About Mitch Katz

Mitch Katz is a longtime watch collector and author whose work explores the emotional, intellectual, and personal dimensions of collecting. Rather than treating watches purely as luxury objects, investment assets, or status symbols, he writes about collecting as a lived journey — one shaped by curiosity, mistakes, joy, learning, changing taste, and the gradual construction of meaning.

In 2024, Mitch published Time on My Hands: A Collector’s Journey in the World of Watches, a rare collector’s memoir that places the collector at the center of the story. Unlike many watch books that focus on brands, reference numbers, technical specifications, or historical cataloguing, his book examines what it actually feels like to collect over time: how one discovers watches, forms opinions, changes direction, learns from others, and eventually understands that collecting is not only about possession, but about interpretation.

His perspective has resonated widely within the watch community through appearances on platforms such as aBlogtoWatch’s Superlative podcast, Fifth Wrist Radio’s Independent Thinking, and several YouTube interviews focused on collecting culture. In 2025, he expanded his horological writing into fiction with Time Eternal, a crime-themed novel involving watches and watchmakers, and has announced plans for a continuing series of watch-related novels.

In this conversation for Watches & Politics, Mitch helps us examine the collector as a cultural actor. We explore how taste becomes legitimacy, how communities shape what counts as “serious” collecting, how personal stories influence the watch canon, and how modern media — from forums to podcasts to Instagram — has shifted authority away from traditional institutions and toward networks of collectors, writers, and enthusiasts.

At its core, this episode asks a deceptively simple question: what makes a collection meaningful? For Mitch, the answer begins not with price or prestige, but with joy.

Topics Discussed

1. When you hear the phrase “Watches & Politics,” what is the first idea or story that comes to mind?

2. Your work frames collecting as a lived journey rather than a scoreboard. When did you realize collecting was not about objects alone, but about identity and narrative?

3. What do you think most people misunderstand about “taste” in watches — and who gets to define what serious taste even means?

4. How do online communities and media ecosystems — forums, podcasts, Instagram — change authority in horology? Are they democratizing it, or simply producing new hierarchies?

5. Are there categories or makers you believe have been undervalued historically because the “right” storytellers were not present?

6. What makes a collection historically meaningful beyond price, rarity, or brand name?

7. If a collector is also an author, what responsibility comes with translating private passion into public narrative?

8. Do you think the modern era is producing better watch history — or faster mythology?

9. If a future historian wrote a chapter titled “Mitch Katz and the Inner Life of Collecting,” what subtitle would you hope they choose?

10. What defines a collector?

Key quotes from the conversation

“How do you sell a memory?”

“The unifying factor in my collection is that they all give me joy.”

“A collector is driven by passion and the desire to possess.”

“The people I have met are as important a joy in this passion as the watches themselves.”

“History does not write itself. It needs storytellers.”

“He followed his heart and hoped his brain made sense out of it.”

Further Reading & References

Mitch Katz — Time on My Hands: A Collector’s Journey in the World of Watches - A collector’s memoir exploring watches through personal stories, friendships, mistakes, discoveries, and the emotional life of collecting.

Mitch Katz — Time Eternal - Mitch’s watch-related crime novel, expanding his writing from collector memoir into fiction involving watches and watchmakers.

George Daniels — Watchmaking - Essential reading on one of the most important independent watchmakers of the twentieth century and the intellectual foundation of modern artisanal watchmaking.

Roger W. Smith - Important for understanding how legacy, apprenticeship, and storytelling helped preserve and extend the work of George Daniels.

Derek Pratt - A crucial but under-recognized independent watchmaker whose contributions deserve greater public attention.

Ulysse Nardin Freak - One of the most important modern experimental watches, especially in relation to silicon components and avant-garde technical watchmaking.

Thomas Prescher - Significant for multi-axis tourbillon development and independent technical experimentation.

Stephen McDonnell - Important contemporary watchmaker associated with major technical work, including MB&F’s Legacy Machine Perpetual.

Andreas Strehler - A deeply accomplished independent watchmaker and technical specialist whose behind-the-scenes work has shaped important modern projects.

Habring² and Marco Lang - Examples of independent watchmaking rooted in bench experience, craft, and long-term technical seriousness rather than hype.