Even in a universe populated with as many weird and wonderful characters as that of watch culture, Phil Toledano (better known by his online pseudonym @misterenthusiast) is a veritable force of nature. The British-born concept artist, who spends most of his days working in and hooning around New York, is not your garden variety watch guy; with nary a Royal Oak Jumbo or GMT-II in his possession.
Rather, Toledano approaches watches with the same sort of gleeful abandon he does his other primary obsession โ car collecting. A prolific and uproariously entertaining voice in that space (Hagerty Media even gave him his own podcast) heโs developed something of a reputation as an iconoclast: specialising in interesting vehicles of yore โ jokingly referred to by the man himself as โugly carsโ โ which have their roots in homologation and the Italian design boom of the 1970s.
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This predilection, for motors โdesigned for a reason other than [to just look] good,โ has seen Toledano drive everything from Maserati Shamals (the โBaron of Boxflaresโ) to the Jaguar XJ220 โ one of those great supercar-based oddities of the 1990s and source of the hilarious โFriends Getting Out of the XJโ Instagram series.
In our first โCollectorโs Cornerโ of 2023, Boss Hunting has a quick chinwag with Toledano to find out โ amongst other things โ what the self-described bastardo has been collecting of late; why certain aspects of watch culture really grind his gears; and which mid-engine rally car heโd take into the grimdark days of a hypothetical apocalypse.
Collectorโs Corner: Phil Toledano (a.k.a. โMister Enthusiastโ) On Obscure Patek And Boxy Cars
Randy Lai: Itโs a banal way to start, but we have to ask โ how did you get into watches in the first place?
Phil Toledano: Iโve been a vintage car collector for a while now, but have always resisted the clichรฉ of collecting cars and watches. That is, until I sold a car in my collection to somebody who was hugely into watches โ we became friends soon after and I now blame him for sucking me down the wormhole.
RL: Over the years, has your taste in collecting changed? Or are you still devotedly โ in your own words โ a โpathological contrarianโ?
PT: Iโve always stayed a contrarian but my taste has also changed quite substantially in the 8 years that Iโve been collecting. I started off with Lemania; I was (and still am) a huge fan of vintage Breitling; I had a decent [military] watch collection for a while; until finally, I washed up on the shores of pre-Daytona Rolex and 1970s Patek Philippe.
RL: All throughout your watch collecting journey, whatโs one element of โthe cultureโ you could do with less of?
PT: I supposeโฆthe horological Cold War mentality that is prevalent between certain types of collectors (for whom โcollectingโ isnโt about weapons-grade nerdery, but rather just another opportunity to showcase oneโs bottomless bank account).
RL: Whatโs one piece of essential advice youโd dispense to younger enthusiasts who are just starting to get into watches?
PT: โBuy who you are, not who everybody else is.โ
RL: Like a number of other venerable watch collectors, youโre also a massive โcar guyโ. Is there any overlap in your approach to collecting, say, old Group B cars and oddball mechanical watches?
PT: Certainly! Iโm always trying to look wherever few to no other people are. Itโs no fun showing up to the horological sausage party wearing the same thing as a dozen other people.
RL: Whatโs the biggest change watch culture/the broader industry has undergone since you started collecting?
PT: For me, itโs been less than 10 years but โ until recently โ everything seems to have gotten very speculative.
RL: What is the most egregious example of a watch many other enthusiasts love which you simply canโt get into?
PT: Modern Rolex Daytonas. Theyโre the definition of a โniceโ watch: neither rare, nor particularly imaginative. For me, a healthy dose of artistic imagination is crucial to collecting.
RL: Tell us a little about your most recent watch purchase.
PT: A Patek Ref. 3733 dated to 1972, with a lapis dial. Iโve been hunting for this particular example for years.
RL: In a hypothetical โhouse on fireโ situation โ whatโs the one watch and car combination youโd immediately try to salvage?
PT: Hmmmโฆlikely my Patek Beta 21 and Lancia 037.
RL: To finish, do you have an โendgameโ in mind for your collection?
PT: Sadly not โ my appetite to waste money on useless and/or obscure wristwatches just keeps growingโฆ
