Four + One West Hollywood Dealer Ken Jacobs On Embracing Vintage Style For 40-Plus Years

While he spent his early childhood collecting all kinds of little things, Jacobs didn't find vintage watches until after completing his PhD in clinical psychology and practicing for a few years. On Sundays, he'd head to the Rose Bowl Flea Market in Pasadena, CA, to trade coins. That's where he found pocket watches and the lightbulb immediately went off. The first time I ever spoke with him, he described watches as three-dimensional, compared to coins, which he said were "two-dimensional and static." Sorry, coin collectors. 

From pocket watches, he soon found wristwatches. In those early days, Jacobs was attracted to the design and aesthetic of these old watches, with a particular focus on Art Deco era, often rectangular watches from brands like Hamilton or Elgin. 

"Daytonas were $500 when I started and would sit unsold," he said. A shift started to happen when collectors began consolidating their rolls of rectangular American wristwatches into a couple of Rolex Bubblebacks or vintage Patek watches.

Eventually, this interest shifted to the sports watches that define today's vintage Rolex collecting. Through all the shifts and trends, Jacobs and his store have continued to be an epicenter for vintage collectors in Los Angeles.

I've always enjoyed having a retail store and creating a beautiful, inviting, comfortable environment," Jacobs said. "The world has changed drastically and the amount of info available is daunting. The endless introduction of new product can be exhausting and I don't try to keep up. Frankly, I'm grateful that Wanna Buy A Watch? is still relevant. We may not be cutting edge and we don't sell the most expensive watches in the world, but we continue to hunt for and offer cool watches that are fun to own and wear, whether you're a long-time collector or you're coming in for the first time."

Jacobs is a legend in the business and has a lifetime of stories – here are just a few of them. 

From a few feet a way, you'd think the Rolex Ref. 1530 is an Oysterquartz, the Crown's famed foray into quartz watchmaking. But while it uses the same angular case shape, it actually uses an automatic movement. 

"It's a real niche reference that no one wanted 10 or 15 years ago," Jacobs said. "And now it's the cat's meow." 

I offered that this example was a real "Ken Jacobs dial," with the silver dial taking on a heavy, warm patina and the outer track even showing a bit of rust. Jacobs is known to love watches that have aged gracefully (and sometimes even not) – he loves character, patina, and personality, and this 1530 has all of that. 

The day I visited Jacobs at Wanna Buy A Watch?, this was the watch on his wrist and he treats it as a daily wearer.

"This model seems really prone to having the dial patina to a warm, golden color," he said. While this dial started silver, it almost looks champagne now. It's the perfect, patinated, and slightly under-the-radar reference for a long-time vintage dealer. 

"I'm definitely a dial guy," Jacobs said. "But in the Day-Date universe, so often our clients want a plain, champagne dial. But I love to find things that are unusual or not common."

A black dial Rolex Day-Date isn't the most unusual watch in the world, but it's just enough off the well-trodden champagne path that some clients are willing to give it a spin.

"The Day-Date used to be the CEO watch and now it's become the fashion watch," Jacobs said. Thanks to Rolex's marketing and general ubiquity, when people think Day-Date they think champagne dial, and that's what drives their desire. 

"As a dealer, I'm looking for something exotic or unusual, but it's often the familiar or recognizable that people actually want."

This is a yellow-gold Rolex Day-Date ref. 18038 so-called "single quick" – the date is quickset but the day is not. The patina on the hands and dial has a nice warmth to it, and a black dial Day-Date is relatively uncommon. Beyond that, it's tough to beat the classic yellow-gold/black dial combo. 

"My entry into the wristwatch business in the early '80s was about a whole vintage aesthetic," Jacobs said. "Old jeans, Hawaiian shirts, neon clocks; when I started in the business I didn't even wear a watch." 

But when he discovered the Art Deco designs of Hamilton, Gruen, Illinois, and others he fell in love. 

"It wasn't necessarily about the value. I wasn't dealing in Patek or even Rolex because they were round and plain and not that interesting," he said. Instead, he was drawn to this era of rectangular watches with fancy details and lugs, two-tone dials, stylized fonts. It was strictly about the style and design. 

"This is a Hamilton Fontainebleau, a model I'd never even seen before," Jacobs said. While he was familiar with the ellipse-shaped Fontainebleau, the modern, architectural, Monaco-like shape of this one spoke to him. 

This one's new old stock with its original hangtag, box, and bracelet, making the sharp angles of the case even more striking. For me, I found it charming that, even after a lifetime in watches, Jacobs can still come across a model he's never seen before. It's not that it's expensive or rare, but learning something new (and finding something NOS) that keeps watches exciting for Jacobs. 

In the 1920s and '30s, Longines became known for its pilot's watches, found on the wrists of aviators such as Charles Lindbergh, Amelia Earhart, and Philip Van Horn Weems. In 1935, it began supplying watches to the Czechoslovakian Air Force. The Longines Majetek has a massive cushion-shaped case, flat bezel, and oversized luminous numerals, capped off with its subtle elapsed time bezel (see the arrow at 12 o'clock in the above photo).

"It's the first one I've had in 10 or 15 years," Jacobs said. He explained that Longines, in particular the Majetek, is relatively uncommon to find in the U.S., and he remembers when dealers would make the trek to trade shows in Munich and come back with unfamiliar watches like the Majetek. 

While its history with Czech aviators is interesting, Jacobs says he loves it for the same reason he loves any other watch – it's all about the style. 

If you walk into Wanna Buy A Watch? on Melrose Avenue in West Hollywood, a couple of signs stand out. The first is the large Gruen sign sitting over its front door. The other is an Art Deco-era "Rolex Lever Watches" sign that sits towards the back of the show room. 

"This sign once hung outside of Birt's Jewelry Store in South London," Jacobs said. He added that the 18 world's records on the sign would date it to about 1929 or 1930. He acquired the sign from an antique dealer more than 25 years ago and it's adorned the shop ever since. They even had to rewire it to work with U.S. electrical wiring. Now, it's an offbeat piece of watch history. Wanna Buy A Watch? is full of these: JLC table lamp clocks, Cartier boudoir clocks, and all kinds of other watch miscellaneous and memorabilia. But this sign continues to stand out. 

"It's our real pride and joy and we're lucky to have it," Jacobs said. 

Check out Wanna Buy A Watch? online or visit the physical store at 8441 Melrose Ave., West Hollywood, CA 90069.