Wynn Magazine - Las Vegas
Issue link: http://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/120116
Sunlight streams into Encore's Retail Esplanade, where IWC Schaffhausen, Jaeger-LeCoultre, and Piaget recently debuted their boutiques, joining the exceptional roster of luxury watch and jewelry brands found throughout Wynn and Encore. STATUS, SYMBOLIZED Steve Wynn talks about creating an irresistible destination for lovers of luxury watches, and the one timepiece that's never far from reach. BY LAURIE BROOKINS PHOTOGRAPHY BY JEFF GREEN P icture a well-dressed man striding up Broadway circa early 1950s, his swagger partly due to the expert cut of his custom $500 suit (a princely sum in those days), which he has thoughtfully paired with a cashmere overcoat and a white-gold watch by Vacheron Constantin. Steve Wynn smiles at the pre-Mad Men image he has conjured, largely because it's a highly personal one: That was his father, Michael, and the watch in particular resonated with the preteen Wynn. "Before I knew a Timex from a Mickey Mouse watch, I knew that a Vacheron Constantin meant something," he says. "It sent a signal that you were a man of means and that you exuded a certain confidence. I never forgot that." Indeed, Vacheron Constantin enjoys one of the most storied histories in watchmaking: Founded in Geneva in 1755 by Jean-Marc Vacheron (François Constantin would join the firm in 1819), it's one of the oldest timepiece brands in the world, favored by Napoleon Bonaparte. At the time he purchased the watch, Wynn's father likely knew that Harry Truman and the Duke of Windsor were fellow owners. "On my first trip to Switzerland, many years ago, I was walking by a Vacheron boutique and I thought of my dad, and I had to go in and buy one," Wynn says. "Society has always been attached to its symbols—we love to festoon ourselves with images of possession. That idea hasn't really changed throughout history. Our costumes may have changed, but the watch is most definitely among the most enduring elements of the statement we make through what we wear." Wynn still owns that Vacheron, and for someone who could possess quite literally any watch on the planet, it's telling that the timepiece he purchased partly for sentimental reasons shares company with relatively few others: a Pasha de Cartier given to him when Wynn opened his eponymous hotel in 2005 and a pair of Rolex Day-Date Presidents, one in 18k rose gold with a chocolate dial, and the one you see on his wrist most often, crafted in WYNN 018-024_W_FOB_SteveWynn_Spring_13.indd 19 19 4/4/13 4:48 PM