WATCHPRO Salon will be feast for all the senses of watch collectors thanks to a lively series of talks on the Saturday, November 12, with Robert-Jan Broer, founder of Fratello Watches and Omega Speedmaster enthusiast club, Speedy Tuesday, holding a talk about his life’s work.
On the same programme Kathleen McGivney, co-founder of the world’s largest collectors’ club, Redbar will host a special session for members and prospective members.
Silas Walton, founder of A Collected Man, will complete a hat trick of collectors’ talks, this time joined by tattoo artist and watch designer Mo Coppoletta.
WATCHPRO Salon is the UK’s largest show for luxury watches, bringing together 45 prestigious brands with hundreds of collectors and enthusiasts.
The event takes place from November 11 to 12 at The Londoner on Leicester Square, one of the the capital’s most luxurious contemporary hotels.
Fratello Watches and Speedy Tuesday founder Mr Broer will host a talk about the Speedy Tuesday community and how it all came about. “Speedy Tuesday started in 2012, and resulted in a large community consisting of Speedmaster enthusiasts and collectors. Instagram played a huge role, as the #SpeedyTuesday hashtag helped to make the circle of Speedmaster collectors more visible and easier to reach out to each other,” he describes.
He will also answer questions on the role of Omega and Fratello and reveal how it was to work together with such a large brand on designing a watch.
After the talk, there’s time to meet up with Speedmaster enthusiasts in a private room at WATCHPRO Salon where people can share their passion for the legendary Omega chronograph.
RedBar, which originated in a New York boozer, has become the biggest watch collectors’ club in the world with over 8,500 members and 80 chapters established in major cities in dozens of countries, including the UK.
Meetings of the club are notoriously informal, where a shared passion for watches — rather than an encyclopaedic knowledge of horology — is the only requirement.
Redbar co-founder Kathleen McGivney will host a special session with collectors at WATCHPRO Salon on Saturday, November 12, that is open to members and all attendees at the luxury watch show.
After the talk, RedBar members will have access to a private lounge (crucially, with an adjacent bar) where they can relax and share notes on their favourite timepieces with fellow enthusiasts.
Silas Walton, founder and managing director of A Collected Man, will chair a panel discussion on watch design.
Mr Walton has created a hugely respected business trading in ultra-rare watches from some of today’s greatest living watchmakers. A Collected Man set a world record for the sale of a Philippe Dufour Grande et Petite Sonnerie watch for $7.63 million (£5 million) in the summer of 2021.
He will be joined on stage to discuss watch design by Mo Coppoletta, a London-based tattoo artist with strong links to the watch world through collaborative pieces for the likes of Romain Jerome, Montblanc and Bulgari, for whom he designed an Octo Finissimo with a dial combining the art of tattooing with the art of mechanics.
WATCHPRO Salon 2022 exhibitors and partners
WATCHPRO Salon is a showcase of prestige watchmakers where collectors, brands, retailers and press meet in 5-star luxury.
Back for a second time after a sensational debut in 2021, the two-day event takes place from November 11 to 12 at The Londoner, one of the capital’s most spectacular 5-star hotels on London’s Leicester Square.
Exhibitors & Partners at WATCHPRO Salon 2022:
