Meet the specialist watch adviser to the celebs who just lately went viral for his savage critique of Love Island contestants.
Nico Leonard Van Der Horst (34) runs a high-end watch store in Belfast and has suggested Premier League footballers, musicians and a few of the largest YouTubers on the earth about what watches to purchase.
He just lately went viral with a video takedown of a few of the “chrono no-no” timepieces worn by contestants on Love Island this summer time.
Nico, whose movies have greater than 10 million views on-line, beforehand suggested former Love Islander Wes Nelson on the best way to enhance his watch recreation regardless of by no means having watched the present.
He instructed Sunday Life: “I’m oblivious to most issues on the earth other than watches — it’s actually all I do — however I heard about a few of the watches the blokes had been sporting on Love Island and had to have a look.
“The humorous bit is Wes Nelson texted me to say he had upgraded after the season he was on after watching a number of of my movies, which is fairly rattling cool.
“The watch he had was unimaginable, but it surely was all iced out with diamonds and after-market stuff, like a modification which really devalues the watch.
“When a luxurious watch model like Rolex or Patek Philippe places diamonds on a watch, you could be positive they’re the most effective on the earth.
“Folks at all times assume when a watch is roofed in diamonds, it’s value some huge cash, however that’s not strictly appropriate.
“Diamonds really lower the worth of the watch when added on this approach after the watch is made.
“So, Wes despatched me a video saying he’d removed the bull**** he had been sporting and had some unimaginable items, which is sort of cool.”
Nico, who has shut to 1 million followers on social media, has additionally labored with the Leeds United squad, big-name English YouTube stars and British pop-rockers The Vamps.
He continued: “I sorted out watches for your entire Leeds United crew. The proprietor purchased them a load of watches after they bought promoted to the Premier League, in order that was fairly cool.
“I’ve additionally labored with some large YouTubers, like KSI and Ethan Payne, aka Behzinga, who purchased a brand new watch just lately. Additionally Calfreezy, who is among the largest YouTubers in Europe in the mean time.
“I’ve labored with some very high-profile musicians and footballers too, most of which I can’t go into, however I imply huge business stars like The Vamps, which was an ideal challenge to work on.
“(I’ve additionally labored with) Joshua Weissman, who's just about the largest YouTube chef on the earth, and I’ve labored with prime businesspeople in addition to Center Jap royalty. It’s fairly diverse.”
Nico, who's initially from Leiden within the Netherlands, defined how he had determined to dedicate himself to his ardour for watches after his twenty first birthday and later randomly selected to journey to Belfast to understand his dream.
He mentioned: “I’ve at all times been obsessive about watches, however I didn’t come from a spot the place sporting Rolexes was regular. I’m from a really hard-working, decrease middle-class household from the Netherlands.
“I used to be at all times fixated on fixing watches, taking them aside and placing them again collectively and stuff, but it surely was by no means potential for me to purchase a watch like those I’m dealing in now.
“I simply determined to give up my job in a name centre sooner or later a number of years in the past and do one thing I really like, which is watches. I used to be residing within the Netherlands and I simply needed a brand new scene and a brand new problem. I didn’t know something about Belfast or Northern Eire or Eire.
“The day after my twenty first birthday, I packed my stuff into my Volvo V40 and simply drove to the harbour in Amsterdam and bought the ferry to Belfast.
“I knew from that second I wanted to determine some s*** out. I took out a mortgage of £20,000 in 2017 to start out my enterprise. I purchased a handful of watches and was promoting them out of the boot of my automotive for some time.
“Then I began an Instagram account and began speaking about watches on-line. It was robust at first, however after some time I partnered with The Service provider earlier than opening my store there. It’s known as Pleasure and Pinion.
“They gave me that chance which was unbelievable and we’ve gone from energy to energy. We promote watches all internationally from there now, which is nice.
“After organising our YouTube and getting that going, we’ve had a number of viral successes and simply proceed to promote watches all around the globe. It’s fairly f*****g loopy.”
Pleasure and Pinion watches could be discovered at https://prideandpinion.com
