The Countdown | An Archivist Who Doesn't Stop at Watches
'That 5513 and Tank Cintrée made me realize getting a rare watch wasn't enough.'
Walking into Artifact New York is like entering a museum without any guide or placards. There’s a sense that all 3,000+ pieces in its archive have been thoughtfully chosen by co-founder Hugh Mo Jr. But for most of us who don’t know much about capital-F Fashion, Hugh provides the cultural context that explains why each piece was chosen.
Artifact acquires important vintage fashion pieces and rents them out to stylists for celebrity red carpets, magazine shoots, and other occasions where looking like you understand culture matters as much as looking good.
But inside, Artifact feels more like an archive. Hugh’s quiet and unassuming, even though his inbox is filled with rental requests for A-listers. The team of five has outfitted Sabrina Carpenter’s album cover, Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl shoot, and a whole lot more. It’s fitting that their New York City office overlooks the Fashion Institute of Technology.
Hugh’s interest in fashion and watches began around the same time.
“I convinced my mom to get me a modern Submariner when I graduated college,” Hugh said. From there, he started to notice watches in pop culture—Kanye, Tyler, the Creator.
He admits the first few vintage watches he bought after that, he “bought pretty incorrectly.” A Submariner ref. 5513 that had been polished and recut, but not in a good way. A 1970s Cartier Tank Cintrée that caused a year of headaches.
“But they’ve been welcome mishaps,” he said. “I could stomach those losses, and they ended up teaching me a lot about myself.”
Last winter, I visited Hugh at Artifact’s New York archive to chat watches and fashion. His instinct as a collector runs through both, prioritizing objects that carry cultural moments more than chasing the rarest or the flashiest.
The Countdown is Unpolished’s regular collector feature. It’s a look inside the mind of an enthusiast with a simple 3-2-1 format:
3 watches that define their taste
2 objects they love beyond watches
1 piece of advice
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3 Watches
Cartier Tank Asymétrique
Hugh didn’t start with the Asymétrique—that Tank Cintrée came first. He was drawn to the Cintrée, in part, because that’s what he thought he should like. It’s the one “big collectors” talk about. He ended up buying a ‘70s Cintrée that taught him a lesson instead.
“I wasn’t so conscious of avoiding minefields at the time,” Hugh says. When he bought that Cintrée, he figured it’d be the first in a focused Cartier collection that would reach even further back into its history.
But then he sent it in for service, and it was gone for a year. Moisture exposure, missing gaskets, dial repairs.
“[Cartier] restamped the dial. Some dealers called it a service dial, and didn’t want to sell it,” he says. Eventually, he got rid of it. Instead of sending him backwards in Cartier’s history, it all made him look towards more recent production.
But he still liked Cartier, so soon after he landed on a CPCP Tank Asymétrique from 1996. He’d first noticed one at an auction preview, before the hype dragged prices of every Cartier up.
“That Cintrée ended up being quite formative for my collecting,” Hugh said.
It made him more condition and detail driven. “That 5513 and Cintrée made me realize that just getting a rare configuration or watch wasn’t enough.” Looking back, he admits he was an “eager beaver, hunting rarity for rarity’s sake.”
Patek Philippe 3971 Perpetual Calendar Chronograph ‘First Series’
“I was going through the first Futuregrail catalog and saw it,” Hugh said. This was in 2022, before neovintage Patek Philippe really took off. Hugh said he was attracted to perpetual calendar chronographs the same way he used to like Jordans, but only colorways Jordan actually wore—the lineage at the core of everything else.
Patek introduced the 3971 alongside the 3970 in 1986, the successor to the ref. 2499, and 1518 before that. The 3970/71 are identical, except the 3971 has a snap-on sapphire caseback (instead of solid gold). It’s estimated that only about 100 first series 3970/71s were ever made. Lucky for Hugh, he found this one just before they got white hot.
“I threw in a single bid and got it at the low reserve.” He didn’t exactly expect to get it, and ended up selling a Lange and a vintage Speedmaster to fund the acquisition. “It sped up my collecting in a way,” he said.
