He does not like social media, photographs, interviews, notoriety of any kind. Only a few blurry, black-and-white photos from the 1970s from when he was Managing Director of Olivetti Australia can be found on the web about him. His name is Ike Honigstock and he is considered, in the world of vintage watchmaking at the highest level, to be the most important collector of the last two decades.
Ike's true passion, and also the reason why he is appreciated and recognized as an undisputed trend setter, is vintage Haute Horlogerie. Since the beginning of his passion for hands, he has always chosen based on his instincts and culture. He owns most of the top lots auctioned in the new millennium, from Patek Philippe's 1436 rattrapante to the 1518 steel Rolex 6062 Bao Dai to Eric Clapton's collection...
His presence at auctions is shrouded in a veil of mystery and respect, while the deference with which everyone turns to him is the child of a legitimacy built up through years and years of commitment, but also a seriousness made up exclusively of pieces of the highest caliber. Each of his choices, however, has always been dictated by his heart.
We met him in Monte Carlo last April, during the Monaco Legend auction conducted by Davide Parmegiani.
How many years have you been collecting watches?
"I don't keep a precise count, maybe 35 years."
When you were starting to collect I was starting to write about watchmaking... The most beautiful watch you've owned?
"Impossible to choose one. Really impossible. Almost every watch I've owned has given me much, much pleasure. Of course, after a few years it's inevitable to make a kind of preference list, the fact is that I'm in love with all the pieces I've owned, really all of them."
The watch you couldn't buy?
"This is really an interesting question, because not everything is predictable, and there may be models that I used to consider insignificant and then have instead seen their value and interest explode. An example is Cartier's Crash: beautiful watch, today of great value, but is it a right piece for my taste? I have to decide: is it right for me? Then there are watches that no one knew about before, whose existence we have only learned about today. In this case, it is inevitable to think: oh my God, I would like to have it too... The problem is the wallet: once upon a time, much less money was needed to buy the most interesting pieces than now, and this makes everything complicated."
Is it more exciting to buy or to sell?
"Buying. I remember everything about the watches I bought, what I thought before the purchase, how the negotiation went."
A small battle?
"No, it's a beautiful thing, a very pleasant process."
Is the world of collecting changing from 15 or 20 years ago?
"My contacts are with dealers and auction houses; I know few collectors. I know that there are people, often young people, with a great deal of money who buy important pieces."
What advice would you give him?
"I would tell him that the most important thing is the heart."
Are feelings important for collecting watches?
"Absolutely. I don't know any other way to think."
Is being at an auction today a way to get excited?
"I see at least two watches that I would like to buy that I really like, that's the most important thing."
Is Davide Parmegiani changing the way watch auctions are done?
"I have known him since I started my history in watchmaking, 35 years, and he has always remained very 'effective.' He is a 'do' man better than anyone else. He understands what you need and knows what he is talking to you about. That makes all the difference."
Today he has taken this path of the Auction House.
"He was able to do this because he knows watches, he knows who sells them and who buys them. So he has come full circle in a natural way. I think he's realizing an idea he always had and in this he's helped by his family, his children, and that's a beautiful and important thing."
Let's go back to watches: when you observe that a watch that you had, perhaps, bought twenty years ago paying a hundred, is now worth a thousand or even more, are you pleased or almost regretful?
"It is simply a reality, especially if we are talking about vintage collectibles. However, things have happened that are not reality."
Are we talking about the speculative bubble of the past few years?
"Today everyone thinks with watches exclusively about making money, but someone is paying for making wrong assessments. Watches of recent or contemporary production underwent a singular process: the market wanted two hundred but production could only make twenty. So a lot was sold over-list. Today this situation has ended and prices have come down naturally."
Have you also been involved?
"No. There was a speculation or at any rate if we want to look at it positively a willingness to invest. But I did not participate in either the speculation or the investment."
Don't you consider watches an investment?
"I have always made "investments" for fun, as opposed to those who make for "profit" are forced to take risks."
History tells us that major pieces purchased "out of passion" later turned into major investments.
"The process of 'exploding' in value and interest in a watch is a beautiful thing that has always happened. Watchmaking behaves a bit like actors in the movies: there are some actors who are particularly famous at a particular time, then others come along. Each of them, from Brando, James Dean, Paul Newman, has his own style: a particular haircut, choice of clothing... it's all in the look, in what we observe. There has been an evolution in them, the same in watches: seeing Paul Newman at the movies is cheap, getting a Daytona Paul Newman much more so."
In common feeling, we often stop at the simple watch to evaluate it, the "piece of metal," when in fact behind it is the person who wanted it, thought of it, designed it, prototyped it, built it, finished it, marketed it ... even bought it. Is the history of a watch important?
"True! Provenance is crucial in determining whether a watch is true, this is because there are too many that are not. However, giving too much importance to all the figures that have been there does not belong to me, I think more about my life and the time I will spend with 'my watch'."
Do you have any memories of important watches that went to auction?
"I remember when the Paul Newman's Paul Newman came on the market, talking to the auction house, I told them that in my opinion it would reach at most two million dollars. It made six times that value."
A "high" turning point for collectible watchmaking.
"Hopefully, the high prices will not lead opportunists to make fake pieces."
A solution to this problem?
"It is necessary to focus on people, not on counterfeiters who will never stop their activity. It is necessary to work on those who buy watches at high prices without proper knowledge, relying on others to distinguish the real from the fake. They need to overcome this laziness. It is essential to know firsthand what you are buying; it is the best way, perhaps the only way, to avoid nasty surprises."
Important to have a good relationship with the referring dealer or auction house?
"Yes of course, if we make a general statement it is correct. I personally rely solely on my experience. For example: I studied dials for years and now I can tell whether a dial is good or not. This applies to everything."
A young person wanting to get into the world of collectible watchmaking, what advice would you give?
"I would tell him to put his heart into it. Start in a gradual way, maybe from the 1990s and then downward. The further we go, the more the quantities of pieces produced go down and the value goes up. The thing that amuses me is that, in spite of everything, every now and then pieces come on the market that have never been seen before ... and that for someone who lives it with passion like I do, is very nice."
Paul Gobbi
