The Watches of a Watch Repair Shop Owner (Gruen, Rolex, Heuer, JLC, & More)

My name is Steve Cavell, I own a watch repair shop, and this is my watch collection. Steve, great to see you again. You too. I remember when we were just getting in together like seven years ago, you were sitting down and came through your shop, and it's been seven years to come back, but this time, instead of looking at Grand Central, we want to look at Steve as the collector. That's great. And the watches that you've amassed over the years, but for those that maybe aren't familiar with Grand Central Watch, tell us a little bit more about the company, what you do, because I think you have a really cool story, family-owned operation for multiple generations, I'd love to hear more. Sure. So my grandfather, Max Cavell, started the business in the 1950s, and my dad spent 60 years of his life there, and my wife works in the business, my mom has worked there, so it became a real family affair, but we had to expand beyond the family. We didn't train many watchmakers in my family, so we have a big staff, and the business really focuses on the service and the restoration of watches, as well as the resale of high-end and vintage watches. We also became a pretty large authenticator for a lot of big companies that need people to check watches, a lot of marketplaces will sell a watch, and then they need somebody to authenticate it before somebody takes ownership of that. So the business has actually expanded a lot in that area also. So with all those things said, that's why we have so many watchmaking benches now in the facility. And it was your grandfather that started the company, correct? It was. My grandfather, Max, and he was an immigrant, he came over from Belarus, and he was 16 years old, his first job, he made $5 a week, and then his boss didn't have enough money to pay him at the end of the week, so he'd borrow a dollar from him at the end of the week, but somehow it was enough to live, he'd go home and give it to my great-grandmother, she'd give him a quarter to be able to travel and get lunch the next day, and so on and so forth. So a quarter actually went somewhere in those days, I don't know. A little different now. I don't know what that would do nowadays. Maybe a gumball? Maybe not even. Maybe not even, I don't know, it depends which machine. Probably. I came here seven years ago to see your cool shop in Grand Central Terminal, which is really unique if people are ever stopping through, but you also have a very robust team of watchmakers here. Sure. What is it like as somebody that has this background in the watch industry, and you've seen so many cool pieces, I'm sure, for service, like, how has that influenced your way around collecting and things that you really aspire to want to have? Definitely. It's a great question, and I really regret not being born in a day and age where you could have been drawn in by all the information of what watches really mean. I understood Rolex, like everybody else, but I didn't understand the Omegas and some of the important pieces and some of the unique things that you'll even see here. So I definitely, you know, I've seen it all, I've been through all the generations. I was basically born there in the 1970s. I was in that store, and that was the start of the second-hand watch business. It almost started between my dad and my grandfather in that little space downstairs, so, yeah. So, Steve, let's start at the top right, because we all start somewhere with our collection. We have two watches here, seeing a lot of vibrant colors. When we were looking at some of the collection, I saw, like, a text get sent over, like, some of the watches. I heard Superman, so I'm thinking maybe it's a Yema Superman. No, we have an actual Superman watch and a Rams watch. Tell us more. That's correct, yep. 1970s pieces. I became a diehard Rams fan in 1980. I knew nothing about football. Quick story, two best friends. One was a Steelers fan, Rams fan. They played each other in the Super Bowl that year. And I was always an underdog guy, and sure enough, like this little watch, the Rams were a 13-and-a-half-point underdog, and they got their butt kicked in the second half. But I stayed with them the whole time, and over my right shoulder there is the Rams trophy of when they won the Super Bowl in 1990. I don't know what that's like as a Cleveland Browns fan. Yeah, no, I'm sorry. But I know it's true. I'm sorry, yes. Maybe you should have this. But this is a watch that my parents bought me. They knew I was a Rams fan, and as you can see, it looks like a kid's watch. I mean, it looks like a lady's watch, but this was a child's watch back in the day, and it happens to be mechanical, and it's got the old L.A. Rams helmet on there. Still running? Yeah, and it's still ticking. And I tell you, I haven't serviced this watch, I don't think, ever. Really? So that is pretty amazing that a kid's watch is still ticking. So that was the official first watch you ever had? I believe the Superman was the first. Superman was the first. Because remember, I didn't become a Rams fan until the 80s, but in the 70s, which is when this is from, it even says 1977 on the dial, that's, you know, I was born in 1970s. So somewhere between the early 70s and now, here, I mean, my dad gave me this one. This is the first watch I remember my dad giving me. So and then I found it, and then I still own