Stories of Excellence

The master watchmakers of Verga Vintage, a branch dedicated to collector timepieces by Milan’s Luigi Verga, the historic watchmaker, will animate the new Vicenzaoro appointment, inspecting prestigious vintage watches live. «Oddly, the fair is more important today than yesterday,» says Umberto Verga in a recent interview about stories of Italian excellence with IEG Italian Exhibition Group. «While in the past, the fair was the only interlocutor for the market, today it isn’t. But it still has the final and most important say because if you can’t touch something or feel it yours, it doesn’t make sense. Only the fair can put everyone in one place, for the quality and beauty of the exhibition,» adds Verga. For fans of the genre, the meeting with Sandro Fratini, the greatest collector of vintage watches in the world, will also be a great opportunity. Two thousand watches for a total of one billion euros, or perhaps more, make him one of the most legendary collectors of all time. He’s spent forty years “chasing” watches all over the world. His love began when his father gave him his first Patek Philippe at thirty years old. A treasured collection also because of the stories they hold. Like that of the Cuban woman who was widowed after her husband was shot by Fidel Castro. He had bought the unusual pink-faced Patek, which she hid in a cookie jar.