Introduction.
We aren’t just watch dealers — we are lovers and collectors first.
Our founder has loved watches since the age of 10, when his grandfather gave him his first watch: a stainless-steel, solar-powered Casio. His grandfather also owned several Omega and Longines watches, along with his father’s old military watch. From a young age, our founder adored these watches and the stories behind them, spending years admiring them and developing a genuine appreciation for watches. Eventually, these watches were passed down and became part of his personal collection. That heritage is at the heart of who we are today.
Where did we first start dealing?
Our origins in watch dealing began at the age of 15, buying watches from local charity shops. Timex, Seiko, Longines, and whatever else we could get our hands on. Becoming a respected watch dealer takes time. Our founder then worked in luxury restaurants for a while before going full-time into the watch industry. In these restaurants and hotels, he spoke with the customers daily about watches and would hand out business cards to them. After being fired from 3 jobs for ( handing out business cards ) and told by his parents that he should give up on this crazy dream to sell expensive watches, he decided that he would try one last time to get into the luxury side of the watch market and, with a sprinkle of luck and good timing, he sold his first Rolex, a 126334 with a white dial.
It takes years of experience, knowledge, trust, and relationships to work your way up in the industry. We did it the right way. We took our time, nurtured our knowledge, built genuine relationships with customers, and focused on learning rather than rushing to the top.
We didn’t force it. We let it happen naturally. Today, that same passion, knowledge, and love for horology continues to drive everything we do.
How do we build relationships and trust with our customers?
At Foster & Sohne, we are very lucky to have some incredible customers who trust us and our knowledge. Because of this, our customers often recommend us to their friends and family, which means a lot to us.
We regularly stay in touch with our customers, not just for the purpose of buying or selling watches, but simply because we enjoy talking about watches. Hearing our customers view on the market and sharing our own with them is something we really value.
It’s very personal, and that’s the kind of business we have created here at Foster & Sohne — a very personal and interactive business, which was really the aim from the beginning.
For our close customers, we help them during acquisitions when they’re buying from private collections or from friends who are looking to sell. We assist with our thoughts on pricing, condition, and whether the watch is a good overall purchase, depending on the brand and model.
Being this personal with our customers and helping them navigate a marketplace that can be quite brutal without the right help is what makes us so valuable to have on your side.
Are we crazy for watches?
The world of watches is vast and wide, with so many complications, references, case sizes and so much more. It really does take an expert to know and understand it all. If you’re someone who wants to understand it all, you have to be a little bit mad about watches — almost to the point of insanity. And that’s certainly the case for us here at Foster & Sohne. We are, without a doubt, obsessed with watches, both vintage and modern. We have a particular focus on vintage Patek Philippe and vintage watches in general, but that’s not to say we don’t have our fingers in the modern watch market too.
What do we like, and what do we collect?
When it comes to watch collecting, most of our clients specialise in a specific era or reference — and so do we. As collectors ourselves, we naturally have our own preferences when it comes to what we collect.
We tend to gravitate towards vintage double-register chronographs from the 1940s and ’50s. Alongside these, we have a real lust for vintage Patek Philippe perpetual calendars, such as the 1518, 2499, 5004 and 3448 — the usual suspects from that golden era of watchmaking.
We’re so obsessed with Patek Philippe that we constantly monitor auction results, read books and literature, and pretty much anything that gives us access to knowledge about Patek Philippe.