Three Watches Each: What We're Obsessing Over at Shreve Right Now

Somewhere in the middle of the recent AMA session at Shreve, Crump and Low, standing in front of the Parmigiani case at Shreve, Crump & Low, someone asked the three of us to each name our current favorite three watches in the store. I went first, then handed it to Spence, then Tai, who apparently interpreted "three" as a floor rather than a ceiling. Here's how it went.

Mine.

My three were sitting right in front of me, which made this an easy one. First, a Parmigiani Fleurier Toric, the Petite Seconde version (or Chrono), in a colorway I'd take home without a second thought. Second, a Greubel Forsey I'd been posting about all week, absolutely magnificent, model number aside. And third, the Laurent Ferrier Shreve, Crump & Low edition, blue dial with a salmon accent. I may have floated the idea of just walking out with that one. Nobody took me up on it.

Spence's.

Spence runs the store's Instagram, which I didn't actually know until he told me on camera, I'd assumed it was someone else entirely. His three leaned hard into store history. The first two were both Shreve collaborations: a Greubel Forsey Contemporaine and a Laurent Ferrier, both carrying the store's double-stamped dial. He explained where that comes from. Shreve has 230 years of history and a run of vintage Pateks in the archive with double-stamped dials from back when the store was one of the first U.S. retailers working with Patek. Laurent had seen those pieces come through and it's what inspired the collaboration. Shreve is the only retailer doing it today. His third was a Patek 5990 currently in the case, one he said he has to spend real time with in the studio every time it comes in, camera out, before he can move on to anything else.

Tai's.

Tai gave three and somehow made it feel like more. First was the Chocolat Blanc Greubel Forsey Balancier Contemporaine, the only one made in titanium. Shreve sold enough Contemporaines across the country that Greubel Forsey rewarded them with three of the last available movements and let them choose a case material never used before. He called it the most wearable Greubel Forsey on the market, and backed it up with a detail I hadn't heard: the watches are 97% handmade, calibrated by hand with rulers, no machinery. Spence tried to stump him by asking what the other 3% is. Tai didn't blink: the CNC-cut case and steel components. Correct on the first try.

His second was the Shreve edition Laurent Ferrier, made in rose gold and steel, with the same double-stamped dial Spence had described. Tai added a piece of context that made the whole double-stamp story land harder, there's an archival Patek 2526 in the store's vault where the retailer's logo actually sits above Patek's on the dial, a placement he'd never seen anywhere else in decades of double-stamp history.

His third wasn't even on the table. A Laurent Ferrier Traveler with an enamel cloisonné dial, one of ten made. It was the first watch he ever sold at Shreve, six years ago, in his first week on the job. Eighty five thousand dollars, before he'd fully processed that a watch could cost that much. Spence asked if it was the Night Sky variation. It wasn't, it was the generation before that, the one that reads closer to a 5231P world timer.

Standing back from it.

Three people, three completely different filters though I think we all really liked the Laurent Ferrier Shreve Crump. & Low edition and the Greubel Forsey. I liked everyones additions... candidly, I had no idea LF made that enamel cloissonne dial version of the Traveler a bunch of years ago.

I'm already planning to steal this format for the next visit.