Opinion
Only Watch: A hopeful outlook for the watch community
Opinion
Only Watch: A hopeful outlook for the watch community
This is normally an incredible moment for the watch industry, where a supercharged crucible of mega-collectors bid for one-of-a-kind timepieces created by the industry’s most mythical brands, technical geniuses and extraordinary artisans.
But as you are probably aware, this charity auction benefiting Duchenne muscular dystrophy has been postponed to 2024. While the controversy around Only Watch has occupied much of our thoughts these past months, the outcome will be decided once Luc Pettavino, founder and organizer of the event, publishes his financial records next year.
Even though Revolution felt it was our responsibility to publish an interview with uber watch collector Santa Laura, the primary individual levying for greater transparency from the charity, I personally hope for a positive outcome. Why? Because I count Luc a friend and consider him to be one of the most affable, gentle and kind individuals I know.
While I support Santa Laura’s right to ask questions, I patently do not support the social media bullying and targeting of Pettavino with tasteless memes and opportunistic hateful comments.
The Only Watch legacy
The amazing thing about Only Watch is that it has effectively become the Swiss watch industry’s concept car show, where we are presented with no-holds-barred dream watches limited only by the imagination of their creators. Indeed, Only Watch is significant and thrilling for this.
They’re beautiful watches made for a good cause
So much is our love and respect for the incredible efforts made by the watchmakers and brands participating at Only Watch that when it came time for the Revolution team to select our best watches of 2023, we were faced with a challenge. Should we or should we not include as potential candidates the watches created for Only Watch?
In the end, we decided that such was their insane horological and creative merit that we had to. To not include them would be the equivalent of not letting the world’s best athletes compete in their chosen sports.
The watches that made this year’s favorites
And I want to thank everyone involved over these two decades, in particular the watchmakers, the auction’s amazing PR Marine Lemonnier-Brennan and Christie’s auction house especially Remi Guillemin, the incredible collectors (what’s up, Hadi, you rock) and, yes, also Luc Pettavino for all the wonderful moments created.
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