Lee Schrager of Southern Wine & Spirits talks about his Watch Collection

Lee Schrager, Vice President of Corporate Communications and National Events at Southern Wine & Spirits oversees operations in 35 different states and is widely known as the man who started the red-hot South Beach and New York Wine and Food Festivals. This year, he is taking his love of food to film by curating a series of food-related movies for the Miami International Film Festival. With his busy schedule time is always of the essence for him, and almost as important as the instrument that’s telling it. Here the consummate foodie discusses watches.

Do you have an interest in watches? Are you a collector?
I’m a collector. It is a passion that my father has and still has, and I’m a big watch collector.

What are your favorite brands? What is your collection comprised of?
I love vintage watches; I love vintage Patek Philippe’s. I love anything from Audemars Piguet. I happened to love Ulysse Nardin. I wear a lot of Ulysse Nardin. I’m wearing right now an AP, but I love Ulysse Nardin and Patek Philippe. I have Bulgari; I have Cartier. Those are my favorites, but if I had to narrow my watches down my three favorites watches are a vintage Patek Philippe, my rose gold AP, and probably my gold Cartier Roadster.

A few people have kind of taken us through their “watch day,” because we are finding that people who are really into watches and have a large collection will often have a watch they wear for this part of the day, the watch they wear for that part of the day. Do you have a similar kind of rotation?
Not at all. I have to tell you I don’t have a watch that I wear with a tuxedo or particular suit.

And you’re at the vet.
Well I’m wearing it because I hadn’t worn it for a while. I don’t intend to wear a gold watch in the daytime, an all gold watch, I intend to wear one at nighttime. But I change. I have no special day that I wear a watch or I don’t wear this watch with a tuxedo or this watch with blue jeans. You know, I guess if on the beach in the South of France I take my Ulysses Nardin Gold and blue leather band watch. But no, I don’t spend much time picking it out, pairing watches. I just wear what type of mood I’m in.