Worthy talked to Joe Thompson, the editor-in-chief of WatchTime 
magazine, at the inaugural edition of WatchTime New York, a new watch 
collector’s exhibition in New York City in October 2015. Joe has written
 about watches and the global watch market for 38 years. A frequent 
visitor to watch production centers in Europe and Asia, he specializes 
in in-depth, analytical articles on watches and the watch industry.
How many watches are there in your collection?
I don’t actually have a collection. I don’t have the wallet.  But as a
 reporter, this is the industry I cover and it’s fascinating to me. It’s
 still fascinating after 38 years. I have a few watches but I’m not a 
collector: it would be insulting to a true collector to call me one. I 
don’t have important watches.
What watch are you wearing today?

Joe Thompson’s Seiko Kinetic
 
Today
 I’m wearing a Seiko spring-drive Kinetic watch. It’s sort of a hybrid. 
It’s a little too large for my tiny wrist but I happen to like it. It’s a
 dress watch.
If you could own any watch in the world, which would it be?
It would have to be a Breguet. Because I think Abraham-Louis Breguet 
was a genius. He was the inventor of the modern style, he was a 
phenomenal technician and craftsman. He was the inventor of the 
tourbillion, shock absorption, and many many other things. And he had an
 unbelievable life. He was in Paris for the revolution, declared an 
enemy of the state. Jean-Paul Marat, one of the terrible revolutionaries
 was from Neuchâtel, Switzerland just like him. Marat’s sister worked 
for Breguet. And Marat saved Breguet: he came to him and told him: “you 
escape tonight, they are coming to get you.” Marat knew because he was 
the leader but this was his friend Breguet and he couldn’t let this 
happen. All of these things interest me enormously and I do like that 
look. I like the guillochet look, the off-center design that he did. Of 
course this is doing me no good: I make one friend and 600 enemies. But 
if it’s the end and somebody said we’re going to get you any watch, it 
would be a Breguet, to be honest.
What watch would you recommend for a collector who’s just starting out?
I don’t recommend. There’s a lot of different ways to do it. A lot of
 guys today are starting out on the vintage side because the looks are 
great. They are more affordable because they are second hand and you can
 get really wonderful products like vintage Tudors or vintage Rolexes 
that have been around and they look great on the wrist. What’s great 
about young collectors today is that they want real watches. They might 
wear a smartwatch but they know the value of a historical wristwatch. 
That’s one way in. The industry today has all kinds of options. Today 
you can buy a Swiss mechanical watch for $600. You have lots of options 
under $1000. Then collectors tend to graduate to starter Rolexes which 
have become more expensive now. That’s why vintage has become big.

This
 1785 Breguet watch was owned by the Duc de Choiseul-Praslin. Now in the
 Musée des Arts et Métiers in Paris. Photo by PGHCOM World Imaging.
 
What can watch collectors learn from WatchTime magazine?
WatchTime readers tell us they learn a lot from WatchTime’s magazine,
 website, and social media. WatchTime is best known for its independent 
watch tests of major brands like Rolex, Patek Philippe, Vacheron 
Constantin, Omega, Breitling, and many, many more. Each watch is 
evaluated according to nine criteria, with a numerical score assigned 
for each. A final score is based on a 100-point scale. The brands have 
absolutely no input into the testing and scoring process. Such 
independent scored tests are extremely rare in the watch world and very 
useful to readers.
The magazine’s editorial includes in-depth, independent, analytical 
articles on watch trends, watch companies, industry issues, and 
technical matters, as well as articles on watch people, watch history, 
watch markets, watch culture and more.  
What was the concept behind WatchTime New York?
The purpose of the show is to bring watch collectors and aficionados 
together to meet with top watch brands, and with each other, to 
celebrate their common passion: fine mechanical watches. With 20 watch 
brands at the show, attendees get to see more watches from more brands 
than they can from their local watch dealer. They also get in-depth 
information about the watches from the experts; brand owners, CEOs, and 
sales and marketing executives are on hand to talk to WatchTime readers.
 This kind of access to brand insiders and insider information is rare.
Attendees also get to meet, talk to and spend time with other 
collectors, swapping stories and information about their watch 
collections and obsessions.
In addition, WTNY offered interesting talks and exhibitions (A. Lange 
& Sohne and Seiko has watchmakers working on watches on site) and 
events (e.g. a Watches & Whisky reception with prominent watch 
blogger Anish Bhatt) that made the show a fun-filled, full-day watch 
festival.
vedere di piu 
rolex replicas e 
Replica Bell & Ross 46mm Model