![]() Lange & Söhne Pour le Mérite Tourbillon, which was a watch that had also piqued my interest. After I expressed interest in the Omega Speedmaster Alaska III, Gabe discretely told me he was eyeing the A. (The watch sold for USD17.8 million.) We were sat next to each other and I immediately clocked the Greubel Forsey Double Tourbillon worn on a red rubber strap on his substantial wrist, which I would later learn allowed him to keep this timepiece on during his regular visits to the gym.Īuctions are where you inevitably strike up conversations and talk inevitably turned to the watches we had homed in on. ![]() Gabe and I met each other at the 2017 Phillips auction in New York, where the horological universe witnessed the full-force unrestrained bidding war of the Paul Newman Daytona belonging to the eponymous actor and which broke all past watch auction records. Fireworks went off and I instinctively grabbed her and pulled her to the ground.” I remember being on a date with my wife in Geneva. Excelling in basic training, Benador was seconded to the Paratroopers where he saw active duty for several years.īenador recalls, “It was strange to come back to civilian life afterwards. In his early 20s, Benador felt the calling to ditch a life of privilege in Manhattan and volunteer for military service in the Israeli Defense Force. Benador grew up in New York with the occasional sojourn to Switzerland, where his family is deeply entrenched in the Swiss watchmaking business. This is fairly common crypto behavior in which a team “retools” and relaunches.If Ahmed “Shary” Rahman is one of the kindest people I know, Gabriel Benador is without a doubt one of the coolest and most modest. ![]() Because there is little “crime” here - taking money for crowdfunding opportunities is not illegal and there was no associated equity sold for the $2K membership - it looks like the crew couldn’t raise enough and were forced to close their potentially expensive shop. The lads were in over their heads, were’t able to sell enough subscriptions, and probably closed their shop to avoid paying rent. In my opinion, this seems less like an exit scam than a rug pull. Since the YouTube site is still up it seems they succeeded but may have just cancelled themselves to reduce potential litigation for the $2K scam. The real goal, as evidenced by their hour long videos, was to create some sort of original content about guys who sell watches. It’s unclear how many people jumped at the chance to pay $2,000 to belong to a Facebook but apparently it was enough (or not enough) to convince the group to pull up stakes. Their goal was to raise $2 million for a new store by selling $2,000 “VIP memberships” to a Facebook group that offers “authentication services, appraisals, and watch deal pricing help.” Basically it was supposed to be a flash sale and media arm for a watch store. The plan, at least according to screenshots of their Instagram page, suggests a cross between equity crowdfunding and product subscription. ![]() All of their sales sites, including a Chrono24 page formerly at, are also down. ![]() Anthony Farrer, one of the founders, was a self-admitted felon who spent time in jail and based his entire business on one watch sale. In their YouTube videos they spend thousands of dollars on shitty meat as Salt Bae, putting Rolex on blast, and generally trying to mimic the success of other well-known ‘Tube bros like the Paul brothers. The company’s MO was apparently to pretend to have a lot of money and watches. Only 1,000 lucky followers would be able to become ‘partners’ of the empire the Timepiece Gentleman was building ‘at their investors dime.’ The group allegedly also has a set of watches consigned by customers who wanted to sell through their service.Īfter becoming a social media sensation with more than 40,000 followers on Instagram and over 110,000 subscribers on YouTube, this Dallas-based grey watch dealer seems to have vanished into thin air with millions of dollars in consignment inventory as well as the hard-earned money from hundreds if not a thousand of individuals that pitched in $2,000 USD each in exchange for being able to buy watches at wholesale prices at the new Timepiece Gentleman store that was supposed to open after raising $2 Million dollars via Instagram. The group’s SquareSpace website is down and according to WatchCollectingLifestyle the company’s Dallas office is shut and the gilt naming on the front window has been scratched away. A website, store, and YouTube group called the Timepiece Gentleman has shut down after taking in $2,000 in cash from hundreds of collectors who were promised access to buy Rolex watches at “wholesale” prices. ![]()
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