A Great Interview with Industry Veteran Dr Helmut Crott
More than half a century of experience in the watch industry, as a brand owner, an auctioneer and a collector.
For seasoned collectors and long-time watch enthusiasts, the name Dr Helmut Crott will certainly sound familiar. But this discreet gentleman is a far cry from your typical flamboyant CEO or industry insider. Understated, humble but extremely knowledgeable. The kind of man that you can learn a lot from; a man with more than half a decade of experience in the watchmaking field, as a collector, an auctioneer, an author and even as the owner of a historical watch brand. You don’t get to hear this man often, but our friends at A Collected Man managed to spend a day with him, and the result in this inspiring interview.
Dr Helmut Crott is one of the most important actors of the modern watch industry, specifically on the collecting side. Over his 50-year career, he’s been a collector, he worked together with Patek Philippe to source some of the watches now exhibited at the Museum, he started an eponymous auction house focused on watches – Dr Crott Auctioneers, one of the most respected companies in this field – and has been the owner of the historical watch brand Urban Jürgensen. He also created one of the world’s largest and most detailed Patek Philippe databases. And he owned or consigned some of the most important watches of the 20th century (for instance, he owned two of the four Steel Patek 1518s… and one sold for $11 million recently). But when reading this interview, the most fascinating thing is discovering how low-key Dr Helmut Crott is…
You can read this great interview here, at acollectedman.com.
All photos by A Collected Man.