Halim Trujillo — Collector Media, Brand Power, and the Politics of Watch Culture
How collector-driven platforms are reshaping influence, legitimacy, and taste in modern horology
For much of the twentieth century, the watch industry spoke through a fairly controlled set of channels.
Brands created watches.
Retailers sold them.
Magazines reviewed them.
Collectors discussed them privately.
That world no longer exists.
In today’s watch culture, collectors are no longer passive recipients of brand narratives. They publish, photograph, comment, critique, travel, attend launches, visit manufactures, build communities, and shape public perception in real time. Few people embody that shift better than Halim Trujillo, founder of Watch Collecting Lifestyle.
Halim’s perspective is especially valuable because he entered watch media not as a traditional journalist, but as a collector. His platform was born from the idea that watches do not exist in isolation. They belong to a broader world of taste, travel, luxury, friendship, passion, and personal experience. In that sense, Watch Collecting Lifestyle is not merely about watches. It is about the culture around collecting.
This conversation explores what happens when collectors become media voices — and when those voices begin shaping the industry itself.
Watches, Politics, and the Industry Behind the Industry
When asked what first comes to mind when hearing the phrase Watches & Politics, Halim does not go directly to statecraft, diplomacy, or presidents wearing watches.
Instead, he thinks about the internal politics of the watch world.
The relationships between collectors and brands.
The way media, journalism, and marketing interact.
The conversations that happen around launches, collaborations, trends, and influence.
For Halim, the politics of watches today are not only about governments and power. They are also about the ecosystem that determines which watches become desirable, which brands gain legitimacy, and which collector voices are taken seriously.
Why Watch Collecting Lifestyle Began
Halim founded Watch Collecting Lifestyle in 2013 after more than two decades as a collector.
At that time, digital watch media was far smaller than it is today. A few major platforms existed, but Halim felt that none spoke directly to the kind of collector he was — someone interested not only in specifications, movements, and releases, but also in the lifestyle surrounding watches.
He wanted to build a platform where watches intersected with travel, cigars, photography, luxury experiences, and the things collectors actually discuss when they gather in real life.
This is important because it explains the identity of the platform.
It was not created from the outside looking in.
It was created from inside the collector community itself.
That gives Halim’s voice a different kind of authority — one rooted in lived collecting experience rather than purely editorial distance.
Collectors as Industry Actors
One of the major themes of the interview is the evolution of collectors into active participants in the watch industry.
Halim began collecting in 1990. His early path followed a familiar route: Rolex, Omega, Breitling, then eventually Audemars Piguet and other brands. His relationship with the Royal Oak became especially personal because the watch was born in 1972, the same year he was born.
But over time, collecting changed.
The rise of Instagram and digital platforms gave collectors visibility and influence that previous generations did not have. Collectors began creating content, shaping conversations, promoting brands, criticizing releases, and forming communities around shared taste.
Some did this out of passion.
Others did it for visibility, hype, or monetization.
Halim makes a clear distinction between the two. For him, the most valuable collector voices are those rooted in real experience — people who buy, wear, study, lose money, make mistakes, and learn from the watches themselves.
The Politics of Collaboration
The conversation becomes especially lively when it turns to brand collaborations.
Halim is sharply critical of collaborations that feel disconnected from a brand’s DNA. In his view, a successful collaboration must make sense culturally, historically, and emotionally.
He points to examples like Breitling’s historical aviation partnerships, Bell & Ross and military aviation, TAG Heuer and motorsport, or Ulysse Nardin’s collaboration with One More Wave as collaborations that feel grounded because they connect naturally to the brand’s identity.
By contrast, he sees forced collaborations as potentially damaging. They may create short-term attention, but they can erode long-term brand equity if collectors feel the collaboration betrays the brand’s deeper identity.
This is where the conversation becomes political in the strongest sense.
Collaborations are not merely products.
They are statements about what a brand wants to become.
They tell collectors who the brand believes its audience is, what values it wants to project, and whether heritage still matters.
Audemars Piguet, Brand Equity, and Collector Discomfort
Halim speaks especially directly about Audemars Piguet, a brand he has collected for decades.
His critique is not from the outside.
It comes from long experience with the Royal Oak and Royal Oak Offshore, including ownership of many examples over the years. That gives his criticism emotional weight.
He argues that AP has moved away from the “if you know, you know” exclusivity that originally attracted many serious collectors. In his view, some recent collaborations have shifted the brand toward broader spectacle, celebrity alignment, and hype-driven visibility.
Most importantly, Halim believes some long-term collectors already feel alienated. He mentions that after earlier high-profile collaborations, some serious AP collectors began selling their watches because they disliked the direction of the brand.
His argument is not that brands should never evolve.
It is that evolution must be coherent.
