Just because this developing story is happening right here in Dallas where WCL is based, we are covering this story that is outrageous, to say the least. After doing our research, we found information that claims that The Timepiece Gentleman —Gentleman Timepieces— was launched in Dallas, Texas at the end of November of 2017 with a $500 USD profit coming from the sale of a Breitling watch by Anthony Farrer —an ex-convict and felon. In 2018, a relatively young Dallas-based vintage Rolex dealer named Marco Nicolini decided to join the venture. Today, despite that these two guys are novices when it comes to real watch knowledge, The Timepiece Gentleman claims to be a $10 Million dollar empire.
After becoming a social media sensation with more than 40,000 followers on Instagram and over 110,000 subscribers on YouTube, this Dallas-based grey watch dealer seems to have vanished into thin air with millions of dollars in consignment inventory as well as the hard-earned money from hundreds if not a thousand of individuals that pitched in $2,000 USD each in exchange for being able to buy watches at wholesale prices at the new Timepiece Gentleman store that was supposed to open after raising $2 Million dollars via Instagram. Only 1,000 lucky followers would be able to become ‘partners’ of the empire the Timepiece Gentleman was building ‘at their investors dime.’
Image from Disrupt Magazine. Anthony Farrer and Marco Nicolini.
Some of the watches they would typically post on social media include dozens and dozens of precious metal and stainless steel Rolexes from Daytonas to GMT-Master II and everything in between; more than half a dozen vintage Rolex Daytonas; dozens of Audemars Piguet watches including the latest Royal Oak Concept ‘Black Panther’ Flying Tourbillon, Royal Oak ref. 15500, Royal Oak Chronos, and even a 2018 Royal Oak Extra-Thin; a Richard Mille RM 030 with a baby blue strap, an MB&F LM Perpetual, the just-released Nautilus ref. 5990/1R and many other high-end watches from Patek Philippe and Vacheron Constantin.
Located across from The Hotel Crescent Court in Dallas, Texas, today their store seems to have shut down and the lettering on their glass door appears rubbed off as if they were trying to get rid of it. Additionally, their website and Instagram accounts —personal, business and associates— have been closed and no one knows about the whereabouts of Marco Nicolini, Anthony Farrer, Mike Rudin —Operations Manager— and Dylan Robinson —Sales Manager.
After doing our own research and trying to get in touch with employees at ‘The Timepiece Gentleman’ we couldn’t get a hold of anyone. No one answers the phone and no voicemail was active at the time we wrote this story.
The Timepiece Gentleman always seemed like a ‘smoke and mirrors’ type of business. How do you go from selling watches out of a briefcase full of preowned beat up Rolexes worth less than $50K to flying private, driving exotic cars, spending $17,000 USD at Nusr-Et Dallas —as they would brag about it on YouTube—, or dining four times a week at Nick & Sam’s Steakhouse —one of Dallas’ hot spots— overnight? It just didn’t seem right to be quite frank and we feel awful about those that paid the $ 2,000 USD for nothing.
When we saw these guys asking for funding through Instagram to open a new store, we knew something was not right. What looked like a watch empire built overnight is now more like a crumbling sandcastle. Why on earth would people even consider funding someone’s new watch store with their hard-earned cash?
The Timepiece Gentleman gained notoriety and a huge following thanks to piggybacking on famous grey watch dealers and Instagram/YouTube watch celebrities like @MatthewTheJeweler —TA Jewelers in Los Angeles, California, @RomanSharf —Founder and CEO of Luxury Bazaar—, and even @Watch.Eric —formerly at CRM Jewelers in Miami, Florida.
The titles for their YouTube videos were always over the top and these are just some of them: “We Wasted $17,000 at Salt Bae (Nusr-Et)”, ‘“I Spent $500,000 In 15 Mins At The Miami Watch Show 2021” and “Delivering a Clients Watch On His Private Jet.”
Here is their last YouTube episode uploaded on June 25th, 2021. See for yourselves how unprofessional these guys seem to be and why today we are not surprised that they seem to have just vanished like this.
We will continue to investigate this developing story and publish more if anything else comes up. Hopefully, they’ll come clean and refund the investors the money they got from them a few months ago.
Stay tuned!
