top of page
Marathon SSNAV_Steel Navigator Automatic_Mainspring Watch Magazine_Review_Live Shots_5.jpg

Introducing

@windsmeup

Thus far in our series Women in Horology we had yet to meet a member of the superior gender (women, of course) whose career is actually in horology. We’ve met many women who got into horology as a serious hobby (Emily), a side gig (Meg), or a new career (Sophie and Lucy). So there has been a notable evolution in the profiles we’ve been writing and today’s story reaches a sort of pinnacle. (Though this in no way is an indicator that we should comfortably rest on our laurels as there is much, much more work that needs to be done to promote the female voice in our watch-obsessed community.) Indeed, this profile is about Sanna a.k.a. @windsmeup on Instagram whose entire professional career has taken place in the world of watches. A rare occurrence not only because women do not often get jobs in horology beyond that of sales, but also because Sanna has been working for the same company for close to two decades and has witnessed many changes in our niche world. As we will see, there are things that have not changed and hopefully others that have. 

 

Sanna’s story is one of not only being a woman evolving inside another realm of man’s world, but also of being a professional watch specialist who, despite her outstanding background and experience, had to repeatedly prove her worth and expertise to customers and watch professionals outside of her place of employment. Her story is also one which shows there is light at the end of the very long tunnel of misogyny as she has found, in our community of watch enthusiasts and nerds, that there are many people who are welcoming and genuinely impartial to her gender. It is within this community that she’s created powerful friendships that have grown beyond horology. It is therefore with great pleasure that we’ll be taking a look at Sanna’s path into watches, her job, how she sees her role in it and that of women in general, and the things she’s been working on to make the watch community more welcoming to women. 

Marathon SSNAV_Steel Navigator Automatic_Mainspring Watch Magazine_Review_Live Shots_37.jp

She Got Into Watches On Her Own

 

If you’ve read previous articles from our series Women in Horology, then you will be aware of the following stereotypical reality: it is men who typically bring women into our hobby by either gifting them a watch, encouraging them to photographer theirs, or by overwhelming them with talks about timekeeping devices, so much so that they become curious to know what the hell this is all about. And they always realize that it is not just a world of nerds but a true community whose members are generally welcoming and good. However, that is not how Sanna got into this world. Indeed, when she was about to finish high school she got a summer job at Stockholm based Kalpans Auktioner, an iconic auction house, helping potential clients navigate the pre-auction viewings of items for sale. Once the summer was over she graduated from high school, worked for Kaplans again for a year as a full-time employee but eventually left to pursue another (temporary) path. 

 

What Sanna truly wanted to do was to become a dancer. She studied dancing for three years in Stockholm and for three months in New York City. But at the conclusion of her studies, she realized she wasn’t meant to dance professionally and so she decided to return to Kaplans where she’s held the job of Watch Specialist for the past 11 years. Though it should be noted that she actually did not just return to Kaplans after a 3.5-year absence; she had continued to work there one day a week during the entirety of her dance studies, meaning that she had never left the company. (And perhaps this was a sign that a long-term professional relationship was due to be formed.) Almost as soon as she returned to Kaplans to work full time, she was drawn to watches more than she was to the other types of things that were sold at the auction house—jewelry, silver, and fashion accessories. And luckily for both Sanna and Kaplans, there were few people that were interested in watches and that’s how she specialized in horology.

Marathon SSNAV_Steel Navigator Automatic_Mainspring Watch Magazine_Review_Live Shots_3.jpg
Marathon SSNAV_Steel Navigator Automatic_Mainspring Watch Magazine_Review_Live Shots_7.jpg

And there are many things about watches that drew her to them. Not only does there exist a huge variety of types of watches each coming with its own history and particularities, meaning that there was a lot to learn about them and it sometimes felt—and still feels today—that there will always be something new to learn about horology. And it was also the ways in which Kaplans functioned that helped Sanna specialize in watches: the auction house sold watches at all price points, from 100€ and up (and super super up) which meant that she could afford to buy watches, in other words, she could see herself as a potential customer of the things she helped sell. As she said, jewelry tends to sell for much more money and therefore remained outside of her realm. So Sanna could find interesting vintage watches that were at her financial reach, and it is through working at Kaplans that she was able to start building her personal collection. 

