When we set out to research this story, we thought we’d keep the list to around 10 women. We are well connected to the international watch collecting community—including Rolex in particular—and so we usually find ourselves trimming away willing participants from such stories. This didn’t happen. Our first researcher found no one and returned the assignment. Well connected (male) Rolex experts scratched their heads and muttered, “huh.” We kept digging, and eventually we turned up just three women with notable vintage Rolex collections.
Gender and watches, so often a complex topic.
It’s no secret that for decades the world of vintage watch collecting has largely been a gentleman’s club, but as tastes and styles change—with some women rocking rather large watches—it appears more women are getting hooked on vintage Rolex. But you won’t find them in the front row of live auctions or singing from the rooftops about their latest meters-first Rolex Submariner, transitional five-digit GMT Master with a nipple dial, or some previous flop like a Rolex Milgauss that’s now worth seven figures. But the number of women collecting Rolex is growing, and these women approach collecting somewhat differently from their male counterparts.
We ended up speaking with Kate Lacey, senior watch consultant at Rosebery’s London and liveryman at the four-century-old Worshipful Company of Clockmakers, J. J. Owens, a quantitative analyst who is now working as a consultant in the luxury space, and Carol Altieri, Chief Operations Officer at Bob’s Watches, a pre-owned Rolex specialist. All three women come at collecting with an expertise that stands out among all collectors, and each offers compelling commentary on collecting Rolex.
Carol Altieri
Carol Altieri has the most enviable position at pre-owned dealership Bob’s Watches, as she is the company’s chief buyer for all Rolex models. She inspects over 1,000 timepieces a week and will often put watches aside for her own collection. “I get excited about things that my male counterparts historically wouldn’t get excited about,” Altieri shares. “I love the Rolex vintage cocktail watches with the Stella dials and their stunning colors. They come in beautiful pinks, turquoise, orange, and oxblood and were only made for a short period of time, so they are really rare. These dials can be valued at $30,000 to $70,000 each, just for the dial, and they go on the 36 mm gold men’s presidential models. So I have been collecting these and love to stack them with a bunch of bracelets.”
She has collected so many “Stellas” over the years that she recently decided to sell half her collection – letting go of two of each color. This was a collaboration she did with Gwyneth Paltrow’s wellness and lifestyle company Goop, and some of which are still available. She loves to play with her collection by constantly buying and selling like this. “My watches often sit in the safe. I’ll put one on and then wear it for months. It is a little like when you have a new handbag, you use it all the time and forget the others. I am sure many women are like this,” she notes.
Even if Altieri always has her eye on the investment side of watch buying at Bob’s Watches, she advises women to buy what they love and will wear. “I get customers that just want to buy a watch because it is the hottest thing, but you have to make sure that you wear the watch and it doesn’t wear you!” she suggests. She also advises women never to customize a watch as it will greatly impact its value, and to always buy from a reputable dealer, of course, so that collecting Rolexes is always a pleasurable experience.
Jessica “J.J.” Owens
J.J. credits her love of watchmaking to her father. At the age of 11, she was looking for a way to connect with him and watches became their thing. “If he had been collecting coins or art or wine, I would have probably gotten into that—well maybe not at 11 years old—but I am so thankful that it was watches,” Owens laughs.
Aware of the fact that it was an unusual hobby for someone so young, J.J.’s father taught her about the intricacies of the mechanics and how important it was for her to take care of her watches so they would last. By the age of 15, she was head over heels in love with Rolex and was desperate to have one, even if her father was against it.
“It was at the beginning of Instagram and I would go into small businesses and create content for them. I did quite well and during a trip to Paris with friends, I bought my own Rolex,” she shares. “You buy a Rolex when you’ve reached a certain point in your career, and obviously, at 15, I hadn’t reached any point where it was appropriate to buy a Rolex, but for me, it meant that there were people outside of my home who valued my intelligence and that first 26 mm two-tone Rolex in a vintage store in Paris meant so much to me.”
“The funny thing is, my father was never a fan of Rolex,” she notes with a smile. “But for me, Rolex is such a treasured brand, I love the styling, it is super wearable, and I would be lying if I didn’t say that I liked the brand because of what it stands for.”
J.J. finds the notion of the “watch collector” slightly strange from a woman’s standpoint. “Men can have three watches and they consider themselves watch collectors, but women have so many other accessories—handbags, shoes, jewelry—and they don’t consider themselves collectors of those things,” she notes. “What I have seen is that there are a lot of women who love watches, buy watches, and have great collections, but the ‘collector’ label for women is a challenge; they don’t associate with that.”
Kate Lacey
Kate Lacey is a London-based watch expert, who fell into the world of watches purely by chance. She studied History of Art at St Andrews University in Scotland before specializing in fine furniture conservation at West Dean College. A temporary assignment in the watch department of Bonhams Auctions, however, was to change her career path forever and create a fascination with timepieces that has been going on for the better part of 20 years.
When it comes to collecting, her job often makes it hard to resist. “Collecting is sort of unavoidable when you work in auctions. Unusual things come across your desk all the time, timepieces that you wouldn’t see in a regular shop,” Lacey told Robb Report. Her first purchase was a rare Movado timepiece in steel that she just couldn’t resist. This was followed by a very affordable Rolex Datejust with a box and papers that she acquired for under $2,500, back before collecting was the phenomenon it is today.
Rolex has always been among her favorite brands. “I really am a Rolex girl! There is something cool, classy, and elegant about a vintage Rolex,” she shares. “The thing I love about Rolex is that they don’t date. They are made to keep going for years and this is reflected in the design. In some cases, they look just the same as they did 50 or 60 years ago.”