$1,000,000 Watch Collection Challenge with Kevin O'Leary
There are watch shopping trips. And then there is this.
I met up with Kevin O’Leary at The 1916 Company’s collector lounge in New York City with a simple idea: let’s build watch collections on camera. My original thought was a $250,000 budget.
Kevin immediately said no.
Instead, we each got $1,000,000 to spend.
What followed was one of the most entertaining watch conversations I’ve had. We approached it completely differently. Kevin treated it like he had just landed from Mars and had never owned a watch before. His goal was maximum diversification. No two dials alike. Big statements. Heavy hitters.
I took a more balanced approach. I wanted sport, complications, independents, and pieces I could actually imagine wearing regularly. That meant spending time with brands like Lange, Audemars Piguet, F.P. Journe, De Bethune and more. When you’re staring at six and seven figure watches, strategy starts to matter very quickly.
There were surprises. There were controversial picks. And yes, there was plenty of trash talk.
The best part of episodes like this is that there is no single right answer. Two collectors can walk into the same room, look at the same watches, and build completely different collections.
Watch the full video above and let me know who built the better $1 million collection.