Marathon SSNAV_Steel Navigator Automatic_Mainspring Watch Magazine_Review_Live Shots_1.jpg
Marathon SSNAV_Steel Navigator Automatic_Mainspring Watch Magazine_Review_Live Shots_6.jpg

Building Her Watch Collection

 

Given her 11-year tenure at Kaplans, Sanna sees herself as being both a watch professional and a watch nerd. (I feel that the latter should become an honorific title.) She explained that one has to adopt a nerd-like attitude in order to fully grasp the breath and wealth of the history of horology of the past 150 years. Working as a Watch Specialist she sees many, many different types of watches coming through the auction house, from ok brands to massively luxury ones, and each model she will end up putting up for sale requires that she learns about the brand and that particular reference. Which means that her nerdy mindset has guided the building of her personal watch collection as well, the latter being mostly composed of vintage watches (of course.) And Sanna’s interest changes over time, and she’s currently into a phase focusing on pieces from the 1980s/90s which have intricate dials and details. (Previously, she was into simpler ones.) 

 

Whenever I speak to or interview a fellow watch enthusiast, I want to know how they choose which watches to buy and collect. Some focus on a brand, others on a type of watch, and some simply go by gut feeling—which is a good way to approach about anything in life. Sanna explained that she buys the watches which “hit” her, meaning those which powerfully and organically call for her attention, or hit her horological cords, in the same way many humans, dwarves, and elves were drawn to The Precious. (Too vague of a reference?) And what she’s called to greatly varies and could be anything from a funky Swatch to a vintage Swiss luxury timepiece. So in her collection you will find fun watches, a Breitling ref. 80350 (which we will talk more about a little later), and a red dial Certina, amongst others. As it stands today, her collection is 18-pieces strong. 

Marathon SSNAV_Steel Navigator Automatic_Mainspring Watch Magazine_Review_Live Shots_15.jp
Marathon SSNAV_Steel Navigator Automatic_Mainspring Watch Magazine_Review_Live Shots_33.jp

What Watches Mean to Sanna and "She" the Breitling

 

And that’s another question I like to ask during interviews: what do watches mean to people? And what they mean for Sanna can be best explained by talking about the aforementioned Breitling ref. 80350. A watch she calls Breitney and refers to as “She” and one which takes on multiple roles including that of being a talisman, a lucky charm, and the object equivalent of an emotional support animal. (I’m not being sarcastic here although sarcasm is a second language for French people.) Sanna acquired Her in 2015 and she considers Her to be her first “serious” purchase. (I probably didn’t have to add quotation marks around this word as I know you can all understand what this means.) She wears Breitney for all important occasions, for example important auctions, crucial meetings, and whenever and wherever she needs “that extra friend on my arm when I need extra support.” As corny as this might sound to the non initiated, I 100% relate to Sanna’s experience. 

Marathon SSNAV_Steel Navigator Automatic_Mainspring Watch Magazine_Review_Live Shots_9.jpg
Marathon SSNAV_Steel Navigator Automatic_Mainspring Watch Magazine_Review_Live Shots_29.jp

Her Work as a Watch Specialist

 

I admitted to Sanna that she is the first person I’ve ever talked to who works in an auction house. Although there has been one a few blocks from my house for decades, I never really understood how these types of businesses work. In a nutshell, people bring in watches they want to sell hoping to make some money. They may or may not be into watches, they may or may not have bought the watch themselves—oftentimes these watches are passed down through the generations or gifted—but people do want to know if they are worth something. Sanna’s role is to determine whether or not the watches could be sold at auction, if so, which one (Kaplans holds several of them) and to determine a starting price for the bid. Unlike what you see happen on television, Sanna does not tell people a price at which she thinks the watch could sell right off the bat—each piece has to go through proper examination to be appraised. 

