Bremont
They Wear It Well: At the Emsworth Polo Grounds
Bremont
They Wear It Well: At the Emsworth Polo Grounds
Although never one to do things by half, when businessman, entrepreneur and non-rider Simon Arber decided to take up polo in 2007 at the age of 49, even his closest friends could not have guessed that within a decade he would own one of the finest private polo clubs in the UK: the 72-acre Emsworth Polo Grounds in Berkshire.
Encouraged by a close friend to pursue a childhood love of horses while on holiday in Ireland, Arber and his wife Romilla started playing polo ten years ago when Andrew Lloyd-Webber’s wife Madeleine set up a polo club close to their home in Hampshire. “I had always played football,” Arber says, “but was starting to slow down and was looking for a sport I could do with Romilla. We went and had lessons, enjoyed it and the whole thing snowballed. We met good people like Matias Ballesteros who has been instrumental in my polo story. In fact, everything was driven by meeting the right people and being encouraged by them and we now have 50-plus horses that we bought in Argentina through Matias.”
Arber is a fan of wristwatches, both vintage and contemporary, but always pure and simple. “There’s a brilliant guy that I go to in a Mayfair arcade,” he says. “He has great knowledge and makes spending money really nice – he is professional and likes to do deals. He believes in what he does and, for many reasons, I love buying watches from him.”
Arber’s collection is impressive by any standards, including a Patek Philippe rose-gold Nautilus and a Calatrava that was a gift from Romilla after he expressed a desire for something plain and simple that he could “jog with”. “I was offered a unique Eric Clapton watch not long ago,” he recalls. “But it was crazy money and I would much rather spend that on a rare book – my real passion – that’s where I really know what I’m doing. I guess it stems from the fact that I never had a formal education and my start in life was late.”
What’s Cooking?
As well as a love of polo, Arber’s wife Romilla owns a food business and is the author of two cookbooks written with the aim of encouraging people to eat well and with the proceeds donated to the Food Education Trust. “It started off because I was concerned about the diseases caused by bad diet,” she explains. “I had four children to feed and it was tempting to grab a box of fish fingers. I originally trained as a lawyer, and, as the children got older and Simon took a step back, I decided I wanted to do something in business.”
She bought a run-down pub near Hungerford and developed it, turning the attached bar into a bakery and coffee shop. Quickly she saw a market for the additive-free bread and cakes and expanded by building a wholesale business and opening other outlets in village high streets. This was three years ago, and today, the Honesty Group consists of a cookery school that reinforces the simplicity of good food and how easy it is to look after yourself, five coffee shop outlets, a pub and restaurant and a wholesale business.
As we sit chatting at a table in the Emsworth clubhouse, Romilla reaches into a small leather make-up pouch and starts to bring out the watches she has decided to show me today – and what treasures there are inside that small bag. The first to emerge is a Reverso Duetto in rose gold that was a birthday present from her husband. “I’d always had a watch but I didn’t know the Reversos existed before I started playing polo,” she says. “The game got me into them. And then my interest expanded. I wear watches more as an accessory or for a party as to tell the time during the day I just look at my phone. It is the care and attention to detail that interests me.
Team Time
As the players start to arrive for the weekend tournament, Nacho Gonzalez, a six-goal polo player, is the first that I bump into. “Polo does not have a league like football,” he explains to me. “We just play tournament by tournament.” With an Argentinian polo-playing father and English mother, Gonzalez grew up in the UK surrounded by polo. He has 35 caps for England and says he turned professional on the day he got his first pay cheque. “I was 14 and it was in Richmond at Ham Polo Club. I got paid £50 for my first game.”
“It takes a lot of time, money and effort. I got hooked and – as with any sport – it is stepping stones. You don’t have enough money at first so you have to improve, then you get a little money, invest it and get better mounted and then you improve some more and get a little more money… it’s a snowball effect. Sponsorship is rare because the sport is so niche but polo is perfectly suited to watches, elite cars and travel brands.”
But outside of the fun part of the job, Charlton says that the polo life is a hard one. “It is 24/7 and you can never really get away,” he confesses. “We play 12 months a year and if you’re not in a season, you’re planning for the next one. Generally, when I go to a team in the UK I go mounted, so I am responsible for making sure I have the best horses as this reflects the jobs I will get. At the end of each season, I have a budget to spend on horses and I usually look for about three or so to replace my bottom ones. I have about 16 or 17 and they are not cheap, so that’s a lot of equity in horses.”
“Now I work permanently with Simon, but before that I would travel for up to seven months a year in Argentina, America, New Zealand, Australia, Barbados – it was wonderful.”
And although he doesn’t have a love of watches per se, Morley does have an appreciation for nice things. He may not know the mechanical intricacies behind them but he is grateful for the watches that he does have. “I love this one,” he says, showing me the Cartier Ballon Bleu on his wrist. “I won it playing polo, and I also have a Santos that I acquired the same way.” But one piece that is extra special to Morley is the Benson pocket watch that was a gift from his parents for his 21st birthday.