In March 2018 Eddie Landzberg went on the spring break vacation he had been dreaming about: A trip to Switzerland to visit the horology museums in La Chaux-de-Fonds and Le Locle, as well as a stop at Baselworld, the world’s largest watch fair.
“It was a little bit different than I expected,” said Eddie, who will turn 18 on Nov. 30. “I thought it would be like an auto show — that you could see all the different things — but all the big brands are very exclusive.”
He recalled a warmer welcome from the likes of De Bethune and H. Moser & Cie, independent watch companies that were showing their wares that year at a nearby hotel. “They were amazed that someone as young as me was interested in these things,” he said in an interview at the Manhattan apartment of his older brother, Zachary.
The mixed reception didn’t mar Eddie’s love of watches. But then he has been passionate about timepieces since he was about 6 years old, when he would scan store windows in Manhattan on weekend trips with his parents from the family home in suburban Tenafly, N.J. (The FlikFlak children’s watch on his wrist at the time was considerably less expensive than the ones he was admiring.)
His parents, both doctors, aren’t really watch collectors, but the time-related keepsakes displayed in the family home, including an 18th-century sundial and a John Poole marine chronometer, also fascinated him.
Eventually he began teaching himself about watchmaking, mostly using online sources after school and on weekends.
“As I got older, I could appreciate the historical aspects, the engineering behind it, the art, the science,” he said. And when he was 15, he assembled the timepiece he wears every day: a large wristwatch cobbled together from parts found on eBay, including an ETA/Unitas 6497 movement, with a stingray strap that he also found online for about $50.
“One thing I like about watches is that it’s a practical way to keep all those things living,” he said.
Watches don’t take up all his time — his activities as a senior at Riverdale Country School in the Bronx include spots on three varsity sports teams and playing cello and bassoon for the school orchestra — but they certainly are a main focus.
One of his college application essays is about John Harrison, the British clockmaker who created the first practical marine chronometer in the 18th century. And he has done summer internships at the National Watch and Clock Museum in Columbia, Pa., and the American Watch & Clock Museum, in Bristol, Conn. (He won’t disclose where he wants to go to college, or what he plans to do afterward.)
Eddie is a typical teenager in many ways — dressed in a T-shirt and chunky sneakers, a smartphone constantly buzzing with incoming texts — but his bedroom bookshelves in the family home feature “Britten’s Old Clocks and Watches and Their Makers” and keepsakes like a 19th century tool used to make watch gears and a red baseball cap with the slogan “Make Swiss Made Great Again.”
In his spare time, he tends to binge on clockmaking lectures streamed on his computer rather than, say, “Stranger Things.”
And he has opinions, as evidenced by this Q. and A. exchange during a recent phone interview:
Who do you consider the most iconic figure in the world?
I’d say [Abraham-Louis] Breguet. He added so much to the things that live on in the watch world today, with Breguet numerals, Breguet hands, and of course the tourbillon that he did. He was really in the forefront of breaking technology.
What’s the best first watch for a young person?
A Swatch Sistem51: It’s the most basic mechanical thing to get people interested in mechanical pieces. Something definitely mechanical for someone first starting out. I guess you could put in that category maybe Hamilton or Tissot, if you have a little bit more money.
What’s a great everyday watch?
Moser has some nice stuff, and they also pride themselves on quality and craft. They are a good balance of everyday wear while having craft, without being too delicate.
Rolex or Patek?
Patek — because it seems as though there’s more care in the historical take and craft.
NATO or leather strap?
Leather — it’s just a more versatile thing.
And leather strap or metal bracelet?
It depends on the leather; it depends on the metal. I’d say a metal bracelet is more comfortable to wear on the wrist — it doesn’t get as sweaty.
What’s the first thing you think of when you hear the word “smartwatch?”
It’s sort of like having a circuit board on your wrist; it’s like strapping a computer on your wrist. It’s there to tell you who texted you, not necessarily the time, whereas a genuine timepiece has time-telling as its main purpose.
Eddie has belonged to the Horological Society of New York for several years. He is not its youngest member (there are several pre- and early teens) but during meetings, when most attendees are in their 40s, he stands out.
“He’s taken our classes; he’s learned how to take apart a mechanical movement and how to put it back together,” said Nicholas Manousos, the organization’s president. “He knows the distance between the barrel and the gear train, what makes the escapement work, so he’s technically minded. He really understands what goes into a watch.”
A couple of years ago at school, Eddie founded his own watch club, the Horological Society of Riverdale, which has a handful of members. (He recruited the faculty adviser, Jessica Shapiro-Weill, in part because he noticed the Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso on her wrist.)
He usually leads the discussion at the group’s bimonthly meetings, going through topics like unusual mechanisms and watchmakers of note.
Eddie has little respect for his schoolmates who wear their expensive watches mostly for show. “They focus more on the name brands,” he said. “I even spotted one of the kids wearing the watch upside down, and I called them on it. There are certain brands that what sells them is their name, not the quality of them, and I think quality should be prioritized.”
Cat Crocker, dean of the class of 2020, said Eddie’s interest in horology is “not something that he flaunts.”
“There are definitely moments when kids wear their passions on their sleeves,” she said, “but this is just something he does quietly, very intentionally and with great interest for himself more than anything else.”
Eddie’s classmates are well aware of it, though, and seem to regard it as simply an intense, if a bit quirky, pursuit. “I just take it and embrace it,” Eddie said. “I feel like it’s my job to help my generation almost sort of keep the tradition living on, so if they want to brand me as a horology guy, by all means go ahead.”
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