What happens when two very different men—American-born interior designer Eric Egan and Italian software executive Roberto Strada—meet in their early 30s while both pursuing an MBA and discover a shared passion for classic luxury watches? The answer is a stroke of collaborative genius: They elect to pool their timepieces and share the joint collection across both time and place.
With lives and careers that overlap in Milan but then spread far from each other to Africa, Asia, South America, and the U.S. and holiday tastes that vary profoundly (winter finds Egan escaping to Uruguay, while Strada heads to the Alps), the longtime friends plan hand-offs with diplomatic and logistical finesse. And the arrangement is greater than the sum of its parts. “Of course, we had the opportunity to increase the number of watches we each could wear,” Strada says, “but we found out that having something belonging to the other had meaning because we are good friends.” And even though Egan teases Strada about who is scratching up which watch, the connections that encircle the wrists of the pair are evident. “When we are wearing one of these watches,” Strada says, “we are carrying a piece of the story of the other person.” On these pages, a journey across continents with some of their favorites.
The New York Minute, Mastered
Talk about love at first sight. Egan was taking his customary August trip to New York and walking to a job site on the Upper East Side when he spotted the watch that has since reigned as his New York go-to. “There are these little storefronts on Lexington Avenue that sell estate jewelry,” he says, “and one at the corner of 82nd Street had a watch in the window. I walked in. I bought it.” The vintage Rolex GMT-Master I “Pepsi” (so nicknamed in Rolex tradition for the blue and red of its bezel) is ideal, he says, for his annual summer forays that bounce between the city and the Hamptons. “It’s a really versatile watch,” he says. “I wear it everywhere there.”
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Power Meetings in Cairo
For Strada, what he fastens to his wrist transcends an aesthetic assertion. Rather, it brings him peace, confidence, and even a sense of power. When traveling to Cairo (a favorite city of his for its richness of antiquities) for work, Strada packs his IWC Pilot’s Watch Chronograph, a cherished university graduation gift from his parents. “It’s called the Pilot Engineer,” he notes, which not only hearkens back to his university training in aerospace engineering but also puts him right at home in sessions with the Cairo team’s engineers. “It’s big, black, and very technical,” he says. “In Egypt, I can really match my style, my work, and my watch.”
Alpine Slopes, Peak Style
Unlike Egan who escapes during the Milan winter to warm climates, Strada heads to the snow-covered Alps and their famed resort towns, including St. Moritz in Switzerland and Kronplatz and Madonna di Campiglio in Italy. Here, he takes the black Rolex Submariner, originally Egan’s and “a very tough watch,” Strada says, nodding to the Submariner’s history as the first wristwatch designed for divers (waterproof and able to withstand substantial undersea pressure). To be sure, Alpine peaks differ from conditions in the deep sea, but that rugged sensibility confers a confidence ideal for sporting. And while he can’t see the watch underneath his skiwear, a sunny day rest stop to take in the view gives him a chance to take a look and check the time. “That’s how I know when it’s time to return to skiing,” he jokes.
Essential Hong Kong Couture
“We work a lot in Hong Kong,” says Egan, who loves wearing his steel Bulgari-Bulgari watch there. “Bulgari watches have always been a guilty pleasure for me,” confesses the designer, who calls his Bulgari-Bulgari with the original design of the steel bracelet from 1977 a “real icon of modernist design” underrated among collectors. “It’s so simple and pure and elegant. It hits the best of the 1970s,” making it the ideal companion for work and navigating the dense, fascinating, fashion-forward city. And you heard it here first: “I think Bulgari is having a renaissance,” he says. No matter the port of call.
Uruguay’s Deep Blue Abyss
“I bought it because I liked it,” Egan says of one of the few Rolexes that—perhaps because of its namesake blue face—originally languished on the market (although now out of production, it later doubled in value). But the white gold Rolex Submariner quickly became Egan’s favorite for his annual winter escape from Milan to Uruguay’s Punta del Este. “I really don’t wear it anywhere else,” he confesses. “It’s the color of a Smurf, a royal blue that looks goofy if you wear it in the city.” But in the seaside South American enclave, that same blue comes alive in the sun, Egan says. “You put on an Orlebar Brown bathing suit, linen shirt, and that watch, and off you go. You look like a million bucks.”
An Affair to Remember in Tokyo
Some love stories have a way of living far beyond those first magical moments. “Tokyo has a deep place in my past,” says Strada. It began 20 years ago with a cross-continental romance with a half-Italian, half-Japanese woman with family in Tokyo, where Strada visited frequently and spied a stunning white Patek Philippe Nautilus for sale. “But I didn’t buy it then,” he clarifies. And while the human love affair that led him there diminished, the horological one endured. “Fifteen years later, I found another one through my favorite dealer in Milan and bought it,” he says. Meanwhile, Strada’s attachment to Japan grew, and he continues to spend time there for work and holidays. So, he proposes, what better watch to bring with him than the very one that caught his eye here so long ago? “It’s a connection that’s ongoing,” he says.
Patek Philippe Nautilus 5711-1A
Pictured at Top: The Patek Philippe Nautilus, Rolex Cosmograph Daytona, and Rolex Sea-Dweller shown here will be on view at the New York Watch Auction at Phillips on June 9. Patek Philippe Nautilus 5711-1A (circa 2021), Rolex Cosmograph Daytona 116520 (circa 2003), and Rolex Sea-Dweller 1665 Double Red with Mark II dial (circa 1967), prices upon request; phillips.com. Private Collector’s Rolex GMT-Master I 16750 (circa 1987), courtesy of Phillips. Pilot’s Watch Chronograph Spitfire, $5,950; iwc.com
Featured in our May/June 2022 issue. Photography by Jeffrey Westbrook; Illustrations by Tug Rice; Produced by Rachael Burrow; Written by Tracey Minkin.