 

Kaplans does indeed hold several types of auctions at different frequencies. They have main monthly auctions during which they can sell a couple hundred watches at prices starting at 100€ and going way above that. Twice a year they hold auctions for special watches—i.e. highly collectible ones—for which they set aside the best finds of the past few months. And they also do Lady’s special auctions once a year—which we will get back to later. So that’s a lot of work and Sanna does not work alone. She works in a team of five men whom she’s been working with for many years. In her capacity of Watch Specialist for a prominent auction house, Sanna also does travel to watch fairs and other watch related events during which she meets fellow specialists and watch enthusiasts. 

Marathon SSNAV_Steel Navigator Automatic_Mainspring Watch Magazine_Review_Live Shots_26.jp
Marathon SSNAV_Steel Navigator Automatic_Mainspring Watch Magazine_Review_Live Shots_28.jp

Being a Woman Who Works in Horology

 

There are two ways in which Sanna described her experience of being a woman in the world of watches. First, there is the part which relates to Kaplans and her colleagues. The second relates to everything else from the customers she deals with to professionals she talks to during events. In the first case, Sanna only had nice things to say about her male colleagues (most of the people she works with are dudes) who have generally been welcoming and inclusive, sharing their knowledge about watches and seeing her as an equal. As you can imagine, Sanna didn’t move from working one day a week at Kaplans’ to becoming a Watch Specialist by magic in one day. After managing viewings for all auctions for a while, she applied for an administrative position within the watch department which she got. Back then, she was interested in watches but she hadn’t yet caught “The Bug.”

 

Three years later, one of her male colleagues became head of the watch department and he challenged Sanna to take on more responsibilities and pushed her to evolve within her role. Over the years and a lot of hard work she became a genuine Watch Specialist and that is when her interest in watches morphed into a passion…or obsession. As mentioned much earlier in this article, Sanna knew that in order to become good at her job she had to adopt a nerd-like mentality to familiarize herself with hundreds of brands and thousands of models—something that is extremely time-consuming and which I wouldn’t have the courage to do myself. But while her colleagues at Kaplans were welcoming and indeed encouraging her to get deeper into her role, the second part of her experience—of being a woman working in watches—is that which indeed relates to customers. And that is when things become different. 

Marathon SSNAV_Steel Navigator Automatic_Mainspring Watch Magazine_Review_Live Shots_10.jp
Marathon SSNAV_Steel Navigator Automatic_Mainspring Watch Magazine_Review_Live Shots_31.jp

She told me that how she’s perceived and treated as a woman by men depends on the situation she finds herself in. Whenever she deals with real watch enthusiasts (read: nerds) she is seen as being an equal as they—male watch enthusiasts—tend to be open and welcoming. (Side note: I’m thrilled to hear that she has had this experience with fellow watch enthusiasts as it is not the case for other female watch enthusiasts, collectors, and content creators.) However, she had to work hard, really hard, to receive the same level of respect from some customers as her male counterparts receive. So the problem is mostly about the customer’s perception of having a woman work in an auction house’s watch department because when they ask to see a watch specialist, they expect to see a man, not a woman. Again, I would like to stress the fact that generally we (humans) mostly see women take on the role of sales representatives for watch brands if not of lower positions. 

 

As Sanna related to me, the truth is that there are many people who would prefer to talk to a man as she can easily sense that whenever people bring in watches to get appraised and that they have to talk to her, they feel the need to let nasty backhanded comments slide. Comments such as “you have to turn it around like this for it to work” (explaining to Sanna how an automatic watch works) or “I want to talk to someone who actually knows watches.” Granted, the later comment is definitely direct and profoundly rude and misogynistic. What’s further true is that when she attends watch fairs and events, she automatically gets handed over gem-set or “Lady’s” watches by fellow male watch specialists to check out. So, as mentioned in the introduction, there is much, much more work that needs to be done to promote the female voice in our watch-obsessed community.

