In the late 1990s, as a college student at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Va., Nicholas Pelzer aspired to be an actor or hip-hop poet. With those goals in mind, he was a fan of the actor Will Smith, who straddled both professions.
So when Mr. Pelzer graduated in 2001 with a Bachelor of Science degree in communications, his parents gave him an especially appropriate gift: a stainless steel Hamilton Ventura, the angular watch worn by Mr. Smith in the 1997 film “Men in Black.”
“I think they tried to give me something that was both useful and would resonate with me, knowing what a big fan I was,” Mr. Pelzer, 46, said over a cup of tea at a cafe in Midtown Manhattan, near his workplace as a senior director at a nonprofit philanthropic investment organization.
Horology hadn’t been part of their deliberations, although Mr. Pelzer had been wearing a beat-up Seiko. As he put it, “I wasn’t a watch guy before that.”
Mr. Pelzer wore the Ventura, a reissued model that he said cost his parents a couple hundred dollars, for nearly a decade. During that time he settled in New York City, where he switched gears and earned a master’s degree in public administration from Baruch College and a doctorate in education from Columbia University.
Gradually, he began to learn more about the Ventura, which Hamilton introduced in 1957 and initially was made famous when Elvis wore it in the 1961 movie “Blue Hawaii.” “I went down a rabbit hole of Googling it,” he said. “I found out that it was based on a design from the ’50s, and the first battery-powered mechanical watch.”
And by 2013, he was collecting watches from a variety of brands, including 1970s stainless steel chronographs by Seiko and Hamilton, and a rugged Omega Flightmaster from the same era. On eBay, he bought a few Venturas, too — the watch still was an obsession with him — although these purchases, Mr. Pelzer said, “weren’t in great shape.”
In 2016 he found a more collectible watch, in good condition, that had distinctive contours similar to the Ventura: a 14-karat gold 1960 Hamilton Electric GE Pacer. He purchased it online for a few thousand dollars from Jarett Harkness, a watch retailer in Texas who specializes in vintage electric timepieces.
Then in 2018, Mr. Pelzer bought another, even rarer watch from Mr. Harkness: an 18-karat gold 1958 Hamilton Electric Ventura that was produced in limited quantities, intended for sale in South America. The watch cost about $10,000, and Mr. Pelzer also traded in a few more moderately priced watches from his collection as part of the deal.
But the Electric Ventura had never been worn, a big part of the timepiece’s appeal for Mr. Pelzer.
“His nickname is ‘Condition Nick’ because he always wants the best example of any watch he’s interested in,” Mr. Harkness said. “He’s not one to settle for so-so. I think someone in New York gave him that nickname — he told me that they called him that. I thought it was pretty appropriate.”
Mr. Pelzer said he couldn’t remember who gave him the nickname, but added that it was apt. “I’m a stickler for condition,” he said. “I try to find the best version of anything that I get. In vintage watches, there’s an understanding of some use.
“It’s not like I expect everything to be new old stock, but I don’t want something that’s overly polished, I don’t want something that’s banged up, I don’t want something that it looks like it’s been fooled around with.”
His collection of more than 40 timepieces now includes a few Omega Speedmasters, including a limited-edition 1969 Apollo XI version; a couple Breitlings, including a limited edition 1960 chronograph stamped with the logo of Kronometer Stockholm, a now-defunct Swedish retailer; and quite a few Hamiltons. Along the way, he also has sold many of his timepieces, including a Rolex Daytona that he purchased from Oliver & Clarke, a vintage watch retailer in Los Angeles, and sold to finance renovations on his home in New York’s Riverdale neighborhood, where he lives with his wife, their young son and his mother-in-law.
“He’s a very disciplined collector,” Mr. Harkness said. “If something comes in, something usually has to go out.”
Mr. Pelzer said he did have a dozen or so watches in what he called his “main box” and about 30 more in a safe deposit box. But “I don’t even describe myself as a collector,” he said. “I just happen to have a bunch of watches. I collect what makes me smile.”
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