Tick-Tock Trends

Who: Peter Roumbos, a semi-retired government worker and former model Where: Yorkville

Peter Roumbos, who grew up in Greece, got his first watch when he was eight, a gift from his father. “My dad loved to wear a nice watch, and he was always impeccably dressed,” says Peter.

The first piece he bought for himself was a Guess fashion watch—a dupe of the fancy Breitling he really wanted. Several pricier Jaeger-LeCoultre watches followed, ranging from $5,000 to $12,000. Peter now has 12 of them—part of a collection of 80-plus luxury and vintage watches. His rarest piece is a 1996 Patek Philippe Nautilus that he scored at an auction in 2010 for about $8,000. Today, he estimates it’s worth 10 times as much.

Most of his vintage watches are from antique markets and auctions, including a GMT-Rolex Master II 1675 from the ’50s that was designed for aviators. It’s nicknamed “the Pepsi watch” because of its bright red-and-blue bezel. He also has a Casio G-Shock with chunky lugs and a Corum Bubble Lucifer watch featuring a cartoon devil and a pitchfork that points to the hour. Related: Inside the apartment of the city’s most dedicated Barbie collector

Peter buys watches to wear and admire, not to flip for profit. They aren’t a great investment, he says, because the market fluctuates. (Last year, a buyer offered him $65,000 for his Rolex Daytona, but he didn’t want to sell. This year, the market price went down to $40,000.) “Every timepiece reflects the person who made it,” he says. “I’m attracted to the romance of that.”

Who: Rhonda Riche, a writer and editor Where: High Park

After watching her grandfather, a mechanic, tinker with watches when she was a kid, Rhonda Riche developed a fascination with timepieces. In high school, she desperately wanted a Swatch but couldn’t afford one, so she started picking up vintage watches at yard sales. At one such sale, she scooped up a mechanical Timex that looked like a ritzy Cartier Tank watch, and that was it: she was hooked on the hunt.

These days, Rhonda usually has upward of 40 watches in her eclectic collection. Most are G-Shocks, Casios and novelty watches, though the inventory is perpetually in flux. When she needs to pare down, she’ll trade or swap with friends. But there are some items she’ll never part with, like her Mickey Mouse watch, which plays “It’s a Small World (After All).” “I call it my emotional support watch because it brings me such joy,” she says. Another prized possession is her minimalist Wolfsburg dress watch, which looks like something out of Mad Men. It was created in the 1960s for a VW promotion and has the corporate logo engraved on it. It also belonged to her grandfather. Related: Inside the home of the city’s most dedicated collector of vintage kitchenware

Rhonda’s love of watches extends to her work as a lifestyle journalist. In 2019, she became an editor-at-large at the online watch magazine Watchonista, and she’s the author of an upcoming book, The Wonderful World of Women’s Watches. “Whether it’s a $100,000 watch or a $10 watch, people are interested in the stories behind them.”

Who: Verne Ho, a designer Where: North York

Verne ho bought his first serious watch in Las Vegas in 2017. He was in the city for a birthday celebration and decided to splurge on an IWC Ingenieur Chronograph W125 with a calfskin strap. The watch’s design was inspired by 1930s Silver Arrow Mercedes-Benz racing cars. The price tag: $10,000.

Since then, Verne has come to appreciate how watches mark milestones. Of the roughly 50 timepieces in his collection, 20 have personal significance. He treasures a gold Rolex Cellini from 1981 that his grandfather gave him.

Four years ago, Verne started an Insta­gram account called Watch Studies that now has more than 300,000 followers. He teaches watch enthusiasts how to snap enticing photos of their pieces and shares stories about his collection. He sees watches as a form of self-­expression and connection.

“Watches are wonderful time capsules,” he says. To mark the births of his children, now three and five, he bought a pair of Cartier Santos watches and had their birthdates engraved on them. (He’ll give them to his kids when they’re older.) And in May, for his 40th birthday, he sprung for a $40,000 Santos-­Dumont Rewind watch. Its gimmick: the hands run counterclockwise, as do the numerals. Only 200 of the limited-edition pieces were made. “Starting a new decade with a watch that tells time in reverse? Why not?” says Verne.