Two days ago on June 19th, 2018, we gathered with an elite group of Mexican watch collectors for a very exclusive event we hosted with Phillips Watches at the 'Club de Industriales' in Mexico City. This members only club adjacent to the JW Marriott Hotel and Brasserie Lipp Mexico City, was founded in 1956 by an elite group of Mexican business owners that were looking for a place outside their company's headquarters to hold business luncheons, board meetings and/or private events. Today, the 'Club de Industriales' —with a total of 1,400 members— is a place where the most elite businessmen in Mexico gather to enjoy fine dining, arts and culture and throw events in an elegant setting surrounded by some of the most exquisite paintings and murals from the greatest Mexican artists.
An exquisite evening with the 'Castillo de Chapultepec' —18th century castle sitting on top of the Chapultepec Park hill— and the Mexican volcanoes 'Popocatépetl' and 'Iztaccíhuatl' as our view from the library room named after Mr. Juan Sánchez-Navarro —a Mexican executive who served for 40+ years as the EVP of the Grupo Modelo brewery.
With opening remarks from Cecilia Laffan —Regional Director Phillips Mexico—, an insider look into watch collecting by our very own Editor-in-Chief H. Trujillo and a thorough conversation about vintage watch collecting by Doug Escribano —Senior International Specialist Phillips Watches—, the negronis, tequilas and hors d'oeuvres greeted the palates of this select group of collectors. With Phillips Watches leading the watch auctions after several record breaking sales in the last three years and the sale of Paul Newman's very own Rolex 'Paul Newman' Daytona ref. 6239 for $17.7 Million USD —including buyer's premium—, it was an honor to have them partner with us for this event.
With a nice variety of modern and vintage watches on the wrists of these collectors, the watch eye candy included pieces from Patek Philippe, Audemars Piguet, Franck Muller, IWC, Panerai, Universal Genève, Omega, Rolex, Cartier and Baume & Mercier amongst others. As the watch talk and comradery amongst the attendees filled the room with excitement, everyone browsed through previous Phillips catalogs and the latest issue of our print magazine.
With many collectors already wondering which of their 'safe queens' could be consigned for the upcoming Phillips auctions, others just drooled over the watches that were in the room including an interesting vintage two-tone Rolex Submariner with nipple dial and applied coronet and a gorgeous Patek Philippe Nautilus ref. 5712 with matching Nautilus cuff links.
Then as we walked through the library we noticed that the 'Club de Industriales' holds a collection of leather bound vintage National Geographic issues from the 60s, 70s and 80s. Obviously the first thought that came to mind was to find a vintage Rolex advertisement in there. As we grabbed the book for the fourth quarter of 1972 and started flipping through its pages, we found an incredible vintage ad for a Rolex Day-Date with a tagline that reads: "What kind of man spends $1,400 for a watch?". Simply incredible as today $1,400 won't even buy you a preowned vintage Rolex stainless steel Oyster bracelet.
After a wonderful evening with our friends from Phillips Watches and the warm and friendly watch collectors that attended our event, we knew it was time for a collective wrist shot. We wish some of the collectors had not left before we attempted this picture, but at least we still got a nice number of wrists and watches in there. Until next time and remember that vintage watches will only continue to flourish and break records, especially when Phillips Watches is the one bringing that gavel down. Thanks to everyone that came to our event and special thanks to everyone at Phillips Watches for making this event a reality.
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