It was my third time to Parma and second time this year already.

Let me make this very clear. Going to the Fiera di Parma is NOT only about watches. It is about all things vintage and luxury.

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Furniture, trunks, art, cars (for the first time this year). If you like style and vintage luxury in general – Parma is a great place to go.

My report this year will reflect that Parma is not only about watches but about also about vintage trunks, art, car memorabilia too (of course I will show mostly watches in this report – as that is my main reason going). 

I don’t think Parma is a good place to make any observations on the state of the market. For me Parma is a big sophisticated flea market where dealers are showing their watches. Sure buying and selling does take place but I don’t think I can make any statements from what I saw as it pertains to the vintage watch market and its health. Yes the feeling was upbeat among watch dealers having just returned from HK and Las Vegas watch shows.

What I have noticed, (and this has more to do with watch dealers than watches per se) is that dealers are becoming global. Which means the vintage watch market is as global as ever. 

Commenting on the watches themselves – I do have this as an overall comment: I saw the usual stuff. When I say usual – these are still hyper rare and beautiful watches. Paul Newman in rare Gold versions, GMT 6542 with Bakelite and many cool submariner and Daytona in general with four digit model numbers.

These are all grail watches and belong to the top of pyramid of collectability. But because of Instagram we are used to seeing them – giving an illusion that these watches are relatively common (even if they are far from that) and that they are are nothing extra-ordinary anymore. 

In that respect Rolexpassionreport rightly stated in his Parma report – that the collector market for vintage market has matured. We are all on the same page now and know what is right or wrong (at least we think we know) and what is desirable. It is maybe time to take our knowledge of detail and brands to the next level. This also explains why the Gondola square shaped Patek I showed on Instagram caused such an excitement. Design from the 1920’s, explosion numerals and long early Patek signature.

It is something new and fresh that collectors maybe had not seen in a long time or was not even considering at all.

I hope you enjoy the pictures I am about to share with you – not all of great quality as the lighting makes taking pictures very difficult.

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As is tradition I first stop at the first place on the right when you enter the fair – and have a Parma ham sandwich. Here is the uncut version.

And the cut version – the Parma ham is soft, moist and just perfect (although it there is a lot of fat on the ham which might give it that extra taste).

The first visit was at Luca Musumeci’s stand.  

This nice 1675 Rolex GMT Master once belonged to an Asian collector based in HK. Notice the exclamation dial and pointed crown guards. The color of the dial was very appealing.

There was also a nice 1675 Rolex that comes with all the paperwork imaginable. Original guarantee, original service receipt, price list of 1963/64, chronometer papers etc. 

Paperwork is very cool to have and you always learn a thing or two looking through it. What is especially interesting is the official Swiss price list of Rolex watches in 1963/64.

The Rolex 1675 GMT Master cost new CHF 675. More than an Explorer 1016 (which was listed at CHF 480) probably due to the complication of dual time and big window date.

Looking further down the list I see something that nearly knocked me off my chair.

Consider that a Platinum day date 1805 with diamond bezel and diamond hour markers (8 baguettes) and platinum bracelet cost an astounding CHF 16’000 back in 1963! That is 25 x the price of a new GMT 1675! Let me put this in perspective for you. A Ferrari 275 GTB in 1964 was $13’000.  The USD was worth almost worth 2x (1.9x) more than the Swiss Franc back in 1963 – but still- that Rolex 1804 in platinum buys you 65% of a Ferrari 275 GTB! (Sidenote: We all know what proved to be the better investment looking back)!  

Another interesting observation from the paperwork on the 1675 – is the different names Rolex had.

For example on the guarantee is written The Rolex Watch Company Limited. See below.

Then on the Chronometer papers it is written Rolex Montres SA which is the official name of the headquarters at that time (today is seems to be just Rolex SA). Below on the service paper there is another name written, this time The American Rolex Watch Corp, which was the corporation name of Rolex in the US. Confused? So was I.

Lets move on to Caso watches.

There was a stunning Vacheron Chronograph for sale that is also in the Pucci’s new book Macro Portfolio of Images on Vacheron Constantin.

