Ed Faber
The Man Who Learned to Love Watches.
Ed Faber didn't begin his career as a watch expert. In fact, when he first encountered watches, he wasn't particularly interested in them at all.
In the 1970s, Ed and his wife Patricia were building what would become Aaron Faber Gallery, a New York destination devoted to jewelry and design. The gallery began with the emerging American crafts movement, showing jewelry made by artists who were trained in art and design and chose to make a living with their hands. Then, in the 1980s, a man named David Saunders walked into the gallery carrying something Ed had never really considered part of the business: vintage American wristwatches.
Ed's first response was essentially, go away. Saunders persisted. He offered Ed 25 watches to put on the gallery shelf. Within two weeks, about half had sold.
That changed everything. Ed began studying watches, learning from collectors and specialists and eventually traveling to Switzerland and developing relationships with dealers and auction houses throughout the European watch world. His interest wasn't simply in the mechanics of the watches. He was fascinated by their design – the way American watchmakers translated function into distinctive forms, dials, cases, and details.
Hamilton and Illinois became favorites. Ed has described the porcelain dials of early Illinois watches, with their distinctive “telephone dial” numerals, as nearly impossible to beat. In 1988, Ed and Stuart Unger published American Wristwatches: Five Decades of Style and Design, helping establish Ed as an authority on the history and design of American timepieces.
But watches were never the whole story. Aaron Faber Gallery has always maintained a parallel commitment to jewelry – particularly contemporary studio jewelry created by artists and designers. Today, the gallery presents the work of more than 50 established and emerging contemporary jewelry designers, alongside classic jewelry, vintage pieces, and collectible timepieces. That combination reflects something fundamental about Ed's way of looking at objects.
A watch isn't interesting simply because it is expensive or mechanically complicated. A piece of jewelry isn't interesting simply because it contains precious stones.
Design matters.
So does craftsmanship. So does history. And, perhaps most importantly, there is the emotional connection between an object and the person who chooses it. Ed has spent decades learning how to recognize that connection. He still pays attention to what is happening in the watch world, still follows auctions and collector communities, and still has watches he'd love to find – including a particularly elusive Patek Philippe with an enamel dial from the 1950s.
But there is no suggestion that Ed's interest is purely academic. As he puts it, you can't stay in the business if you don't love it. And that's probably the best way to understand Ed Faber. He didn't discover watches because he was looking for another business.
He discovered them because he learned to see them differently.
Explore Aaron Faber Gallery
Aaron Faber Gallery continues to specialize in contemporary studio jewelry, classic jewelry, and collectible vintage timepieces, along with appraisal, repair, restoration, and estate services.