What, This Old Thing?

Zoe Abelson grew up surrounded by luxury timepieces but she didn’t start collecting until she discovered the auction block

- Annie Darling

Zoe Abelson lives for vintage watches. The 31-year-old collector manages the Instagram account @watchgirloffduty and is a senior client adviser at WatchBox, an e-commerce platform that sells pre-owned luxury timepieces. She’s based in Hong Kong and has worked in an industry that’s dominated by men for almost a decade. “People ask me what it’s like being a woman who works with watches, but I thrive in masculine environments,” she tells me. “My mom said, ‘You’re going to find yourself a husband within the first week.’” Ten years later, and Abelson’s still single. “I’ve not met a single guy who I’d like to date from this industry,” she laughs. “At the end of the day, watch nerds are watch nerds!”

Abelson’s authenticity is refreshing and much-needed in a world that’s known for its formality and (dare I say?) snobbery. When we first meet, she’s drinking coffee in the lounge of Tatler House, Tatler’s clublike outpost in Hong Kong’s The Upper House hotel. She’s in a one-shoulder black top, which she wears with white linen trousers and a dragon-shaped leather belt that belongs to her mother. On her wrist is a vintage stainless-steel Jaeger-LeCoultre Grande Reverso Day & Night. “This is the first watch I bought for myself,” she says, “and I actually got it off Instagram.”