OFF THE BEATEN TRACK

In a short time of four years, New York-based Jaclyn Li has built a collection of heavyweight timepieces that goes beyond the usual suspects and highlights her love for exceptional watchmaking

- Chitra Lohani Saharan

It was October last year that 25-year-old Jaclyn Li started her career in the watch industry, as a consultant for auction house Phillips, just three months after graduating from college. The appointment was both ideal and fortuitous, given that Li already had a deep affection for watches, developed over a relatively short period of time. A collector for only four years now, Li's watch box boasts an impressive clutch of watches put together adeptly, and with a discerning eye, including vintage Patek Philippes, independent watchmakers E.P. Journe, Kari Voutilainen, and Moritz Grossmann, a host of collectible Cartiers like the Crash, London, Tank, Baignoire, and Cintreé, Richard Mille, Audemars Piguet, Breguet, and more.

Li's interest in watches began during college when she was searching for something to gift her mother on her 50th birthday-she eventually settled on the Patek Annual Calendar Ref. 4947 with a 'linen' dial. And with it, Li was hooked. "I had never bought anything that expensive," she recalls. At the time, Li only had one watch, a Rolex Yacht-Master II, a high school graduation gift from her parents. So, she started an Instagram account to research watches and reached out to prolific watch collector Roni Madhvani, who kindly responded to her enquiries.

Li only kept delving further from there, and through another Instagram account @a.dose.of.time, started to document her watch-collecting journey-the account currently has a following of over 24K. Today, she has a collection of 30 to 40 pieces, though the Rolex Yacht-Master II doesn't figure in it anymore. "In late 2019, I was diving into the rabbit hole of F.P. Journe, and I really wanted to have one for myself, so I had to trade the Rolex for it," she says.