Meet the GQ 2025 Watch Collector of the Year

This is an edition of the newsletter Box + Papers, Cam Wolf’s weekly deep dive into the world of watches. Sign up here. Please ready your hands and gather your drumsticks, it’s time to announce the GQ Watch Collector of the Year. For the fourth straight year, I enlisted the Watch Illuminati to vote on the person who had the best 2025. As in years past, all the folks here represented the most important quality a collector can have: an unrelenting desire to chase their own tastes and passions. However, voters also focused on those in the hobby who’ve contributed in ways beyond buying their own (insanely cool) watches. The collectors on the podium started watch clubs to bring people together or hosted television shows broadcasting the hobby out to a wide audience. These are GQ’s 2025 collectors of the year. 4. John Goldberger, @ goldberger /Auro Montanari, montanariauro The elder statesman of watch collecting has ranked every single year I’ve put this together. Goldberger is an accomplished author and one of the best collectors in the game. He stays on top because of his unbridled enthusiasm for watches both modern and vintage. Dip onto his Instagram page and you’ll be awed by everything from yellow gold Patek Philippe 1518s (the brand’s landmark perpetual calendar chronograph) and the new Seiko and Bamford Watch Department collaboration . 3. Ronak Madhvani, @ roni_m_29 Let this be a lesson to you, kids: When assembling a watch collection, nothing is more important than devoutly following your own tastes. That’s what put Madhvani on this list for the second time in four years . What’s been exciting to watch about Madhvani’s journey is how his tastes are now colliding with modern trends. He’s picked up shaped watches for years and is now an ardent supporter of Berneron . Cartier brought back the Tank a Guichet this spring; Madhvani has the vintage version . His amazing treasure chest of Patek Philippe pieces designed by Gilbert Albert and enamel-dial watches gives me hope for where the hobby is heading. 2. Wei Koh, @ wei_koh_revolution Wei Koh is a perennial contender for Collector of the Year, but he really strengthened his case in 2025. The founder of Revolution magazine and The Rake brought his infectious love for watches to the small screen in the new TV show, Man of the Hour . Each episode of the eight-part docuseries features a different watchmaker, including F.P. Journe, Rexhep Rexhepi , and Max Busser . Of course, Koh brings heavy artillery to the show and Instagram, where he frequently shares the best and latest from the watch world, photos of him in his signature camp shirts, and the occasional snapshots of his cutie-pie pup Bandit. 1. Lex Borrero, @ lexborrero This year, music industry power player Lex Borrero got together a group of guys for a trip that included a tour of the Mercedes AMG Museum and then a jaunt over to Switzerland to meet with brands like H. Moser, F.P....

Preview: ~500 words