Vintage Watch Dealer Mike Nouveau Shares His ROLEX, CARTIER, OMEGA, and More!

Hey y'all, it's Thomas Hendricks with Chrono24 in New York City, and today we are joined by special guest Mike Nouveau. Mike got his start as a DJ, the fashion world's go-to DJ, but he is best known as a vintage watch dealer for Kraft & Taylor, and as the vintage watch guy, I'll say it on TikTok. He has over 200,000 followers and counting, his videos are knowledgeable, passionate, very honest, and he's got great taste in watches as you'll see as well. Mike, thanks for coming through, man. Thanks for having me, Thomas. So we got a lot to get to today. When I joined TikTok, you were the first person I started following. A lot of your videos start the same way, which is, what are you wearing on the wrist? So I guess, what better way to start? Okay, yep. I'm wearing my, this is my daily driver. This is my Rolex 1675 from 1967. It's got the long e-dial for the nerds watching. It's got the fuchsia insert. There's a lot of, I see people calling all different fades fuchsia. Really, there's only one fuchsia. There's no kind of mistaking it. There's no maybe fuchsia. From the factory, you would have known that this is what we call a fuchsia insert, and that's obviously just a collector's term. It's not a term Rolex used. Basically, this was my first watch, really, ever. I didn't have watches growing up. My parents, no one in my family had watches, and my interest in men's fashion was also, was like a little bit niche, I'd say. And there was someone that I knew through that scene. He said, you should check out like vintage Rolex because they're very interesting. It's kind of, there's a parallel between like these rare designers we were into, you know, finding something that's all correct, finding something in good condition. This is not the typical like starter watch for someone who like just getting into the game. Right. Yes. And I'm learning that way more now because people ask me every day, what's your favorite watch under $100, under $500? I say, man, sorry, but I don't, I might sound like a snob, but this was my first watch ever. So I didn't start with Seiko. I didn't start with Casio or anything like that. This is where I started. And when I got it, it was much cheaper than it is now. So, you know, the barrier of entry was lower. That's just kind of like where I started. I had a friend introduced me to them and I kind of started obsessing and I studied just the 1675 reference online on the message boards for like a year before I bought something. There's like a year's worth of reading about. Yeah, definitely. Yeah. I think like you could collect nothing but 1675s as a dealer. I think you could sell nothing but 1675s and still, you know, make a living doing that. There's so much going on within the reference 1675. How about this Cartier here? Sure. I could talk about this at length. So to the average person, this is just a Cartier tank to, you know, somewhat of a seasoned collector. They might know, okay, this is a Tank Louis Cartier. And then for a real psycho like myself, the important thing here is the fact that this is an automatic Tank Louis Cartier, which in the over 100 years of the Cartier tank only happened once in this era in the late 70s. So even today, there's no automatic Tank Louis Cartier, which is, and again, the Tank Louis Cartier is the tank. Yes. There's other diffusion lines. There's a tank solo. There's the tank must. But when people think of a Cartier tank, yes. When they think of Muhammad Ali and princess Diana and Andy Warhol, it's the Tank Louis Cartier, Jackie Onassis, et cetera. And it's also called the Jumbo, which is funny because really it's only a couple of millimeters larger. And I think for the average person in 2023, they would maybe think this wears small or it looks like a small watch. This was considered the Jumbo at the time in the late 70s. So this is like a, in my mind, a highly interesting watch. And this is just the very beginning of the rabbit hole. You could fall into that is Cartier. This is also a Paris style, which is, you know, during this era, if the watch was sold in the Paris boutique, it would have the Paris indicator at the bottom anywhere else. It would say Swiss. I'm really like obsessed with this watch. And again, it makes it even better that the average person would be like, okay, that looks like a watch. My grandma wears that makes it even better for me. Where'd you find this one? I got this from a dealer in Italy. And another interesting thing about Cartier, an interesting thing about Cartier is you never know how someone is going to price a vintage Cartier because there's so little information available on the internet. When people complain that Rolex releases