“Sometimes the power of getting to the next thing you want is enough to make you cut bait with whatever you have.”
🤓 Here’s my Collector’s Guide to the 3970
Rolex Daytona 6263 ‘Big Red’
“Anyone who doesn’t know watches would probably pick this as the best in the collection,” Hugh said.
It’s a Rolex Daytona 6263 “Big Red” from 1978. Black dial, bright red “Daytona,” Mk 2 pushers. Nothing special or unique about it, just a great vintage chronograph in solid condition.
“Sometimes, we get so crazy about, I want this 1-of-25 Lange, and forget to think about a watch’s enduring qualities or aesthetic appeal.”
When Hugh first got into watches, he’d see celebrities wearing a rose-gold Daytona on Oysterflex or something flashier like a yellow-gold Royal Oak 15202. It influenced him—“that’s where I thought my collecting would go.”
Eventually, his taste in watches and fashion evolved.
“I like lived-in things that show life,” Hugh said. “Now, I can’t imagine walking into a luxury store and buying new clothes.”
🎧 Unpolished Podcast: How to Collect the Vintage Rolex Daytona in 2026
2 Objects
Hugh collects fashion the same way he collects watches, where what the piece means is more important than the label.
Alexander McQueen Mask (from Autumn/Winter 1996 ‘Dante’ Collection)
“[Alexander] McQueen’s ‘96 Dante collection is probably one of the most impactful of the past 30 or 40 years,” Hugh said. The show was staged in a candle-lit church, where models walked down a crucifix-shaped runway to a soundtrack of organ music and gunfire. A skeleton was seated in the front row.
In the collection, McQueen wove together religious robes and iconography with military uniforms and imagery. It vaulted McQueen from a young British provocateur to visionary. The next year, Givenchy hired him as its artistic director.
This crucifix mask is the defining piece of the Dante collection. Fewer than a dozen were made, and only a few have reached the public. If it were for sale, it might cost $30k.
“It’s been spammed by pop culture,” Hugh said. David Bowie famously wore the mask. Nine Inch Nails used it in a provocative music video. And then, Kanye wore it. Some claimed Kanye’s was fake, but he rented it from Artifact.
It’s kind of like a “hype” watch—even as it becomes a cultural meme, the importance remains.
Raf Simons Bomber Jacket (from Spring/Summer 2003 ‘Consumed’ Collection)
“This is one of the things I prize most,” Hugh said. It’s a white bomber jacket from Raf Simons’ Spring/Summer 2003 “Consumed” collection. Simons is a Belgian designer—one of the most influential ever, having led Dior, Calvin Klein, and Prada—but collectors chase his early-2000s menswear under his own name.
The jacket is a collage: Corporate logos, ambiguous messages, bold graphics. The show notes read: “Today’s living environment is about consuming as well as being consumed; some suggest this could lead to an apocalyptic end, while others, particularly younger generations, take this reality as their cue to create new, more viable and flexible personas.”
“The jacket’s not the highest quality,” Hugh admits. But that’s not the point. He said it feels like something no one would do in fashion now, where everything is an official collab, and the runway is simply another branding opportunity.
1 Piece of Advice
“Find the people who are experts in one thing and happy to share the knowledge they’ve accumulated.”
“You’ll learn more, and it’ll be more joyful, if you surround yourself with pseudo-scholars,” Hugh says. They’re the ones most excited about the object, and they’ll make you appreciate it even more.
Hugh’s example isn’t a watch. On a recent trip to Vienna, he met a guy focused only on Margiela menswear from 1999–2008—a forgotten era with basically no resale value.
“But he’s so laser-focused on this one thing, talking to him inspired me in so many ways it felt like it paid for my whole trip.”
“It made me appreciate something that I only knew a little bit about. You can get that through books sometimes, but I usually get it from people.”
More:
Hugh was recently on the Standard H podcast—listen here
Get in touch:
tony[at]unpolishedwatches.com
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Woah! Honored, Tony. Thank you.