This Vacheron had a sector dial and seems that it was also born with a two-tone dial which made the watch very attractive. Notice the square pushers – very masculine in my view.

The back of the watch was also engraved which is always nice (I prefer an engraved watch to a non engraved one – as it tells a story).

The other nice watch Caso watches had was this very nice Rolex 6542 GMT with Bakelite bezel. It has lots of character (the dial was spider web) and the hands looked nice and full of patina).

It was not a perfect clean example of a 6542 – but rather one that had character and patina – that is exactly why I really liked this watch so much!

Both the GMT and the Vacheron together on Pucci’s book.

Lets move to some nice travel trunks that I saw, we will come back to watches later.

I have been a big fan of all kinds of travel trunks as they remind me of my grandmother who used to take the big boat cruise from her home in New York to Europe every summer (this is in the 1940s, 1950’s). Wealthy families would take these trunks with them made especially for transatlantic cruises. 

The square pattern trunk (in the front) is older than the monogram trunk in the back. Seen at Alessio Lorenzi’s stand.

This beautiful closet trunk I fell in love with. I especially loved the yellow lining.

It is the details that I love like the leather drawer openers.

The inside of another trunk had this Louis Vuitton address card. Must have been a long time ago as Louis Vuitton is not on Rue Scribe anymore (but rather on the Champs see next picture). The date says 1889!

Yes this trunk is later. London address is now New Bond street and Paris is listed as 70 Champs Elysees.

My favorite trunks are those with names or monogram initials – as they often tell a story. Wonder where Mr. Pearson and his family are today.

There was also some nice art at Parma. One of my favourite artists is Christo and here a work related to the Gates project he did in New York.

Like Warhol and Basquiat? You could also find that at Parma as well as furniture and and nice sculptures.

Let us get back to watches. My next visit was to the stand Tempus – Elvio and his charming daughter Maria Giovanna showed me many nice watches. Think this is normal Daytona 6263? No – it is a FAP (Peruvian airforce).

Another wonderful watch was this Pink gold Rolex 6034 with unusual bracelet. I liked this very much.

Another rare item was seen at Tempus – this rare big logo jubilee bracelet (first time I have seen that) fitted on a Rolex Daytona.

Quite rare and very unusual was this Nina Rindt but with Pulsation (not tachymeter) dial.

Also cool was this watch that Mario Dissette kindly kept for me at Tempus watches. This fantastic 6542 (with superb clear glossy dial) had the most incredible Bakelite blue I have ever seen (think the waters of Sardinia).

My next stop was Only Vintage headed by Corrado and his partner Luca. We start off with this superb Rolex Daytona screw down with brown dial. I also loved the strap (I think it was Perlon). 

Next up a Patek 1518 that had a very strong case (the stampings could be seen on the back). The dial has some marks on both the subdials and also around the moon phase area. Else a nice watch.

The watch I did fall in love with was this Patek 1920s Gondolo that I posted on my IG already. Notice the explosion numerals and the long signature. It even has an underline dial (Rolex collectors will appreciate my little joke).

The last watch I show was this very nice GMT Master 6542 from the stand of Matteo Monticone (it is the same watch as my Parma report of March this year). 

We end with some Ferrari memorabilia. One of the biggest dealers of Ferrari letters and paperwork in general was in Parma – his name is Ballestra. Want an the original brochure for the 410 Superamerica (one of my favourite Ferrari’s)? No problem. He has it.

He also had plenty of rare letters that Enzo Ferrari wrote and signed in his famous purple signature. Like the letter to Zagari who was a very famous photographer in the 1950s in Italy. This letter is dated 1958 and is considered very rare and collectable because it was Ferrari’s golden period of building cars.

Or how about rare photographs and letters to the head of Shell Italia with whom Ferrari did much business? Here the head of Shell Italia sits next to Enzo Ferrari at lunch (I presume it is Dr Fabietti – but am not 100% sure).

Parma is so much more than only watches. It was a pleasure to be back in Parma and I look forward to attending in March 2017!

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For our Parma visit earlier this year in March – see our report here.