OKA GALLERY LLC

My fascination for wrist watches dates back to my childhood. From a few collections in my father’s possession, to the various broken watches that adorned the watch repairer’s corner shops, I became very intrigued with the designs and intricacies of these essential luxuries.

From the moment I started receiving pocket money, I began to collect wrist watches – from the cheap to the fanciful, and at that time , mostly worthless ones whose metal cases faded and rusted, and whose movements ran late or too fast depending on the temperament of the time piece.

As I began to mature and acquire some level of financial comfort, I started to have a genuine understanding and appreciation of life’s indulgences which carries with it an abiding curiosity, an imaginative vigor that discovers and rediscovers unrealized nuances in fine objects and experiences each time they are encountered. This energetic philosophy has constantly driven my selection of watches, art, people, places, cars, wine and spirits and things that can closely be associated with connoisseurship

While a large number of watch collectors are enthusiastic about the extraordinary craftsmanship embodied in fine mechanical watches, the issue of these timepieces’ accuracy was of only minor importance to others. The focal point of the efforts lay not in precision, but in the exterior form of the watches. In this wake, these efforts brought more female customers and greater financial profits for a lot of watchmakers.

An avid collector’s passion most often lay in the construction of very highly complicated ingenious device with the precision that was necessary to make it work effectively. The decisive proof of the success of these ingenuities was the fact that these high quality watches run with unparalleled regularity and consistency, and they do not come CHEAP.

Today nobody remotely interested in timekeeping and watch collection can ignore the buzz surrounding the mechanical renaissance. New models, movement – calibers, brands, and countless literature are flooding into an apparently insatiable market. Consequently, public fascination in the history, technology and background of period wristwatches continues to grow. It is important, therefore to pay the watch you wear on your arm the tribute it deserves.

Because I am very fortunate to have in my collection some of the wristwatches I consider in my opinion, to be in the TOP 10 LIST, I will share with you my list and my humble opinion.

TOP TEN WRISTWATCHES IN THE WORLD

• PATEK PHILIPPE
• GIRARD – PERREGAUX
• JAEGER LECOULTRE
• IWC
• ULYSSE NARDIN
• BREGUET
• FRANCOIS – PAUL JOURNE
• ROGER DUBUIS
• FRANCK MULLER
• VACHERON CONSTANTIN
• RICHARD MILLE
• BRAQUET

While I was doing this write-up, a good friend of mine who prides himself as a collector, an assertion, I unfortunately, do not share with him, rose and stoutly challenged my Top 10 list, insisting that the likes of Rolex and Cartier must be included. I tried in vain to lecture him on the fact that those watches are mere fanciful jewelries, specifically mass produced for people with “more money than sense”. I told him further, that no matter how much diamonds and stones that a watch is adorned with, it is what is inside the case that counts. And that those watches will not make my TOP 100 list any day. Needless to say, that I argued and lectured in vain, as my good friend was defiantly comparing the size, the dazzle and the big name his Rolex carried to my “unknown” Patek Philippe.

Watch collection is like investing in property, stocks, impressionist paintings, vintage cars or furniture. Consider this scenario: A Patek Philippe World Time wristwatch purchased in 1960 at a cost of $2,000 will today fetch a fat sum of about $500,000.

Nevertheless, watches should not always be bought with speculation in mind, but rather for the pleasure of wearing them, because prices and value may inevitably fall, as watch collection suffers the same fate, as say, a stock or bond investment.
In my opinion, mechanical timepieces are more collectible than their electronic equivalents. They for one do not need batteries which might go out of production. They last for generations as there is always someone to repair them in the distant future.

Experienced watch collectors who already own vintage watches know that such watches frequently gain in value. But it may be more important to the buyer that by acquiring such a watch, he or she in so doing gets the ultimate timepieces: an innovative and highly complicated instrument that measures time, and constructed for the sophisticated individualist among today’s watch enthusiasts.

THE BEST OF THE BEST

“YOU NEVER ACTUALLY OWN A PATEK PHILIPPE YOU MERELY TAKE CARE OF IT FOR
THE NEXT GENERATION”

This is an ad-line introduction of the Best wristwatch in the world.

Mr. Antoine Norbert de Patek in 1839 established the Patek watch empire in Geneva, creating one of the world’s outstanding pioneers of wristwatches for the past 150 years. In 1868 it made the first jewelry wristwatch with baguette movement and a dial cover set with a large diamond. In 1927, Patek Philippe sold the first ever wristwatch with perpetual calendar.

For this watch company, superlatives also apply rather regularly to the prices that old Patek Philippe wristwatches fetch at auctions or sales. The standing world record price for a wristwatch was achieved by a 1939 perpetual – calendar, minute – repeating wristwatch in platinum. On 21 April 1996 it sold for more that $2M at an auction in Geneva.

The passion of a devoted collector of Patek Phillipe watches is evident in the fact that by the end of 2001, Patek had a five – year waiting list of buyers for the groundbreaking daulfaced Sky Moon, which is priced at around $600,000 (about =N= 78M). Patek’s supply of wristwatches cannot meet the high demands of the market resulting in astronomical values when vintage Pateks hit the market.

The other watchmakers on my list create the most fascinating collection. You do not necessarily have to have millions to be a collector. You may start small, but must be properly educated about what makes a watch valuable. And again, to own the most expensive watches does not make one a collector. On the contrary, the passion, the knowledge and education for these intricate objects are the qualifying and underlying factors.

As I end this piece, I enjoin my readers to join me in cherishing these finer moments of shining exhilaration in the most beautiful things that God has given us freely , and that despite the tyrannies, hunger, diseases and natural and manmade disasters that have plagued the world, we must always aspire for pretty good qualities in everything we do.

DR. OKEY ANUEYIAGU.