In the Miami Music Exec Lex Borrero's Watch Collection

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Last autumn, Adam Golden, founder of Miami-based used alert menta watches, began to exchange messages on Instagram with a potential customer whose taste seemed to be easy at first glance.

“I looked at his profile and thought, 'Latin American producer/Talentagent-Zu a stereotypical Miami-Watch-collector who wears these modern, striking pateks and APs,” recalls Golden of thinking, and refers to clocks of high-end-Swiss Brands Patek Philippe and Audemars Piguet.

However, the customer challenged Golden's assumptions from the start. “He asked about these watches who are not their stereotypical watches,” says Golden. “And the first o'clock he shows me is a very rare connoisseur watch. And I said: 'Wow, I have this guy wrong.”

What Golden quickly learned about Lex Borrero, a former manager of Roc Nation Records, who now acts as a co-founder and CEO of the talent, media and entertainment company Neon16 is that his love for watches is in profound. Borrero, who divides his time between Miami and Los Angeles, was born in Colombia, where his father was a businesswoman and his mother. He was 6 years old when he looked at his first chronograph. “I loved the race and loved the culture of the race,” says Borrero Robb report. “And I said: 'Okay, zero to 60 makes sense. So we are time for how quickly our cars drive.'”

As a young adult, Borrero collected G-Shocks and Batman and Spider-Man watches and then quickly switched to his first day Heuer, a Monaco he borrowed from his brother-in-law and never returned. When he continued to deal with the music, he became 19 years old by two brands, especially Rolex and Jacob & Co.: “I tried to buy my first two-tone Rolex GMT,” he says.

Borrero's income was so modest that when he bought the Rolex in a mayor of a mayor in Florida, he had to finance the purchase. At that time he was a manager on the sales area for the Kayak travel company. “Maybe this is in 2005, 2006, and I lost my job a month later,” Borrero recalls. “I had to find out how to pay for this watch. It ruined my credit, but I paid it off at the end. And then I became strong in collecting Rolex.”

Borrero sent a Frederique Constant World Time Watch in the amount of 3,000 US dollars into the world of complications. “Slowly and safely my collection has grown to some important pieces,” says Borrero, now 39, citing a Cartier crash, rare patiks and rare day -Heuer than some of its basic watches. “I was always driven by design.”

For Borrero, the aesthetic details of a watch replace all other qualities, including the price or the ability to give status -as it follows that one of Borrero's favorite watches is a Timex of 100 US dollars whose seconds is “a ball that moves like floating,” he says.

“For example, I always worn 39 millimeters when all 42 and 43s wore with [AP] Offhores. I love the classics what the watches looked on my wrist. And I was able to acquire many watches that people now love when no men wanted them. “

About six years ago, Borrero saw someone who was wearing a Cartier -Crash during the Paris Fashion Week “far before it was super hyped,” he says. “I had never seen this watch and asked and asked about it.” Borrero soon bought a vintage Paris Edition. “Then, maybe two years later, Kanye and Tyler, the Creator, wore the crash and it was like a watch for 200,000 US dollars, 300,000 US dollars when I bought it for 70 giants.”

In recent times, Borrero has started to further explore the Vintage Watch Arena with the help of Golden, whose Menta office can be seen, a room that belongs to Neon16. “We have countless office space in Miami and they searched for an office,” says Borrero. “My CFO is like:” Hey, by the way, we have rented a room for a security guard. Maybe you know him? “And so Adam and I connected.”

In January, Borrero Golden and Yoni Ben-Yehuda, Watch Director at the retailer Materi, knocked on a purchase: the new Tambour convergence clock, which Louis Vuitton introduced in the 2025 LVMH Week. The jumping house model has a polished rose gold housing that covers almost all of its entire face.

“Everyone said:” No, don't understand it “and I said:” I love it, I will buy it. “And in the end I became the first delivery,” says Borrero. “I like the fact that it tells its own story with the scratches over time.”

As a rule, Borrero holds on to his watches. “The keys that I will never sell,” he says. “You talk to the epochs of my life.”

A classic example is Jacob & Co. Five Time Zone Watch. “I grew up in hip-hop and in the music industry, everyone had this watch,” says Borrero. “About a year and a half ago I made a podcast with my three best friends of the high school and we all bought the five o'clock zone clock. I called Jacob and let it deliver it personally because it was our dream watch.”

The more Borrero speaks about his watches, the clearer it becomes: the stories behind his favorite watches, both the watchmaker and his own are even more important than their designs. A recently carried out acquisition at Tiffany & Co. offers an example: “I bought your new, circular Eternity o'clock-you have any kind of diamond cut that you do, including the heart shape,” says Borrero. “I saw it and thought: 'It's so nice. It is a 33 millimeter, but it is incredible. And it has the history of her diamonds on the markings. I said:' Why not? It's Tiffany, right?”