Meet Aurel Bacs, The Man Who Sparked The Vintage Watch Boom

The watch that Aurel Bacs is tenderly holding—like some precious endangered species—is ruined. Well, technically. The once crisp and pristine black sub-dials that arch along the bottom of the Rolex Cosmograph Daytona are now the color of a dirty old penny, the result of years of exposure to the sun. The watch is ancient, tarnished, decayed. But Bacs is rapturous. Bacs (which rhymes with “tax”) is a preternatural optimist when it comes to timepieces. He’ll describe this one as “tropical,” as if it were a beach-bumming brunet whose hair had charmingly lightened over a lazy summer. With his loupe—the small magnifying glass used by jewelers—he goes in for a closer look. “The dial is insanely beautiful,” he says, sounding like a proud father. He drops the loupe, revealing blue eyes the shade of surging electricity—eyes that seem to grant a unique power to see the wonder in watches. And when Bacs deems something beautiful, many others adjust their vision to see it just as sweetly. Read more at GQ.