International Magazine ( Hong Kong) May 1990
Time waits for no man, so the saying goes, although in the case of antique wristwatch dealer George Gordon it seems to have made something of an exception. Gordon is one of those enviable people who are capable of juggling fewer than three ideas simultaneously. Author, wristwatch designer and aficionado, businessman-all are the roles which Gordon tackles with Great relish and considerable success. ” Basically I have my fingers in a lot of different cookie jars”, he says.
Undoubtedly his favorite and most lucrative cookie jar is one which proposes the impossible: the purchase and sale of time. ” The best way to describe myself would be as an international wristwatch dealer, and my biggest hobby is collecting antique wristwatches”, adds Gordon.
A private collection of some four hundred wristwatches bears testimony to Gordon’s personal interests in the trade. He claims he will never sell any of the watches from his own collection because ” You fall in love with them”.
On a professional level, Gordon is one of the world’s key figures on the antique market. Born in Hungary, raised in the US, and now residing in London, he spends an estimated eighty percent of each year travelling the world buying and selling wristwatches for a select group of clientele which ranges from Hollywood star George Hamilton to the Sultan of Brunei. In addition to buying for private collectors, he also supplies wristwatches to auction houses and antique stores around the world.
Gordon deals exclusively in antique wristwatches, which date as early as 1900, but were not commercially produced until after WW1. The period most favored by collectors spas the years 1920 to 1950, although Gordon stresses that the quality of a watch is every bit as important as it’s age. With this in mind, he restricts himself to trading in only five brands at the top end of the market. Rolex, Patek Philipe, Audemars Piaget, Cartier and Vacheron Constantine. Accordint to Gordon, these are the brands that best hold their value.
Gordon believes that the value of antique wristwatches is currently increasing about ten percent each month. It’s little wonder, then, that collecting watches has extended beyond the realms of a hobby, and has become a popular firm of investment worldwide. Collectors are eager to invest in an object of beauty which is both practical, and in terms of projected returns, profitable.
Hong Kong watch investors can now take advantage of Gordon’s expertise. Sanaco Deux, an antique watch store in Pacific place, has just opened. Here, customers can discover a novel mode of investment in an enticingly fashionable form, certainly a decorative business proposal.
The store will serve as headquarters for another recently launched project, the International Collectors of Time Association. This international club for collectors and dealers o antique watches will have bases in Hong Kong, New York, London and Milan. There will be worldwide meetings for lectures and buying and selling wrist and pocket watches, as well as a regular magazine titles Time Express. Gordon will serve as editor and plans a publication that will give collectors maximum exposure to the business through information about current events, prices, auctions, and new productions.
George Gordon is what you might call an instinctive collector. He seems to collect new business ventures with the same ease with which he collects watches…and cigarette lighters (he has the world’s largest collection) and antique cars. He is author of three successful books on the subject of antique wristwatches, and is currently working on two more. They have become the reference bibles for the antique watch trade, according to Gordon, who is delighter to find the books turning up in watch shops wherever he goes.
On yet another tangent, Gordon has set up the CHruchill Watch Company, through which he will manufacture 18KT gold and platinum antique watches entirely of his own design. These will sell in the US – $5000.00 to $15,000. price range and will be available in September 1990. From May 25 to 27, Hong Kong will play host to the first INternational Wristwatch Show at the ark Lane Radisson Hotel, which Gordon feels will give local prospective collectors an idea of the possibilities of the market. He plans to be in town for the event. Characteristically, Gordon will “make time” where there seems to be none. If only the rest of us knew his secret.
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