it, because at one point, I couldn't find this watch for like 10 years, you know, and then I found it in a drawer in my mom's house and so on and so forth. What do you think about looking back to these watches now, seeing where your career has gone, but also your collecting has gone, when you look at those? Yeah, I mean, once again, it makes me think that I didn't know anything about collectability. I really just knew that I love Superman, it was like my first watch, I love the Rams. I still didn't bring it to this. This was my first step in watch collecting. This is a great story. I used to go to all the watch shows. And the shows were big shows where, you know, you'd go and a guy would have four or five million in a table. And those were like the national shows. But there were the little local shows, they were usually in Long Island or Westchester. And it was old guys with clocks. And then there was a handful of good dealers and a few sharks that showed up because they showed up everywhere. So if you didn't get to that show, it started at nine, if you didn't get there at 730, to buy in the parking lot, the good watch, the one or two good watch, there was nothing really to buy. So I showed up late and I go and I'm not going to be able to buy anything. And I'm walking around and like, like a light shining from the sky, there's this guy who I had never seen at the shows before. And he was a little quiet and a little shy, you could tell he was, you know, there was something about him. He just wasn't a talkative guy. And this watch is sitting in the middle of his showcase. And right away, I'm like, all right, it's fake. Well, what's wrong with it? Because how could every shark and everybody an hour and a half into the show not have picked this up? I pick it up. And once again, you see it's a meter's first dial. Look how it's aged. Beautiful. I didn't know from those things back then. I just knew it was a sub and I knew it was collectible. So I said to the guy, how much you want for this? He goes, first of all, it's my father's watch. I wasn't sure if I was going to sell it or not. I said, how much you want? He said, I want fifteen hundred. And I knew it was worth twenty five hundred or more. That much I knew. So like you can't help yourself at a show. You always have to go. I said, but we do thirteen hundred. Says I like you. I'll do it. Wow. And I bought this watch and I never thought about selling it. And that was really like when I started to learn and research and understand what this watch was. So this was really the gateway for a lot of your collecting. This was. And I was probably about twenty five years old at the time. It was probably like nineteen ninety five when I bought this watch. So you have a fifty five thirteen and then we have another sub here. You seem to like Submariner clearly. Then you have a sixteen eighty red sub as well. So tell us more about this one. Yeah. So this one honestly was my cousin's watch. He bought this and he would not give it up. And I didn't even think about asking him because he was also a sub guy. And then we had this this gentleman named Armand and he was the service manager for Rolex New York for twenty five years and then he retired. He became a physical therapist and then he started working with us. He would come by and whenever we needed something, we'd ask him, he'd bring it. And before you know it, he was working in the store with us and he was fixing watches for us. So he ended up completely restoring this watch for my cousin and even to him. And this was somebody who knew everything about a Rolex. He said this is probably one of the nicest examples, dial, everything just condition wise of this watch. But yes, so that's the story on that. And then finally, my cousin later in life, you know, decided money was more important to him than the watch. And he offered it to me first. He overcharged me, but I put it. You got to get a deal here and I couldn't do it. No, definitely. I paid for it on this one. Then next we have Hoyer, even Octavia, GMT, beautiful dial on this, like tropical dials is stunning. Yes, I think this is the nicest secondhand watch I've ever had in my hand. And this is another great story, a lot of good stories here. So this was a good customer of mine and he brings this to me. He's not a collecting guy in the way where he cares the value of the watch. He just likes something and he likes it to be matte finish. That's probably why he liked this, because you see it's a lot of matte. And he wanted the numbers to glow. So he gave this to me and he said, Steve, do me a favor, reloom all the dial in the hands. I was like, now maybe the kid in this point of his life would have understood. But I'm like, how could you do that? I said, look, let me do this for you. I have another one of these in my collection. I'm going to reloom the dial in hands. It obviously wasn't tropical. And I'll give you this. And I'll also, I think I gave him another watch or something. We did the deal together. And I saved its life because it would have been a shame to destroy something so beautiful like this. In fact, the books that were written, those famous Hoyer books, there were three of them. One was an Octavia book. This exact watch, not this one, but this watch was pictured in there, tropical like this. And you know, like I said, I mean, it's just, this is like a replica of that. And I couldn't imagine ever, you know, it'd