Watch Spotting at The 80th NAWCC National Convention

By Charlie Dunne

Being able to handle vintage timepieces is special and important for collectors and enthusiasts. For many across the United States, the National Association of Watch & Clock Collectors serves as the venue to buy, sell, and trade timepieces. The timepieces at a NAWCC event consist of everything from long clocks, American-made pocket watches, stopwatches, pre-owned and vintage Swiss wristwatches, and much more. Years ago, I purchased my first vintage watch - a Jaeger-LeCoultre reference E 855 - at the NAWCC Florida regional. This year, Eric Wind and I were invited to the 80th anniversary of NAWCC to speak on a panel discussion ‘Vintage Wristwatch Market: Myth vs Reality – What to look for and what to believe’ with Gianfranco Gentile (Breitling’s new Heritage Director) and Fred Mandelbaum (legendary supercollector and Breitling Brand Historian). Our brother John Cote (NAWCC Board of Directors member and collector) moderated the discussion.

It was an exciting weekend where we had the pleasure of meeting and spending time with new and old friends. We also admired Fred’s world-class collection of vintage Breitling watches on exhibition at both the NAWCC mart and at Brent L. Miller Jewelers & Goldsmiths. Many of these were Breitling Premier models featured in Fred Mandelbaum’s 2023 publication ‘Premier Story: Breitling Premier, Duograph and Datora’. A review of the book is forthcoming here on our Wind Vintage blog. We strongly recommend you purchase a copy!

A special thanks to John Cote, Ryan Miller and the whole Brent L. Miller Jewelers & Goldsmiths team, Rhett Lucke, all the staff of NAWCC, Breitling, Gianfranco Gentile, Leslie Bilger, Fred Mandelbaum (@watchfred), Marci Blinderman (Director of Marketing for Breitling), and everyone who attended our panel.