Inside the Biggest Vintage Piaget Watch Collection in North America
The market data makes clear that small watches have been hot for a hot minute, that dress watches are now definitively in vogue around the world, and that Cartier watches have long been going up in price. Now small Piaget dress watches with stone dials and integrated jewelry bracelets are—at least in the style-bubble of New York City—at the bleeding edge of a nostalgia-fueled horological craze.
Maybe we could have seen this coming. Cartier sustains its popularity effortlessly, and the tiny little Tank Mini the brand dropped on Watches & Wonders this year made an outsized splash. And maybe when Piaget dropped the Polo 79 to much acclaim last year we could have understood that it’d have been wise to book a flight to Italy and start snatching up the luxurious horological detritus of the dolce vita.
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That’s exactly what Manhattan-based watch dealer Gai Gohari has been doing for many years, and he has amassed the largest vintage Piaget collection we’ve ever seen. Beholding it in person is legitimately overwhelming for those of us sensitive to horological beauty.
We recently presented a complete history of Piaget watchmaking, and we also spoke with James Lamdin of Analog:Shift and Eric Wind of Wind Vintage about collecting vintage Piaget, picking up important information along the way. But when we sat down with Gai Gohari and his wealth of Piaget watches, we went beyond data, trends, pro tips, and other intellectual pursuits and instead felt the watches travel the neural freeway to the pleasure centers of our brains. This brought not just enjoyment, but joy. So did Gohari’s enthusiasm for vintage Piaget watches.
When asked why he got into vintage Piaget, Gohari explains that he grew up in Milan, Italy, during the 1980s and that these watches now feel nostalgic, making him feel, “all cozy.“ He describes his parents as fashionable people who lived the good life. Recalling a photograph of them at Cannes, Gohari says Dad was wearing Porsche Design aviator sunglasses with a white suit while Mom was slinging a Chanel handbag. Gohari’s grandparents emigrated to Milan during the 1950s from Mashad, Iran, to take advantage of the booming Italian economy as dealers of rare stones. (The Jewish surname “Gohari” means “gold seller.”) Why it’s specifically stone-dial Piaget watches that bring a warm nostalgia to Gohari becomes obvious in light of his family’s story.
“I always found them fascinating,” he says of the timepieces. “But I wasn’t ready, because it takes a certain amount of, let’s call them balls, to invest in stuff that the market didn’t want.” Gohari explains that eventually dealers and collectors alike were priced out of the Patek Philippe Nautilus, Audemars Piguet Royal Oaks, and even most Rolex sports models. “I found incredible value in these [Piaget stone dial watches],” he says. “I mean, you have a super funky watch: gold, mechanical, all in-house, made from A to Z with a stone dial, totally unique, for like, at the time, $2,000 to $2,500.”
Gohari sources most of his Piaget watches in Italy. Having seen my share of amazing vintage pieces in Florence and Milan, I press Gohari on this topic. He explains, “Most vintage watches can be found in Italy because there was a collector mentality. Italians always save that money to buy that special watch for the special occasion . . . [and] . . . all those watches remain within the families. And now there’s a lot of stuff to be picked up from the estates.” Gohari explains that these watches are not the popular sports watches people have gone crazy for in recent years, and so a lot of Piaget as well as Patek Philippe and Vacheron Constantin dress watches can be found. He also tells us he sees a similar trend in Hong Kong and Japan, both countries that, like Italy, boomed after World War II. ”It’s interesting, the duality of Italy and Hong Kong for these watches in my niche,” he says.
Gohari also notes that Italy and Hong Kong are full of stone-dial Piagets from the 1960s and ‘70s, but it is in America that he finds the solid gold Polos of the 1980s “because it’s a part of the culture of the ‘80s opulence . . . the cocaine cowboy look.”
When asked why Piaget created stone dial watches, Gohari says, “Swiss horology in the ‘70s was having a terrible moment because of the Quartz Crisis, because the Japanese started making quartz watches. So Piaget decided, ‘We’re going to do something that nobody can do.’ They start using stone dials, which takes a high grade of skill to set in a watch, because it probably will crack. So, with their jewelry know-how and their craftsmanship, they started doing incredible bracelet work, incredible dials, diamond setting, etc., to set themselves apart in the market.”
Even a passing glance at the watches in Gohari’s collection makes this point abundantly clear. Of course, Patek Philippe, Audemars Piguet, and even Vacheron Constantin and Rolex hopped on the stone-dial bandwagon eventually, but Piaget was far ahead and, overall, more inventive with design-forward watches. And the formula worked for Piaget. While the Swiss industry was falling apart in the 1970s, Gohari points out that Piaget was profiting enough to purchase the Heuer watch corporation, which Piaget flipped at a profit to TAG in the 1980s.
As for the vintage Piaget market today, Gohai tells us that it’s finally appreciated, but he hopes that it doesn’t blow up too much “because then we’re back to square one, like nobody can buy the watch, nobody can sell the watch. So I hope it always stays within reason and at an attractive price, because that is the strength of this brand today, that you have phenomenal watches in precious metal with the unrepeatable gold finish, with the stone dial for an interesting price.” If something gets too popular, he notes, “the fun goes out. We’ll have to find . . . a new thing. I hope not. If it’s too expensive, it’s done. If there is still room for the next ride, you’re happy. I’m happy. The next guy is also happy, and we keep the thing going.”
Most of the watches pictured are part of Gohari’s private collection, but a selection of the timepieces are for sale. You can learn more here.
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