Four + One The 31-Year-Old Frog Lover Who Is On A Mission To Make Vintage Watches More Fun, More Affordable, And More Colorful

On the @jojolamontre account – which is at 11,800 followers and rising at publication – the pseudo-serious world of watches is gone. Instead of weird props (if I see another half-empty espresso cup I'm going to scream) and prose-drenched captions, what we have are simple, honest images of interesting, often funky-looking vintage watches draped across highlighter-colored backgrounds. Instead of diluting or hiding any scratches or wear, the contrast of foreground and background ends up bringing the watches to life in unexpected ways.

The watches Laplace loves come from a niche part of the watch world, where he tirelessly scours various small-scale, locals-only watch fairs that most folks outside of Switzerland have never heard of. And the results? Well, the oddballs he procures and highlights on Instagram speak for themselves. He's not only sourcing vintage watches, but also the paraphernalia and accouterments that once surrounded them. For example, my personal favorite of his recent finds are the series of 1970s ashtrays in the shape of an Incabloc shock protection system. It's just the perfect mixture of nostalgia and esoterica that make the world of vintage watches so darn compelling.

Laplace was born and raised in Geneva and was bitten by the watch bug early on, after a friend's TAG Heuer Formula 1 caught his eye when he was around 16 years old. Fifteen years later, he's now 31 and as hopelessly obsessed with old-school watches as ever. After briefly giving law school a try, he's spent much of the past decade trying to break into the world of vintage watches, taking all sorts of gigs including working as an assistant in the watch department at Sotheby's in Geneva, as well as spells in after-sales and customer service at both Frederique Constant and Bulgari.

It all led to his current hybrid career, where he spends a few days each week working in Le Locle in the Zenith Heritage Department, assisting Zenith's Heritage Director Laurence Bodenmann in the company's extensive archive, and then buying and selling vintage watches via his Instagram profile or out of a small coworking space in Geneva where he takes appointments directly across the street from the Patek Philippe Museum.

Laplace isn't afraid of showing his eccentric side, which is something special in the generally hegemonic Swiss watch industry. Just take his preoccupation with frogs (yes, the ribbiting green amphibian). It began as an inside joke between him and his current girlfriend, and it has since evolved into a clever branding opportunity. He now has more frog-related miniatures and souvenirs than he knows what to do with.

I asked Laplace to narrow down his growing collection of vintage watches to the four he'll never part with, as well as to tell me about another one of his favorite watch-related items. Here's what he came back with.

A few years ago Laplace went to Paris with some friends to hang out, party, and, paint the town red.

One thing led to another – this was before he started dating his current girlfriend, he stresses – and Laplace ended up spending the night somewhere unexpected. The next morning, when he left to go back to Geneva, he forgot his recent watch purchase – a very clean, very small Mido from the 1940s with a black no-lume dial and Arabic numerals in a 32mm François Borgel case and on its original Bonklip bracelet crafted by Gay Frères.

He was understandably bummed about forgetting his watch but he figured he'd snag it next time he made his way back to Paris, which is only about a five-hour train ride from Geneva. However, the next thing he knew, the entire world was locked down due to the pandemic. So he more or less gave up on seeing his little Mido again. That is, until one day, about a year after he left the watch on a nightstand in a Paris apartment, it randomly showed up in the mail.

"I love it because it's not very common to have a black dial like this, with no radium, no tritium, nothing," he says. "It's a Borgel case, of course, which makes it even more special."

Laplace actually owns two identical examples of this Universal Genève ref. 20964 from the 1940s, one featuring the initials (H.P.C.) of Henrique Pfeffer Caracas, a mid-century Universal Genève retailer from Venezuela, and another without any additional signature that he sourced from the United States. "Both are in amazing condition, and are very, very beautiful," he says.

The two watches even share a similar case number, but it's the example with the initials from Caracas that has continued to captivate Laplace since he acquired both watches about six years ago. Remarkably, after finding both watches one after another in 2017, he hasn't come close to finding another example since.

"I love all pocket watches, but I especially love and collect pocket watches made of stainless steel," Laplace says. "Pocket watches like this one were made in the 1930s and '40s, but by the end of the '40s, they had mostly stopped producing steel pocket watches. Steel examples were produced for a shorter period overall because it was near the end of popularity for pocket watches as a whole. I love them particularly because in the late '30s and '40s they had a very specific design, using a kind of steel called StayBrite. They're very hard to find. You'll find more pocket watches made out of silver, but the steel material is very important to me."

Laplace has owned this ultra-sharp Longines pocket watch example for a little over a year, after acquiring it from a Swiss watchmaker who was liquidating part of his collection. It features a traditional lépine orientation, with small seconds at six o'clock and the caliber 37.9M inside. Laplace was able to confirm with the Longines archive in Saint-Imier that his watch was originally invoiced on June 25, 1942, at Wirth, the Longines commercial agent in Switzerland at the time. It joins a small collection of pocket watches he's built up over the past few years, alongside three extra-large examples from Universal Genève.

"Although they can be difficult to find, it's not uncommon for pocket watches like this to be quite well preserved, in very good, original condition, since they were naturally kept in pockets and only used for a moment or two at a time," advises Laplace.

Laplace's most recent addition to his collection is this 1970s Girard-Perregaux. He discovered the watch at one of the very first Swiss watch fairs to return in La Chaux-de-Fonds after many of the COVID restrictions were first lifted last fall. It's in pristine condition, is made of .925 sterling silver, and still features its original sticker.

"It's the first time I've seen a Girard-Perregaux like this," he says. "It has a very '70s look. I was very interested in the design, and the case being made of silver is quite cool. Audemars Piguet and Patek Philippe made similar integrated bracelet watches out of white gold, but the use of silver here makes it a bit cheaper and more accessible for me."

Mido's short-lived 1930s and '40s robot mascot is one of my favorite bits of horological trivia. For the company's 100th anniversary in 2018, they handed out a plastic version that doubles as a speaker and that I keep proudly in my library. But I never expected to see an original example until Laplace pulled this guy out in his office.

"In 1939, Mido created a robot mascot to promote the brand to everybody, especially to young people," Laplace says. "Mido would send any child their own robot if they sent a letter to the company asking for one, but given they're made of soft wood, very few have survived. It's very, very difficult to find them in mint condition, especially with the appropriate stickers on the body that promote different facts about Mido watches, such as their durability and waterproofness.

"The first time I saw one of these was at a small watchmaker's workshop in Geneva, and every time I saw it, I asked him if I could buy it," Laplace says. "One day I found one online that wasn't in great shape, so I tried to repair it myself. More recently, last year, a man called and offered me one in perfect condition. So I immediately had to buy it; that's this one."