After years of selling rare timepieces directly off her wrist, collector and gallerist Mahnaz Ispahani Bartos is formally entering the watch market. Known for her expertise in artist-designed jewelry, Bartos will now offer a dedicated collection of unique vintage watches through her New York City gallery, the Mahnaz Collection, located on Madison Avenue.
The curated collection reflects the same careful sourcing that defines her jewelry selection, which features designs by artists, goldsmiths, and architects. “Every time I posted a watch I bought for myself, clients would convince me to sell it,” Bartos said with a laugh. “They were very persistent.”
Among the highlights is a rare pendant watch by Italian-born avant-garde designer Andrew Grima, created during his 1970s collaboration with Omega. Another standout is a gold-and-jadeite piece by Spanish designer Augustin Julia-Plana for Schlegel & Plana—also from the ’70s. Though lesser known, Julia-Plana worked with top names like Chopard and Tiffany before his untimely death at 41. “He specialized in really unusual stones,” Bartos said.
Born in what is now Bangladesh, Bartos’s appreciation for jewelry began early. She recalls wearing antique pieces gifted by her grandmother on her dolls’ ears—items later lost when her family fled during the 1971 revolution. As a teen, her mother gave her an Omega watch designed by Grima, which she still owns today. That early experience shaped her collecting philosophy.
Bartos didn’t initially focus on watches when she opened her gallery in 2013. But as she acquired jewelry from artists who also designed timepieces, she felt compelled to include both. “If a jeweler made both jewelry and watches, how can I not collect both?” she said.
Her scholarly approach stems from a past career in international relations, where she worked with the Ford Foundation and the Council on Foreign Relations. She applies the same diligence now—researching each item, creating detailed catalogs, and mounting museum-style exhibitions. Her upcoming Italian collection has been nearly a decade in the making.
In her vault, Bartos holds watches by designers such as Ettore Sottsass, waiting for the right time to share them. “Some pieces we don’t show for years,” she explained. “It’s all about finding the right moment.”
The collection includes exceptional mid-century pieces from brands like Patek Philippe, Jaeger-LeCoultre, and Omega, with designs from the 1950s to the 1970s. All feature Swiss manual-wind movements, and each carries a story waiting to be told.
With this launch, Bartos brings her deep knowledge and artistic eye to the watch world—offering collectors not just timepieces, but pieces of history.