The Italian Influence

Back in the 1980s, a small group of Italian watch dealers started buying up “exotic” dial Rolex Daytonas, later dubbing them “Paul Newman Daytonas.” This watch originally sat untouched in retailers’ cases and cost less than $1,000. Now some rare examples fetch more than $1 million. How did one group of people from one country influence the way we collect vintage watches so strongly? We sit down with two men who have seen it all, from both collecting and selling standpoints, John Goldberger and Davide Parmegiani. Both are legends in the vintage watch world and are testaments to how one country has changed everything.