Curating the Collection #3 - Joshua Clare-Flagg

Feb 25, 2020

Welcome to our third Curating the Collection - a new regular feature for the VAPAUS blog and newsletter, where we interview our friends from the watch world.

In our third interview, we spoke with Joshua Clare-Flagg. Josh operates the affordable watch review website Watch It All About and the WatchIt! Watch Fair. The next WatchIt! Watch Fair is taking place in Rugby (UK) on the 27th June. We hope that you can come along, have a chat with us and have the pleasure of meeting Josh too! Anyway, let's get into it...

If you could only keep 3 watches from your collection, which 3 would you keep?

This is a difficult question, as I’ve always been a serial flipper. So until I get my grail watch (more on that below) there’s only a couple of watches that are safe.

Firstly, I am in love with my Christopher Ward Trident Mk3 40mm. I am very rarely in complete satisfaction with a watch, but this the one out of my entire collection which would be my “keeper”.

My other choice is a watch that belonged to my grandfather, who passed it to my father, who passed it on to me. It’s a “Baume” and is Swiss Made - but apart from that I’m not too clued up on it. As my dad and grandad are no longer with us, it has special meaning.

What's your biggest watch collecting regret?

One of my all-time favourite watches was my Christopher Ward C11 Chronograph. They don’t make them anymore, but the design was great, the build quality was brilliant, and the anti-reflective coating on the sapphire crystal blew my mind.

What's your grail watch?

My grail is nothing too out of the ordinary or “out-of-reach” - I’d love nothing more than an Omega Planet Ocean. My uncle has one, and for me it’s the perfect dive watch, nothing else comes close to it for me.

Given £3,000 (~$4000 / 3400 EUR) which new watch would you buy today?

As the Planet Ocean is over £3k, that’s out of the question. If I can only choose watches I’ve reviewed, then it would have to be the Brellum Pandial.