When a brand with deep heritage pursues attention without clear alignment, collectors may begin to question whether the brand still represents what drew them to it in the first place.
Watches and Wonders 2026: A Strong but Conservative Year
Halim also reflects on Watches and Wonders 2026, which he describes as a strong edition.
He points to the high attendance, public engagement, and broad participation of brands as evidence that the event remains important and healthy. He also highlights several watches that stood out to him, including pieces from Vacheron Constantin, Ulysse Nardin, A. Lange & Söhne, Rolex, Armin Strom, Patek Philippe, Parmigiani, IWC, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Tudor, and Piaget.
What emerges from this section is a sense that the industry remains creatively active, even if the overall tone felt somewhat more conservative than previous years.
The important point is that Watches and Wonders now functions not only as a trade show, but as a global cultural event.
Collectors, journalists, brands, and enthusiasts all gather there not only to see watches, but to interpret the direction of the industry.
Why Collectors Love Independent Watchmaking
One of the strongest sections of the interview concerns independent watchmaking.
Halim argues that collectors have become passionate about independent brands for several reasons:
They offer originality.
They offer scarcity.
They offer direct connection.
They offer higher levels of hand-finishing.
They offer a sense of supporting the craft itself.
For seasoned collectors tired of seeing the same watches everywhere, independents offer something more personal and rare.
There is also an emotional element. Buying from an independent can feel like supporting a living creator rather than a corporate machine.
But Halim is realistic. Independent watchmaking is not for everyone. The barrier to entry is high, both financially and intellectually. A collector must often understand horology deeply enough to appreciate why a small, little-known brand may be worth more than a widely recognized name.
That is precisely what makes the category so meaningful for advanced collectors.
Collectors and Creators: A New Feedback Loop
Through manufacture visits and direct relationships with brands, Halim has witnessed a new kind of interaction between collectors and creators.
Collectors today can influence watches more directly than before.
He shares his own example of creating a unique piece with Armin Strom in 2016. His idea involved mixing materials and design elements in a way the brand was not then doing. That project later helped inspire a broader customization concept within the brand.
This is a crucial point.
Collectors are no longer only buyers.
They can become collaborators, advisors, and sources of product ideas.
This is especially true in independent watchmaking, where the distance between collector and maker is much smaller. Conversations at dinners, manufacture visits, private showings, and one-on-one presentations can directly shape future watches.
Journalists, Influencers, Collectors, and Credibility
Halim draws a sharp distinction between different types of watch voices.
Journalists report.
Influencers amplify.
Brand marketers promote.
Collectors speak from lived experience.
Of course, these roles can overlap. Halim himself is a collector who became a media figure and now influences purchasing decisions.
But for him, credibility depends on whether someone has truly participated in collecting — whether they have bought the watches, worn them, studied them, made mistakes, lost money, and understood the emotional and financial realities of ownership.
This is why he is skeptical of hype-driven influencers who praise watches they have never owned and brands they have never truly engaged with.
In his view, influence without experience can damage the industry.
Collectors deserve voices who know what it means to put real money, real emotion, and real time into watches.
Underappreciated Brands
When asked which brands remain underappreciated, Halim names several.
Zenith, in his view, has taken important steps in the right direction but remains undervalued relative to its history and technical achievements.
Breguet, despite being one of the greatest names in watchmaking and the inventor of the tourbillon, remains surprisingly underappreciated by the broader market.
He also mentions brands such as Cvstos, Chopard, Ferdinand Berthoud, and Jaeger-LeCoultre as examples where the market does not always fully reflect the quality or importance of the watches being produced.
This section reinforces a broader theme of the series:
The market does not always equal historical importance.
Sometimes collectors must look beyond price, hype, and resale performance to recognize real horological value.
The Future of Collector Culture
Looking ahead, Halim believes collectors will continue to play a major role in shaping the industry.
Brands now listen to collectors more closely than before. Dinners, events, private previews, activations, and direct conversations give brands access to feedback that once would have been difficult to gather.
But this creates risk as well as opportunity.
Educated collectors can push brands toward better products, deeper heritage, and more meaningful innovation.
Hype-driven collectors can push brands toward spectacle, short-term attention, and erosion of identity.
The future of horology will therefore depend partly on what kind of collector culture becomes most influential.
That is what makes collectors political actors in modern watchmaking.
They do not only buy watches.
They help determine what brands become.
What Defines a Collector?
For Halim, a collector is someone who appreciates an object deeply enough to invest time, effort, and money into finding, preserving, and maintaining the best possible example of it.
Collecting is not merely buying and selling.
It is the chase.
The research.
The desire.
The dopamine rush of finally acquiring something meaningful.
And then, inevitably, the search for the next object.
That is why he named his platform Watch Collecting Lifestyle.
For him, collecting is not a transaction.
It is a way of life.