Issue link: https://www.balharbourdigital.com/i/468853
"Being a good boy from Zurich, IWC Schaffhausen was my first horological love. A good Swiss German when he's 18 or 20 always thinks IWC before thinking of any of those unpronounceable French names," Bacs laughs. The Portuguese and the military lines are both standouts, he believes. IWC Portugieser Annual Calendar 82 BAL HARBOUR Timepiece experts Aurel Bacs and Livia Russo are the husband-and-wife team at the helm of Phillips' new watch department. BACS' BEST BUYS Aurel Bacs shares a few of his favorite timepieces. "Hublot is one of the most incredible success stories of the last 20 years," Bacs says. "Jean-Claude Biver is a genius who carved out his own niche while picking up the sort of lifestyle that the Royal Oak projects—but making it decades younger." Hublot Big Bang Ferrari 305 Titanium Officine Panerai's heritage makes Bacs swoon. "What is cooler than a company that can say it made watches for frogmen in World War II?" he says. "It's James Bond— real 007 magic. He also singles out the signature dial, with its bold design, as "hard to match." Panerai Luminor 1950 3 Days Chrono Flyback Automatic Ceramica the worst caviar. We want to focus on the high-end—that doesn't just mean the highest value, though. To me, a simple time-only watch in perfect condition worth $10,000 is high-end, whereas a gold perpetual calendar in poor condition with a poor restoration and dodgy provenance worth $50,000 is not." Debonair and effortlessly charming, Bacs is a potent force in the watch world alongside his equally sophisticated wife. "We never really know where our professional life ends and our personal life starts," he admits. "I am much more chaotic, she is more analytical. I'm an improviser, she's a planner. I'm more technical, she's much more aesthetic. What we share is a passion for watches." That isn't their only shared value, at least according to watch collector and president of Ivanka Trump Fine Jewelry, Geoffrey Hess. Respect for the pair among timepiece collectors is unparalleled. Hess believes that the proliferation of collectors and auctions has muddied credibility in the industry with photos online or in catalogs doctored to improve the quality of a timepiece. "The watch that shows up on the screen is very different from the one you're holding in person," he complains. Bacs and Russo, Hess notes, act like a "a Good Housekeeping seal of approval. I would have no qualms with calling Aurel and asking, 'Am I safe to buy that?' If he told me yes, I would be 100 percent comfortable and confident. In my view, he represents the best of everything." "Audemars Piguet is one of my absolute favorites," Bacs says. He's on a mission to find a hand-selected group of quality pieces for the brand's small but devoted group of collectors. "Everyone thinks Audemars equals Royal Oak, but I think of repeaters, chronographs and calendar watches from the 1930s, '40s or '50s. In my view, they're still very undervalued." Audemars Piguet 2014 Millenary Quadriennium