WORDS
Gemma Billington
The final Penthouse Conversations event at London City Island ended on a high note with a unique insight into the world of collecting. These are no ordinary ‘stamp or fossil’ collections, as Brummell’s own Peter Howarth – who chaired the conversation – pointed out, but rather luxury collections focused on three disciplines: watches, cars and rare books.
The three topics were represented by a trio of experts: watch writer Simon de Burton, motoring journalist and former Top Gear presenter Jason Barlow and Pom Harrington of London-based rare book specialist Peter Harrington.
‘Anyone here who is into cars is also into watches,’ commented de Burton, himself a keen motorist who currently owns 17 motorcycles and has owned between 250 and 300 over the years. Petrolhead and model Paul Sculfor, who was in the audience, nodded in agreement. Jason Barlow noted that the sky-high costs of maintaining and storing cars (some A-listers employ a full team of staff to keep their precious motors running) has led many to sell their collections and turn to watches as a way to indulge their passion ‘for something mechanical’.

Even simpler to store than watches are books. For delicate first-editions, Pom Harrington’s family business sells special “clam shells” that can protect precious cargo. Books may not seem as valuable as a prize Rolex or Ferrari, but a mint condition and sought-after first edition – especially if it has an inscription by the author – can fetch thousands, if not millions, at auction. Another bonus is that these items are rarely stolen because they’re nigh on impossible to re-sell (‘We all know each other in the industry’). Harrington regales the story of a woman who got in touch out of the blue some years ago to say that she found a copy of Frankenstein inscribed by Mary Shelley to Lord Byron on her bookshelf. A “unicorn” discovery if ever there was one. After initial scepticism on Harrington’s part, the book was verified and was purchased for around £300,000 but is worth close to £1m today.
The panellists discussed what it is that makes an item valuable. Rare and sought-after run in tandem. After all, there can only be a finite number of a particular item, and the scarcer it is, the more desired and therefore valuable it is. Then there’s the provenance of an item too. This is something all three disciplines have in common. Opticks by Isaac Newton is an incredibly valuable book, for example, but one owned by the man himself will sell for much more. It’s the same with cars and watches, too.

‘There are Mclaren F1 cars from the late 1980s that were raced by Ayrton Senna and there are collectors in Japan, China and the Middle East who will just want anything to do with Senna,’ commented Barlow. ‘The provenance of the driver and the race history are very important.’
De Burton tells the story of an incredibly valuable type of Rolex Daytona, which was made popular by actor and racing fanatic Paul Newman in the 1970s.
‘When Paul Newman made the film Winning he got into motor racing and took it up as a result,’ he explains. ‘His wife bought him a Rolex with an “exotic dial”, which actually wasn’t popular at the time. When the Italians started collecting watches in the 1980s they associated this particular dial with Newman and it became known as the “Paul Newman Dial”. Eventually Paul Newman’s “Paul Newman” came up for auction in 2017 – it was sold by his daughter – and Phillips put it up with an estimate of $1m dollars. It went for $17.7m in the end.’
All three disciplines are subject to trends, the panellists admit. Authors and titles go in and out of fashion (interestingly, George Orwell’s 1984 has boomed in popularity over the past five years, Harrington says), as do certain types of cars and watches. The landscape has also changed in recent years thanks to the internet opening up a whole new world of information. Each discipline has seen a younger generation of fans, which has also changed the dynamic. And while many people are keen to make savvy choices and tend to have an object of desire in mind; one that will make them their fortune, the panellists all agree that having a love for the item is key to your collection. After all, if you’re indifferent to your luxury watch or classic car or first-edition Moby Dick and only purchased it for profit, it will be a more hollow and less fulfilling experience.

‘Don’t be tempted to follow the crowd… buy something you really like,’ says de Burton. ‘If it doesn’t go up in value at least you’ve enjoyed wearing it. If you buy a watch because it’s what everyone else has got but you don’t like it – bearing in mind how much you look at it – you’ll probably be much happier with something that was less expensive, less common and the likelihood is that other people will discover it too, eventually.’
‘Ultimately what it all boils down to is enjoyment,’ agrees Barlow. ‘It irritates me when people get into this just to make money… whether it’s a £5m Ferrari or £4,000 Mazda, these are things that are designed to be used and enjoyed.’
Discover more about London City Island at londoncityisland.com