When we set out to research this story, we thought we’d keep the list to around 10 women. We are well connected to the international watch collecting community —including Rolex in particular —and so we usually find ourselves trimming away willing participants from such stories. This didn’t happen.
Our first researcher found no one and returned the assignment. Well connected (male) Rolex experts scratched their heads and muttered, “huh.” We kept digging, and eventually we turned up just three women with notable vintage Rolex collections.
Gender and watches , so often a complex topic . It’s no secret that for decades the world of vintage watch collecting has largely been a gentleman’s club, but as tastes and styles change —with some women rocking rather large watches —it appears more women are getting hooked on vintage Rolex. But you won’t find them in the front row of live auctions or singing from the rooftops about their latest meters-first Rolex Submariner , transitional five-digit GMT Master with a nipple dial, or some previous flop like a Rolex Milgauss that’s now worth seven figures.
But the number of women collecting Rolex is growing, and these women approach collecting somewhat differently from their male counterparts. We ended up speaking with Kate Lacey, senior watch consultant at Rosebery’s London and liveryman at the four-century-old Worshipful Company of Clockmakers , J. J.
Owens, a quantitative analyst who is now working as a consultant i.