be like sacrilegious doing that. Yeah, the condition's unbelievable for that. I mean, it's an absolutely beautiful piece. Yes. So next, this is, we talk about beautiful. We talk about something maybe a little different here. This kind of shows your personality. So I've never seen this watch before. Please tell us a little bit more about what this watch is all about. So in all of my life, I've never wanted a watch more. And that is the honest truth. And how is that? How is it possible? It's an LED. It doesn't even have a name. You know, LED meaning it had the old 70s red display. It's got like a Pulsar type of vibe to it, yeah. But this was my dad's watch, which is fine, right? My dad had a lot of watches. Sure, yes. He still has a lot of watches. But as a kid, I had to have this watch. And why? Because they call this a bar watch. So when you'd be out at a bar and a girl would ask you what time it was, you'd hit the button. It would be the time, the date. And then it would say, let's f**k. So I know you might have to bleep that. I don't know. Although, is this like cable YouTube? But you know, it was such a way to go out and just to make somebody laugh, I guess. Or get that conversation going with the girl. This probably didn't work out that well, did it? I mean, I got slapped twice, you know. That's pretty good. That's not too bad. No, in all fairness, I didn't get this till my 50th birthday. When I turned 50, this was what my father, he didn't give me a Patek, he didn't give me a Rolex. He boxed this up and gave it to me. And you know what? I couldn't have been happier. I can only imagine your dad just saying, hey Stevie, check this out when you were younger. Maybe one day. Every time I came to the store, I'm like, Dad, can I see the watch? Can I see it? And he didn't even have to ask which watch. This was the watch. That's amazing. So that's why. It's more important to me than almost all of these others. In the first time in this channel, I'm going to segue from a let's watch to a minute repeater. How about that? I love it. Tell us more about this. Well, this is just, I always wanted a Jaeger and you know, when this came to me to own a minute repeater, first of all, especially in these days, I've had this a long time, was definitely out of my price range, but for some reason, this one was always very reasonable. And I think only up into recent times where I see these going for, for more and more money, like I think they've actually almost doubled since about five years ago. And there were only 500 pieces made. And what's cool when the repeaters running here, I didn't wind any of these up. When you wind this up and the repeaters running, this is going to spin here, this little circle and it has this really nice slide to come down. So it wasn't flashy. You'd walk into a room. You probably would never know you're wearing a minute repeater, but that's what I love about it. I'm not, as you could tell from the collection, there's not a lot of gold pieces here. I'm not a flashy guy. So that's why, you know, if I was ever going to own a minute repeater, it was either going to be this or there's this stunning Vacheron. I think it's getting the reference and I think it's from like the fifties and has these big Breguet numbers. And it's also, if you didn't look closely, you would never know it was a minute repeater. It's got this little lever. So between the two, I know this was the one at the time that I was able to afford. Yes. You know, some watches you come across has got a hidden secret of a little sign like this. Other ones that might have a minute repeater. That's correct. But you know what? You know, this cheap $5 watch says it out loud. What you may want to say to somebody, this one probably just does it with the minute repeater. Yeah. There you go. Different ways to go about it. Absolutely. So this next watch here, we're going back to Rolex, but we have a Datejust here, Buckwheat dial. And this is one of the most beautiful Datejust I've ever seen. Yes. And what do you call on this dial color? Okay. So would never have known the name and every single dealer or anyone I've ever spoken to, they had no idea. There was a catalog that at one point it featured this dial, a Buckwheat dial, they didn't call it that at the time. They featured an Emerald green, a Rolex green with white numbers. There was blue and a couple other colors on there. But the gentleman who was the service manager of Rolex, the second I showed this to him, he knew right away. He goes, Oh, this is a perch dial. I said, what? He said, it's a perch. That's the name from Rolex. And floating around all my travels, all my watches, all my shows, I've only seen one other one. It's a gentleman named Carl. He's pretty well known in the industry. He owns one, but it's in a gold case. And I offered to buy it from him a hundred times. He said, no, a hundred and one times. And I'm more than happy to have this one. But you see it's in a 16014 and it has the white gold bezel on there. Never polished. Also, just a pristine example of that watch. And if you look closely and angle it, it's not a flat pink. It looks like a striated type of like long streak dial on it. Yeah. It almost looks like a wood texture on the dial. So that's why. But the story on this one, I had another really good customer and, you know, he came looking for something and my cousin, Stanley, who had bought this watch and I fell in love