In a few short years, Jaclyn Li has built an
enviable haul of vintage and modern watches – and a reputation as a shrewd and sophisticated navigator of the industry’s heavyweights.
Although she didn’t know it at the time, the piece – a gift for her mother’s 50th birthday – would open a portal to a watchmaking universe she now inhabits as both a devoted enthusiast and a seasoned professional. Over the past two years, Li has worked as a contractor for Phillips’ watch department in New York, where she recently spent 30 minutes inspecting the Patek Philippe Ref 1518 wristwatch that sold at the house’s Geneva sale in November for $17.6m. “I would have paid to do it,” she tells Elite Traveler.
At the time of her first purchase, however, Li was an undergraduate at Harvard University with a proven track record of savvy collecting. Born in Harbin, China, she moved to Canada aged 12. In middle school, she developed a fixation on collectible sneakers, particularly Nike SBs. “I had Paris Dunks, Yellow Lobsters,” she says. “I had a YouTube account and was doing all these unboxing videos instead of going to class.”
See also: The Pocket Watch Comeback You Didn’t See Coming
When lockdowns forced her to return home to Vancouver, Li, now 28, discovered the wide world of wristwatches online. “I fell in love with vintage Cartier,” she says. During one of her countless late-night Instagram scrolls, she came across a rare 1980s platinum Tank Louis model with burgundy numerals and hands, offered by a dealer in Thailand. “When I woke up and saw the transfer had gone through, I thought, ‘Did I just get scammed?’” she recalls.
On the contrary. The dealer was legitimate – and Li, who’d cashed in her sneaker collection to help fund her watch hobby, was just getting started. Not long after, she acquired her first vintage Patek: a small, two-tone cushion-shaped model from 1926. “I still have it, but I don’t wear it,” she says. “It means a lot to me symbolically because without that piece, I don’t think I would have ventured further into Patek.”
See also: The 11 Best Timepieces from Watches & Wonders 2026
That’s Li’s nonchalant way of describing what, by most standards, is a starry collection of nearly 40 rare and highly desirable timepieces. Her focus remains primarily on vintage Patek Philippe, but she also buys both vintage and modern watches by Cartier, as well as contemporary models from a selection of sought-after independent watchmakers, including Simon Brette, Rexhep Rexhepi, Petermann Bédat, and Kari Voutilainen. “I love independents because it’s about the memories I get to make with the people who create these pieces,” she says. “The first time I went to Geneva was in 2021. Back then, I didn’t know any of these ateliers or watchmakers. Now I call them my friends and I can watch my timepieces being made.”
Li, however, reserves her greatest admiration for Patek Philippe. The company, in her view, has the best archive and extract system in the industry. “I can request information about a watch I don’t know much about, and when it comes in the mail, it’s like Christmas Day,” she says.
She’s currently awaiting the extract for a pocket watch she recently purchased – it matches the 1926 Patek she acquired in 2021. Both pieces were sold by the Swiss retailer Gübelin and feature dials with what appears to be an identical guilloché pattern. “It’s almost like finding missing pieces of a puzzle and fitting them together,” Li says. “That’s why vintage speaks to me. It’s one thing to walk into a boutique and wait for an allocation, but stumbling upon a piece that’s 100 years old purely by luck or chance is magical – and it makes the experience far more gratifying.
“It’s not about dollar signs or flexing on Instagram,” she adds. “It’s about collecting memories and reuniting the past with the present. And the fact that these objects are so much older than we are – there’s something incredibly humbling about holding something you know will outlive you.”
Добавить комментарий