for something else. There’s a 1960 Tudor
Submariner 7928, which is the first year of the line, the dial
of which has taken a deep caramel coloring.
There’s an Auricoste, a dive watch that was actually
designed by Jacque Cousteau and issued to the French
Navy. “You don’t see a lot of them,” he says. “That came
from a dealer who didn’t know what it was, had it listed as
an 80s dive watch.” Barr authenticated it by looking at the
font, the lacquers and the materials used and the inventory
ID.
Barr estimates his personal collection at around 20
watches, but for him it’s all about quality, not quantity, and
story. He leans back and smiles. “There’s a simple watch in
my collection. It’s an old Seiko, and I’ve traveled the world
with that watch. It’s not very expensive. I remember being
in Bali with it. I remember being here with it. I remember
being in London chasing a watch while wearing it. I have
pieces in my collection that are crazy expensive and rare,
and then I have pieces that are just seemingly simple,
regular and common that I have priceless experiences
with, you know?”
The other day he was wearing a 1016 Gilt Exclamation 369
Explorer, and a customer came in looking for something
else. The customer fell in love with the watch on Barr’s
wrist. The dial was glossy, yet an original survivor. “He was
so excited about it that I was also excited,” says Barr. “He
saw the value in the piece that I had originally seen.” Barr
sold the guy the watch right off his wrist.
IWC STEEL
C A L AT R AVA
C AL . 89
Whether he has that same kismet at the Hodinkee event
isn’t the point for him. “The thing that I like celebrating
is this feeling, this lifestyle,” he says. “Having things
around you that inspire and almost kind of provoke
these experiences versus getting caught up in just the
consumable thing.”
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