zero information to the collectors, to the community, Cartier, there's even less information, at least with Rolex, there's serial numbers that go in sequential order. Before 1972, you could look at the case back, the inner case back of Rolex. It'll say the year. You're not getting any of that with Cartier. With vintage Cartier, you really need to study the way the numerals are printed, the logo, the fonts, each hallmark. You really need to do a deep dive, but once you figure it out, it can be extremely rewarding. Yeah. You got to collect knowledge before you collect watches. Definitely. And this is a case where old auction catalogs come in handy, some old out of print books come in handy. The internet is not going to help you so much when it comes to a watch like this. And speaking of Cartier, this is not the only one on the table. One of the great Grail watches that I mentioned earlier, that would be certainly one of my Grails is this guy here. So this is cool. So this is a Cartier Cristallure, which on its own is a rare model. Check it out. This is like, it's kind of a stepped tank, maybe you want to call it. I mean, they don't call it a tank, but it's kind of like, it's a stepped case. It's a lot of gold. And it's just an obscure model they made for a really short time in the late 1970s. And I had only seen photos of it and I never seen one in real life. And I knew I wanted one. Somebody sends me a photo of this one, this exact one. And what's different about this one is that it has a little stamp up there at 12 o'clock. And that's the Bahraini emblem, the emblem of the country of Bahrain. With Rolex, at least if you're moving your logo, it means it's for someone important. So Cartier is at six o'clock, the Bahraini emblem is at 12 o'clock. So this was a gift potentially from the Bahraini government or the Bahraini royal family to someone. Yeah. The jeweler of kings, they say. Yes. And actually Cartier has a big history in Bahrain. If you read Francesca Cartier Brickell's book, The Cartier, she talks about it a lot. There is a connection to Bahrain with Cartier. So I said, damn, okay. I obviously have to have this one, which is maybe there's only two or three of them in the world. I mean, as far as my research shows. Definitely the only one I've ever seen. For sure. And I got a custom strap made by Jean Rousseau. Yeah. What are you working with strap wise? I mean, this is beautiful and feels quality. Oh, absolutely. I think they're the best in the business. This one is also Jean Rousseau. Since these deploying clasps that Louis Cartier invented, the early ones are non-adjustable. So the strap has to be made for your wrist. There's no way to adjust this. So all my straps for these have to be custom. So I go to Jean Rousseau. This is green alligator on the outside and on the inside. On the inside, it's the kind of the rib skin where the scales are smaller. And on the outside, it's the belly skin. I mean, you could really get nerdy with this stuff, obviously. Yeah. And they know their stuff. Yeah. Hand-stitched, sides are hand-painted. Yeah. It's made for my wrist. So that's the story with this one. There we go. Yeah. A somewhat spicy take about straps. I know you're not one to shy away from a spicy take. I know you're not big on birth year watches. Right. And I was also listening to the How Long Gone podcast recently, and you got a shout out for your stance on bots and papers or lack thereof. Would you like to- Sure. I think both of these things are not a spicy take for the real collector community. I think with maybe perhaps people new to the community, they might say, I have to have bots and papers. I've never had a real serious collector tell me that bots and papers are required. And I think people just think that you're supposed to have bots and papers, and they think you're being a good consumer and a smart consumer by demanding bots and papers. In reality, papers are faked way easier than a watch is faked. We've got a couple watches left to talk about. Perhaps this Galet is a really good one to start with. Sure. Yeah. Tell us about that. This is a really nice Galet Multicron 12. This is a brand not many people, I mean, collectors know it, but the average person doesn't know what Galet is. For sure. Yeah. They made amazing chronographs and amazing watches from the 30s, 40s, 50s. And this is one from the 60s, and it's in really nice condition. It has an Excelsior Park movement inside, which was a very robust movement. They were known for their movement. And for those who know, people will buy not only Excelsior Park watches, but other watches that contain those Excelsior Park movements. And it's a very dedicated, very hungry group of people. You'll see the hands are kind of slightly