How Collector Charlie Gray Learned to Ignore the Purists and Love Watch Customization

Though Charlie Gray discovered his passion for watches only four years ago, his collection already includes an enviable assortment of sought-after pieces, including multiple Cartier Crashes, a raft of coveted Audemars Piguet Royal Oaks, and even a rare Bulgari x Tadao Ando Octo Finissimo. But that’s not the only thing that makes Gray—who splits his time between New York City and Los Angeles and sells high-end automobiles for a living—an anomaly in the fast-changing realm of haute horlogerie.

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While Gray has become a familiar face in the watch world’s increasingly crowded social-media ecosystem, he doesn’t post his timepieces to his own accounts. Instead, many have gotten to know the 37-year-old through his appearances on vintage dealer Mike Nouveau’s TikTok , which boasts over 400,000 followers. (The two became friends years ago, bonding over music and a mutual love of avant-garde menswear from designers such as Rick Owens.) And yet Gray has a unique take on the hobby: He doesn’t own a single Rolex, could mostly care less about movements, and joyously customizes his timepieces in a market where simply polishing a dial can vastly devalue a watch on the secondary market. To understand his approach to collecting—which is entirely his own—we asked Gray what moves him.

What was your first serious timepiece?
I got into a car accident in an Uber, and my lawyer got me $60,000 in a settlement. I used that money to buy my first Audemars Piguet Ref. 5402 from Cam [Cameron Barr] at Craft & Tailored . It was kind of a crazy story.

How so?
I tried to meet Cam first because I was literally [scoping] every single 5402 that was coming out. I had a sense that the 5402, at that time, was still pretty undervalued. What I loved about Cam is that he never forgot that I was really hunting for it.

Where else did you look?
I had gone to the Keystone. They have the best, and they’re the most expensive. It’s a great place to do market research: Show me this versus mine. And mine is always the worst! This is a joke about me—I like to buy the worst of something and then learn about it afterwards, because I customize everything.

The purists hate customization. Why do you embrace it?
Here’s the thing: Everybody can get on their soapbox and say, “This is wrong. You shouldn’t be doing this.” But the reality is, I don’t care, because it’s my watch.

What was your first entrée into customization?
I saw a watch that [ Cloister Watch Co. founder] Cooper Zelnick did: He took a [Rolex] Oyster Quartz, shaved the cyclops off, created a custom magnesium dial plate, and made a ghost dot that covered the date window. I saw that and was like, “How can we use that vibe and do something different?”

What was the first watch you created together?
My [Audemars Piguet Ref. 5402] homage to Karl Lagerfeld. He had this exact model, but in steel. I literally stripped the entire thing and powder-coated it with black DLC and then created a custom dial based on the same vibe.

How did you end up working on other custom jobs with him?
Because I’m a nerd for finding parts.

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How did you get into sourcing parts just four years into collecting?
I’m just a fucking weirdo, OK?

OK! How many watches do you own now?
I have 15. When I get to 15, I start selling, because I don’t like having that many. I could keep it to 10, but it’s very hard.

Is there anything you’ve found off-putting about collecting watches?
I really don’t love the games that you have to play to get watches from the brands. For example, I don’t buy Patek yet, because it’s another thing I just don’t have the brain energy for.

Your most recent purchase is an AP Royal Oak Selfwinding Flying Tourbillon. That couldn’t have been easy to get.
I bought three shit watches this year to get this one at retail. I got two Offshores and a 38 mm chronograph with baguette diamonds.

Do you wear any of them?
No, I gave them away as presents to friends.

What do you love most about collecting?
Anybody who knows me will tell you I’m the first person to take the watch off my wrist because I really want people to see a Crash—I wouldn’t do this if it wasn’t for the community. Otherwise, it’s not really interesting. Anyone can just collect stuff.

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

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