Marathon SSNAV_Steel Navigator Automatic_Mainspring Watch Magazine_Review_Live Shots_11.jp
Marathon SSNAV_Steel Navigator Automatic_Mainspring Watch Magazine_Review_Live Shots_30.jp

The Power and Opportunities of the Lady's Auction

 

Earlier in this article I mentioned the Lady’s Special auctions Kaplans Auktioner puts up once a year*. So let’s talk about them a little more. The first of these auctions was created in 2018 at the suggestion of one of Sanna’s female colleagues who works in Kaplans’ IT department. These auctions focus on nice “ladies watches” at various price brackets and which are ready-to-wear, meaning that they work. This is an important detail as Sanna explained that many vintage watches sold at auction do not necessarily function and that many need a good service after being sold. So the idea was to make it easier for women to want to buy watches by making it possible for them to walk out of the auction strapping a working piece of horology to their wrist. Moreover, the special auctions for women create a safe environment for them to ask their “stupid questions’ without the fear of being judged by men, especially since Sanna is their main interlocutor during these special auctions. (By the way, what do they have to feel “special?”)

 

Naturally, I was curious to know how they define what a lady’s watch is? There isn’t a good answer but there is an easy one: whatever brands typically define as being watches made for women. But Sanna shared that she’s not always happy with the ways in which these auctions unfold because she doesn’t agree with what a lady’s watch is and should be, as she herself doesn’t buy watches that are typically labeled as such. The power of these auctions, then, lies in the opportunities they present to Sanna to do something good with them. Since these events are exclusively for women, she ceases that opportunity to show potential customers watches which are not typically labeled as being for women as she understands that not all of them are looking for models with diamonds or mother-of-pearl dials. Since Kaplans Auktioner has a large catalog of watches, she can add a few extra ones to the show which don’t match the typical definition of what a lady’s watch is and that’s good on her for doing so. 

 

*Beginning in 2025 this auction will occur twice a year.

Marathon SSNAV_Steel Navigator Automatic_Mainspring Watch Magazine_Review_Live Shots_25.jp
Marathon SSNAV_Steel Navigator Automatic_Mainspring Watch Magazine_Review_Live Shots_5.jpg

Conclusion: Sanna's Role in Horology and the Future

 

As we’ve seen, Sanna has taken a unique path into the world of horology compared to many watch people and, more importantly, female watch enthusiasts, collectors, and content creators. Besides Lucy  who now manages Paulin Watches’ marketing, Sanna is the only other woman I know of—but most likely not the only one— who works full-time in horology. But where I know she differs from any other woman who has made a career in our field is when it comes to longevity: 11 years working full-time for Kaplans Auktioner plus a few additional years working part-time. That is outstanding and something she’s worked her buttock off to accomplish. When asked how she sees her career evolve in the mid to far future—a question she loathed being asked—she simply responded that she’s very happy where she is now as she loves the people she works with and that the simply wishes for her and her team to keep on getting better and work on bigger things. Her philosophy to me explains her success and indeed longevity in the business. 

 

More importantly, Sanna is conscious that she has an important role to play for women who want to get into horology and for the community at large. She’s the only woman she knows of who works in an auction house that sells watches in Scandinavia, making her a steward of the female voice in this industry—a male dominated industry—in her part of the world. And while it has been challenging for her to work the Lady’s Auctions since she doesn’t like the terms “lady’s watch,” she’s nevertheless seized those opportunities to broaden women’s options to enter our niche world by presenting them with more options for watches and to make them feel safe to ask questions to another woman—one of the rare ones who work in that capacity. Lastly, for the past few years, Sanna’s work has gone beyond what she does for Kaplans Auktioner as she created a dedicated Instagram account in which she shares photos of her watch collection and of pieces that come through her desk. 

 

I strongly encourage you to learn more about Sanna by checking out her Instagram profile here

 

Thanks for reading. 

bottom of page