Carol Altieri

Carol Altieri holds a highly enviable position at pre-owned retailer Bob’s Watches, as the company’s chief buyer for women’s Rolexes. She reviews over 1,000 watches a week and often sets watches aside for her own collection. “I can get excited about things that my male colleagues couldn’t get excited about in the past,” says Altieri. “I love the vintage Rolex cocktail watches with the Stella dials and their stunning colors. They come in beautiful pink, turquoise, orange and oxblood and were only made for a short time, so they are really rare. These dials can be worth $30,000 to $70,000 a piece for the dial alone and are worn on the men’s 36mm gold Presidential models, so I have collected these and love pairing them with a number of bracelets.”

She’s collected so many “Stellas” over the years that she recently decided to sell half of her collection – two of each color. This was a collaboration she did with Gwyneth Paltrow’s wellness and lifestyle company Goop, and some of them are still available. She loves to play with her collection, constantly buying and selling in this way. “My watches are often in the safe. I’ll put one on and then wear it for months. It’s a bit like getting a new handbag, you use it constantly and forget about the others. I’m sure a lot of women feel that way,” she notes.

Although Altieri always considers the investment side when purchasing watches at Bob’s Watches, she advises women to buy what they like and what they will wear. “I have clients who want to buy a watch just because it’s trendy, but you have to make sure you wear the watch and not the watch you wear!” she suggests. She also advises women to never customize a watch as this will greatly affect its value, and of course to always buy from a reputable dealer so that collecting Rolex watches always remains an enjoyable experience.

Jessica “JJ” Owens

JJ owes her love of watchmaking to her father. At 11, she was looking for a way to connect with him, and watches became her thing. “If he had collected coins, art or wine, I probably would have started doing that – well, maybe not at 11 – but I’m so grateful it was watches,” laughs Owens.

JJ’s father knew it was an unusual hobby for such a young girl, and he taught her the intricacies of mechanics and explained to her how important it was to look after her watches so they would last. By the age of 15, she was head over heels in love with Rolex and was determined to own one, despite her father’s opposition.

“This was at the beginning of Instagram and I was going into small companies and creating content for them. I was pretty successful and during a trip to Paris with friends I bought my own Rolex,” she says. “You buy a Rolex when you’ve reached a certain point in your career and of course at 15 I wasn’t at a point where it was appropriate to buy a Rolex but for me it meant that there were people outside of my home who appreciated my intelligence and that first 26mm two-tone Rolex in a vintage shop in Paris meant so much to me.”

“The funny thing is that my father was never a Rolex fan,” she notes with a smile. “But for me, Rolex is such a treasured brand, I love the style, it’s super wearable and I’d be lying if I didn’t say I like the brand for what it stands for.”

JJ finds the term “watch collector” a little odd from a woman’s perspective. “Men can own three watches and still consider themselves a watch collector, but women have so many other accessories – handbags, shoes, jewelry – and they don’t consider themselves collectors of those things,” she notes. “I’ve found that there are a lot of women who love watches, buy watches and have great collections, but the label ‘collector’ is challenging for women; they don’t associate themselves with it.”

Now 25, JJ is keen to share her love of watches with other young women. She runs watchmaking classes and workshops where she learns how to register and bid at auctions. She has built a whole community and wants nothing more than to get more girls interested in watches.

Kate Lacey

Kate Lacey is a London-based watch expert who came into the world of watches by chance. She studied Art History at St Andrews University in Scotland before specialising in fine furniture conservation at West Dean College. However, a temporary assignment in the watch department of Bonhams Auctions changed her career path forever and sparked a fascination with watches that has now lasted almost 20 years.

When it comes to collecting, it’s often hard to resist in her job. “Collecting is kind of inevitable when you work at auctions. Unusual things end up on a desk all the time, watches you wouldn’t see in a regular shop,” said Lacey Robb ReportHer first purchase was a rare steel Movado watch that she just couldn’t resist. She followed that with a very affordable Rolex Datejust with box and papers that she bought for under $2,500, back before collecting became the phenomenon it is today.

Rolex has always been one of her favorite brands. “I’m a real Rolex girl! There’s something cool, stylish and elegant about vintage Rolexes,” she says. “What I love about Rolex is that they never go out of date. They’re made to last for years and that’s reflected in the design. In some cases, they look exactly the same as they did 50 or 60 years ago.”

“I also think they’re super stylish and a bit rugged,” she continues. “I’m a bit of a tomboy at heart and like to wear something chunky and heavy on my wrist that is – for lack of a better word – not girly.”

She admits that she is a rarity in the vintage watch collecting scene. She puts this down to the fact that in the past women felt guilty about expensive purchases, as if owning more than one watch was a luxury. “I think that is changing because people now see buying a watch as an investment, even though I don’t like to use that word,” she says. “Owning multiple Chanel bags, for example, used to be considered frivolous, but today everyone knows that having a Chanel bag in your wardrobe is valuable because it is a valuable piece; it is the same with watches. That is why we see women buying more watches, and multiple watches, because they can finally do it without the guilt that comes with it.”