Audemars Piguet
The World’s Largest Audemars Piguet Collection’s Fate
These Little Piguets Went to Marcus…
…These Little Piguets Went Home
Marcus Margulies has my sympathy, though he doesn’t seem to need it. He’s just closed a chapter in his life of nearly three decades of hunting and bidding and sourcing, by selling his world-class collection of Audemars Piguet watches – the largest ever assembled. As I’m in the middle of parting with my collection of LPs – 52 years of my life invested in it – I know that such pain is real. But when asked if he is suffering as I am, Margulies simply shakes his head.
Margulies is disarmingly laid-back about a transaction that would have devastated most watch enthusiasts. “When you collect things and you’re in business,” he says. “You’ll have to forgive me, but I can’t take the collection with me. It should have gone to Audemars because it completes their collection and it’s a question of money.”
And that’s how much? He replies, “Ask Audemars.”
Does the fact that they all returned home to Audemars take the pain out of it? “There’s never any pain in selling anything.” But surely this was close to your heart? “Ken, Ken, I’m in business and there’s nothing in business close to my heart. My private life is very close to my heart, but my business life is my business life. I employ a lot of people and I am responsible for them.
As with my LPs, which I won’t sell to a dealer, the thought of Margulies’s watches going to a good home certainly assuages any anguish. Add future access to the collection by the world’s connoisseurs, in Audemars Piguet’s museum, and that increases the rightness of the sale. As for Margulies, he has new and exciting projects to keep him busy – watch this space – while I’ve learned a lesson: as long as my LPs, too, find a good home, I can’t mourn the loss.