Epic Timepieces

August Mentor for Watches, Laurent Picciotto helps Augustman forecast the hot watches for 2023

- JONATHAN HO

FROM A HUMBLE Seiko automatic chronograph - a beautiful piece that still forms part of his collection - the legendary watch collector and November 2022 cover personality Laurent Picciotto would recall that seminal moment when his father took him to the "Les Temporelles" gallery on Place Vendôme in 1974. The 12-year-old was transfixed by "the Royal Oak my father chose. It had a futuristic air about it. It was the watch of the future."

In 1987, Picciotto finally jumped waist-deep into the industry, opening his own boutique; and 30 years on, that address has become one of the epicentres of the worldwide watchmaking galaxy: Chronopassion. That "boy" would also become one of the "Fs" at Max Busser & Friends and a foundational investor of stratospheric brand, Richard Mille.

Befriending these pioneering brands at the dawn of the millennium, Picciotto spotted and befriended them all and they have proven disruptive to the industry he so loved. Speaking to Phillips on the eve of the auction of his collection, he said, "Some were more artists than watchmakers, for some it was the other way round; but they were all gripped by the same obsession - bringing something new to the world of watchmaking, as I had done 10 years previously." Today, as August Mentor for Watches, he advises the next generation of Augustmen on the hot watches to look out for.

HYT Moon Runner