with it. He brought it to the store. I said, Stanley, I want to buy this. He said, you know, because we butted heads. I was the young kid and he was my dad's first cousin. They were the same age and they were like best friends. So whenever I wanted something for myself, he always said no. So he brought it. I said, I got to have this watch. He said, nope, we're selling it in the store. So I ended up selling it to a good customer of mine. And for years, this customer would come back and I'd always ask him how the watch was doing because he knew I loved it. I told him I wanted to keep it, but I'm happy he's buying it. And maybe 15 years later, he comes and he says, Steve, I want to sell a few watches back to you. I want to reduce the collection. I said, oh my God, you know, like I'm foaming at the mouth. This is my moment. He pulls out the first one. It's like a steel heir king. And then he pulls an Omega out and the last one, I'm literally going to about to fall over the counter. And he pulls this out. And I said, OK, I think I'm interested, you know, I think I'll buy these three. And I don't even remember what I paid, more than he paid for sure. But once I got it back, I'm like, I am never, ever letting this go again. My kids will inherit this one day. Maybe my favorite watch on the table to be honest with you so far, well outside of this, you know, bad boy watch. Obviously. That's a given. That's the story. That's amazing. Now, 1016. You seem to like 1016. You got a beautiful tropical dial on your wrist. Yes. But this one comes with a story. That comes with a story. It's a sad story. I had a very good customer, Charlie, and, you know, unfortunately he passed away, you know, too young. Really nice guy. And I became friendly with his wife and she sold me a few of his watches. But one, I promised her and I said, I'm keeping one for myself because, you know, like I said, he was important to me. Anytime he came, he always took time to tell me about his life and so on and so forth. So that's why I have this one. It happens to be a beautiful example of a 1016. So I would have had it without the story. I would love to have a watch like this in my collection. But you know, these are a little more common. The one on my wrist, because it's a gilt dial and it's tropical, is obviously more valuable. But this is more valuable to me because of the story. What do you think about just when you're able to have these watches that were previous customers and people you've built relationships with? When you look down on these watches, what do you think? You're almost like a custodian to these people in a way. I think about all of them. I think about, you know, my cousin Stanley. I think about Armand, the guy that probably helped build this place upstairs because without his tutelage and his knowledge and always guiding me and like how to run a shop, how to build a shop, I never would have been able to be here. I think of Charlie. You know, I think of my dad. I think a lot more of my dad. You know, I think about just, you know, the rarity of something to see, you know, such an iconic watch, the Buckley dial. But to see the only time you've ever seen this version of it, you know, makes me, you know, think even of John Buckley sometimes and, you know, icons in the industry and people that you've heard their names. And like I said, I'm doing this since basically 1990 that I'm working in the watch business full time. So, so many different people have come into my life and having all of this always gives me a reminder of all of them. Yeah, that's fantastic. Yeah. So, this over here, we have a little bit more of an eccentric piece here. So, as a guy from Ohio, a brand that was founded in Cincinnati, you got a Gruen Jump Hour. Yes. This is awesome. I love this watch. I'm going to let you do it. Oh, please. I'm going to let you do it. So, basically, those at home, take a look at all those hour markers. And as you advance past 12 o'clock, so we have the standard traditional 1 through 12 that will appear. Watch all those geometric housed markers, boom, boom, and bam, slaps forward and you get the 13 to 24 scale. So it gives you that full 24-hour view and will snap every 12 hours. And a watch you would never think of it. Like you look at it, it's such a simple watch. It's a gold-plated case. But look how cool, like the lollipop hand on it and just the diamond-shaped hour markers with the other circular shapes. There is so much design going into that watch that the second I saw this in this condition, I was at a watch show. It reminded me of my childhood, being in the store in the 70s, like the 80s or whenever this was. Because this watch was always there. For some reason, we always had one of these for sale. It was around. It's not around anymore, but it was. And that was one of my favorite things to do, was get that jump. It was cool. And I don't know. So that also reminds me of my childhood and that's why I had to have it in my collection. And the fact that you told me, you know, Ohio, this, it had to be on the table. I mean, it definitely took precedence over some pretty other cool watches that I had. That beat out a 6542. Correct? Yeah, but it's all about the story. And I think it's not about how much money you spend on things, clearly. That's not what this is about. Correct. We're looking at Rams watches, Superman, lots of f***ing grueling, you know? I love it. So we're all over the