The Phillips Watches Podcast, Episode 1: The First Ten Years

For the past decade, Phillips Watches has helped shape the conversation around collectible timepieces. We’ve seen records broken, scholarship rewritten, and new chapters of horological history unfold. Along the way, we’ve been lucky to share those stories with you through catalogues, articles, exhibitions, and conversations in person. Now, we’re taking that dialogue into a new format. Welcome to The Phillips Watches Podcast – the first watch-centric video podcast created by an auction house, hosted by Logan Baker. This new series is about more than individual watches or sale results. It’s about the culture, history, and future of watch collecting. It’s about the ideas and people driving the watch world forward. And it’s about inviting you behind the scenes of the conversations that shape how we understand watches today. We’re producing the show from our Geneva headquarters – the heart of the global watch scene and the place where so many of the most important watches in the world pass through. But the conversations won’t be limited to these walls. Each episode will bring in voices from across the ecosystem: collectors and watchmakers, scholars and specialists, the people who make this community what it is. For our very first episode, we sat down with two people who have been at the center of this story from the early years: Aurel Bacs and Alexandre Ghotbi. Together, we looked back at the first 10 years of Phillips Watches – how it all started, the risks we took, the milestones that defined our first decade, and what’s next. Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7KGBwbW... Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... Follow Phillips Watches on Instagram:   / phillipswatches   Discover more stories on our website: https://www.phillips.com/watches And don't forget to subscribe to our channel – thank you! Chapters: 0:00 Introduction & Welcome 1:10 Founding the Phillips Watch Department 3:45 The Early Challenges 6:40 Alex Ghotbi Joins the Team 8:20 The First Auctions: Day-Date & Geneva Watch Auction One 11:05 Creating a Different Approach 14:30 The Team Spirit at Phillips 16:40 Breakthrough Years: The Record Sales (2015–2017) 19:20 Inside the Paul Newman Daytona Sale 23:10 How the Watch Market Changed (2015–2025) 26:40 Rediscovering Horological History 31:10 Championing Independent Watchmakers 35:40 The Decade One Anniversary Sale 39:30 Reflecting on 10 Years 44:40 Closing Thoughts & Looking Ahead #phillipswatches #thephillipswatchespodcast