3-Watch Throw Down: Fred Savage throws down the gauntlet

Time+Tide

Editor’s note: This inaugural episode of 3-Watch Throw Down kicks off a new video series, the first of at least 7 (with more to come), in which we bring familiar faces of the watch world or certified watch lovers/collectors you have yet to meet to the table for a 3v3 watch showdown. Whose 3 watches would you prefer to take home or resonate with more? Well… that’s up to you to decide and let us know in the comments section.

When Fred Savage walks into the not-quite-finished Time+Tide Discovery Studio in New York, he’s not just the kid from The Wonder Years anymore. Sure, that’s the Fred everyone knows, the actor who became an accomplished director and producer. But there’s another Fred Savage now: founder of Timepiece Grading Specialists (TGS), a watch authenticity and condition grading service that brings transparency to the pre-owned market’s wild west. And on this day, amid the construction chaos of what will become Time+Tide’s boldest retail venture, Fred’s brought three watches that tell the story of his evolution as a collector.

The new guard: Gagà Laboratorio Labormatic

Fred starts with what’s currently on his wrist: a Gagà Laboratorio Labormatic in that impossible-to-ignore pistachio green. “These guys are impossibly cool,” he says of founder Ruben Tomella and Art Director Mo Coppoletta. “I will never be that cool, but I can wear their watch.” It’s a design piece through and through: stepped lugs, a crown at 12 o’clock with pocket watch heritage, and a dial layout that announces you’ve been collecting for a while. This isn’t your first watch. It’s not your tenth. The mint green felt very South Florida to Fred, like a vintage convertible in Cuba. It’s a pure conversation starter, representing what microbrands can achieve when they close the gap with the big Swiss houses.

The vintage classic: Rolex Datejust 1603

Then comes the emotional centrepiece: a 1970s Rolex Datejust on a Jubilee bracelet, gifted by his wife for their 20th anniversary. The case back is hand-engraved with “XX”, and when the engraver warned it would be hard to buff out, Fred’s response was perfect: “If I have to buff out the engraving for my 20th anniversary, I’ve got bigger problems.” This is a 36mm “wide boy” with larger indices, the kind of watch that works with jeans or a tuxedo. It’s his argument for a one-watch collection, subtle steel elegance at an accessible-for-Rolex price point around US$5,000. And yes, he’s wearing the same reference Adam Scott just talked about on the red carpet. Dirty pool, Fred. Dirty pool.

The heavyweight: Audemars Piguet Royal Oak 5402ST A-Series

But then Fred drops the hammer. Out comes an Audemars Piguet Royal Oak 5402 A-series, one of the first 2,000 ever made. “I’m an originalist,” Fred explains, and this is about as original as it gets in the Royal Oak lineage. When Gerald Genta designed this steel sports watch with an integrated bracelet in the 1970s, charging an insane US$3,000 for it, people thought AP had lost their minds. This is the watch that launched a thousand ships. Fred’s example, which TGS graded at 7.4 out of 10, has some service parts (an AP-signed crown instead of the original unsigned, a later clasp), but that’s what makes it wearable rather than vault-worthy. The extraordinary slimness of this piece has simply never been replicated in subsequent Royal Oak references. We’re in the ergonomics era now, and this OG Jumbo understood that from day one.