map. But all that seemed to go together. Football and that. Yeah, it does. And then Steve, to finish off here, we have two Speedmasters, something more in a familiar form with the Ed Whites, but then we have something very special, cool story behind it at the far left. So maybe we start here with a more familiar face. Sure. And then move our way over. So the Ed White, you know, was the first American to walk in space. So it's a very iconic watch that was on his wrist while he was doing that. The watch, actually, this model, the 105-003-63, this was introduced in 1963. That's what the dash 63 was. The one that Ed White wore was the dash 65, but this is the earliest version of that watch. You can see it's just the two lines, Omega Speedmaster written on the dial. Really mint example, almost perfect bezel, dot over the nine, you know, original pushers, original crown, original bracelet to the watch, the correct bracelet. So 321 as well? 321, absolutely. Yep. 321 is one of my favorite movements, definitely my favorite chronograph movement of all times. And, you know, it was a workhorse for Omega. And it's just, you know, there's not a great story here. I just kind of a little bit of a grail watch for me to have in my collection because I always loved space. I don't geek out over it, but it interests me a lot. So I figured to have something like this, you know, was definitely a good one to have in the collection. The other Omega is a little more interesting. Yeah. So we always think about the Speedmaster as being affiliated with space, but it was a racing watch first when it was first developed with a tachymeter scale and exterior bezel. And this is a watch that clearly reminds us of that original intended purpose, but something with an affiliation to somebody else that is famous in the world of watches. Well, maybe. You might've heard of him. This guy is Paul Newman. You've heard of him? So usually there's a big affiliation with this other watch company, this Rolex watch company with that name. But people probably didn't know that Paul Newman fell in love with racing when he did the movie Winning. And he started his own racing team. He raced the Le Mans 24 hour, he placed second. And then in the 80s, he started a racing team with Carl Haas. And in 1997, one of their drivers, Michael Andretti, actually was, became an ambassador of Omega. And they produced a line of these watches. And you could have bought this. This was sold to the public. But Paul Newman separately bought 20 pieces directly from Omega, never went through a dealership. And he engraved the back of them, Newman Haas Racing, as you could see here, and the date 1997. These were given out to his, you know, to his whole team, the whole racing team got one of these. They were all, they all came with handwritten cards and everything. So you wouldn't know, like, I happened to have bought this watch in an auction, like an open auction, a smaller one. And there's this other guy that we always outbid each other, but we're kind of friendly. So sometimes he'll be like, back off here, back off there. So whoever is the next guy to back off, you kind of have to back off. And it was my turn and this came up. So I don't think he knew, you know, what it was. I mean, I did a little research and did, but I said, back off, I'll take this one. And that's how he ended up with this. But this came with the whole packaging, you know, the tire that pulls apart and inside you see the watch lays inside there and it has all its paperwork and everything. So just to be anything affiliated with Paul Newman is pretty cool. Oh, it's the Speedmaster affiliated with Paul Newman. Right. And with this blue dial, you know, with the, with the racing on here, with the attachment to Michael Andretti, you know, it's, I just think it's something that I'll probably never sell. This is also the original strap with the original buckle on here. So definitely another very cool watch, very unusual watch to have in the collection being that there's only 20 pieces that are made. Steve, thank you so much for this. I mean, this is a perspective into a unique lens in the industry because you've seen so many watches over the years. You've been running this company, you've been operating this as a family operation for a long time. And that's why I really asked that question around, how is this all influenced your collecting? And it clearly has. And you've built connections with people, you've built connections with brands. And I think what you've been able to amass as a small part of your collection as well, like this is just scratching the surface, but some ones that are very special to you. I mean, I really appreciate you taking the time to do this. You know, I appreciate it. And you'll have to come back again. I always enjoy doing this with you. But you have to wear a different watch next time you come here. Yeah. So I came here seven years ago. I was wearing a Nomos Orion. I want to use that. No, it's really, I have like 40 something watches probably, and I'm wearing this. I mean, I do have an event today, so I got to wear a Nomos. But it's a weird coincidence. But I'll tell you, if you have to buy a watch in Grand Central Terminal, there's this great watch place called Grand Central Watch. Come down and we'll fit you up. Maybe we go downstairs and figure that out. Good idea. Steve, thank you again, man. Yeah, this was a real pleasure as usual. Thank you.