John Reardon was just out of college when he joined the watch department of Sotheby’s in New York and became part of the team that sold the Patek Philippe Henry Graves’ Supercomplication pocket watch for a world record $12 million in 1997.
After four years with the auction house, he joined his beloved Patek Philippe and spent a decade supporting the brand’s authorized dealer network in the United States.
During that time he published a three-volume opus titled Patek Philippe in America, and established himself as the country’s foremost authority on the watchmaker.
The auction world came calling again in 2016, and John held the role of international head of watches at Christie’s for six years before leaving in 2019 to set up his own business, Collectability, which acts as a consultant, trader and fixer for a network of top-end Patek Philippe collectors.
I think of Collectability as much more than an online retailer of vintage watches; we are at the center of Patek Philippe scholarship and raising the profile of the brand’s historic importance.
The business has now grown to the point where it needs a full-time team, with Tania Edwards and Elisa Catenazzi joining Collectability to oversee marketing and operations.
“Collectability was born from the idea that collectors need a source of information on all things Patek Philippe, both modern and vintage,” he describes.
“The vision is that we provide a content-driven, educational resource that can assist collectors in buying and selling Patek Philippe watches across all platforms: the auction world, the secondary market, and even on the primary market.
“I think of Collectability as much more than an online retailer of vintage watches; we are at the center of Patek Philippe scholarship and raising the profile of the brand’s historic importance by educating the collecting community in ways that have never been done before.”
