Recently, when watching an interview with watch industry legend Jean-Claude Biver, he said something which resonated with me: “Look at your watch. Don’t look at what time it is.”
I often find myself lost looking at my watch, whether at the detail on the dial or playing with the rotor through the caseback, and similarly as often I find myself checking back within seconds afterwards to check the time! It got me thinking about other watch quotes that people may have said, so I started recording some of the best ones I came across.
Here are some of my favourite watch quotes from various interviews and videos I’ve seen in recent months – I hope you enjoy them as much as I do…
“One thing I love doing on tour is finding independent watch brands from the country I’m touring, and then wearing them for the duration of the tour in that country”
Ed Sheeran: Singer-songwriter (Hodinkee)
“Every time I wear that watch I feel connected to him. Watches have the power to do that I think”
Matt Hranek: Author of A Man and His Watch, talking about wearing his father’s Rolex DateJust (Bulang & Sons)
“Look at your watch. Don’t look at what time it is”
Jean-Claude Biver: Former CEO, LVMH Group (@jcbiver on Instagram, 16 Nov ’19)
“We do not sell time. If you want the time you have a phone or a smartwatch, we sell an experience, we sell a way of doing things, a name, a beauty, design, techniques. So it’s our whole package about authenticity, which goes way beyond functionalities”
Antonio Seward: Audemars Piguet (Exclusive Style)
“When you wear a Daytona on your wrist, you’re wearing a piece of art”
Spike Lee: Director, Producer, Writer, Actor (Hodinkee)
“Everyone was saying the world was going to go under and I had just felt that people were losing perspective. What’s important is the here and now, living in the moment. So, I thought, what if I can make a watch where all the numbers are upside down, and only the present hour is correct. The aim of which, to inspire people to focus more on living in the here and now; it has some humour to it”
Ludovic Ballouard: Independent watchmaker (A Collected Man)
“I don’t wear a Tank watch to tell the time. In fact, I never wind it. I wear a Tank because it’s the watch to wear”
Andy Warhol: Artist
“We buy watches to kind of get kicked in the crotch in a certain way, you know what I mean? You go ‘oof’ “
John Mayer: Singer-songwriter (Hodinkee)
“I was at the restaurant of a hotel and some people from Patek were sitting in one corner of the dining hall, while I was sitting alone in the other corner. I told the head-waiter: “Bring me a piece of paper and a pencil, I want to design something” and I designed the Nautilus while observing the people from Patek eating!”
Gerald Genta: Designer, on creating the Patek Philippe Nautilus (VeryImportantWatches)
“You need to take the time to enjoy trying a watch. Because, never, never, I mean, never trust just pictures on the internet … try it on your wrist, ask the right questions to the clerk, to the retailer. I think that’s very important”
Thierry Stern: President Patek Philippe (Hodinkee)
“I met Gerald at a dinner, and he introduced himself with the phrase, ‘My god, your watch is ugly’ “
Evelyne Genta, on when she first met Gerald Genta (A Collected Man)
“Knowing Steve’s reputation for having sticky fingers, I detailed one of my prop assistants to shadow him on the set and retrieve the watch whenever McQueen finished a scene. Even so, somehow one of the five remaining Monacos still managed to go missing – probably to Steve”
Don Nunley: Property Master for Le Mans, on the Steve McQueen Monaco props (Quill & Pad)
“…though I don’t like wearing watches, I do really like creating them!”
Gerald Genta: Designer (VeryImportantWatches)
“There’s something one should expect not only of a watch, but also of oneself: to never stand still”
Walter Lange: Great-grandson of A. Lange & Söhne founder, Ferdinand A. Lange (Displayed at Regent Street Watches of Switzerland, A. Lange & Söhne boutique)
“When you see it in pictures, you might say that’s just a watch with diamonds on it. When you see it in person, it all adds up and makes perfect sense”
John Mayer: Singer-songwriter, on his Patek Philippe 5971 (Hodinkee)
“We are the artisans of giving birth to a product with a soul”
Jean-Claude Biver: Former CEO, LVMH Group (@jcbiver on Instagram, 16 Nov ’19)
For any questions, or if you have seen some other wonderful watch quotes, please get in touch via our Contact page, or via our Instagram.
You might also be interested in:
- Recommended Reading: ‘The Wizard of Swiss Watchmaking’ – Interviews with Jean-Claude Biver
- In Conversation with Ludovic Ballouard
- Watch Affinity Interviews
- Watch Stationery and Gift Ideas
- Watch Books, Watch Boxes and more at the Watch Affinity Shop on Amazon (commissions earned)
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