different color, which happens nearly on every single example of this watch. Interesting. So I think someone who maybe knows just has a cursory understanding of vintage watches might be like, oh, those are replaced. Those are relumed. Right. Every example basically has mismatched hands compared to the lume on the dial. So that's one instance where, you know, a little bit about watches, it might seem off and then you learn a lot and then it's actually correct. Yes. The action on this movement is, on these pushers is just buttery and for a watch of this age as well. Absolutely. And I think there are versions of this that have a Valjoux movement. The Excelsior Park is in my mind, the one to have. Before we talked about this beautiful vintage, I want to zoom out just a bit. Sure. Are there any modern watches that you like? Basically everything. I think people think I hate modern watches because I just, I'm a vintage guy. I actually just don't like modern Rolex very much. I think every, I think every, almost the entire collection is fairly uninteresting. So I think people will hear me talking trash on modern subs or, and the terrible nicknames, Kermit, Sprite, really makes me insane. And they think I just hate all modern. Really. It's just like modern Rolex doesn't do it for me. Plenty of modern Patek releases that are beautiful. Vacheron, all the independent makers, all the independent watchmakers, Buccalinan, MB&F, F.P. Journe. Yeah. There's tons and tons and tons of 2023 watches that I like for sure. All right. We've been holding off long enough. I, for one, I'm a huge tropical dial fan as well, and a great example is sitting right in front of us here. So let's talk about this Omega here. Sure. Cool. This is like a, this is a funny one. This is a reference 2848 Omega Seamaster from the mid fifties. And the, really the most special thing about it is how tropical the dial is. I mean, it was a radium dial. So anything with radium. I'm going to put this one over here. Anything with radium often comes with like an interesting patina. And this one really turned into this like espresso crema colored dial, which I think is just highly interesting. A little bit of like a galaxy kind of effect to it. It's really, really cool. You know, it's not an expensive watch and yeah, it's just really cool. Under a thousand bucks. I just think it's interesting. It's a good daily, you know, it can take a little bit of a beating. You're not going to worry about getting a scratch on a watch like this. Probably. Super wearable. Yeah. It's just interesting. I like how tropical it is. I always like patina. And I know you probably get this question a lot, but this watch kind of reminded me of that for people who are perhaps just getting into the game and want to get into vintage watches. Are there like particular brands or models or references that you recommend Seamaster, you know, perhaps being one of them, but what other kind of watches come to mind? I mean, depending on your budget, if you're literally buying your first watch, then yeah, Seamaster could be a good choice because you can get really, well, if we're talking about vintage, you can get highly interesting things for under a thousand, under $2,000 when you're talking about Seamaster or random other Omegas that are really cool. Yeah. Omega is a good place. You can look at vintage, you know, like 70s Longines could be interesting. You know, there's even Vacheron Calatravas that can go for really cheap kind of, from the 70s, 60s, 70s, like dress watches, maybe like a crossover. This is kind of like a, I mean, you know, it's not like hyper, I mean, it's a sports watch, but, you know, it kind of doesn't really... By vintage standards. Yeah. I mean, it's a sports watch, but, you know, looking at it today, this could almost be considered a dress watch. There's, God, I mean, there's so many cool things to look for in the under $2,000 range. The problem is like, I could say, oh, this is the 2848 and you might Google that. Maybe nothing comes up, but there's 40 other references that kind of look just like this. Yeah. Seamasters, especially. It's so hard to get a reference for them. For sure. Constellation, Seamasters, DeVille's like, there's a lot of interesting Omegas out there for sure. Besides just like a Speedmaster though. I like Speedmasters as well. Mike, thanks so much for stopping through, man. This has been an absolute pleasure. Where can people follow you online? So you could follow me on TikTok. My name's just Mike Nouveau on there and you can see the watches I find on www.KraftandTaylor.com. I'm Thomas Hendricks with Chrono24 in New York City. Be sure to subscribe to our channel for more videos just like this. Thanks for watching and we'll see you next time.