Phillips in Association with Bacs & Russo is a proud sponsor of the Horological Society of New York (HSNY), one of the most influential horological associations in the world. The Horological Society of New York is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing the art and science of horology through education, and Phillips is thrilled to once again host the organization's annual charity auction, with all proceeds going toward supporting the HSNY's goals.
– By Logan Baker
Mary Raso was one of the more than 250 guests that attended the 157th Gala & Awards Ceremony of the Horological Society of New York in April of this year.
She was one of only two people there, however, that walked away with a comically large check in hand.
Raso was inside the historic Harvard Club of New York City that night, alongside her fellow Benjamin Banneker Scholarship recipient, Jose Weinberger, to accept a ceremonial giant check worth USD $125,000 on behalf of 20 different watchmaking students from across the United States.
The six-figure sum set a record for total scholarship money donated by the Horological Society of New York, topping the previous record set last year by $25,000.
Raso, 24, is no stranger to the Horological Society of New York. She started attending entry-level watchmaking classes hosted by the organization in 2021, shortly after receiving several vintage watches and clocks passed down from family members.
“I inherited some of their timepieces, and I wanted to find a watchmaker in the city to service them,” she says. “They had incredible sentimental value to me, but being outside of horological circles, I never knew how to fix them.”
After a few bad experiences with disreputable watchmakers around the city, she finally found a watchmaker in Lower Manhattan that not only treated her family’s heirlooms the way they deserved, but also started to slowly teach her how a mechanical watch movement works.
Raso was fascinated. She was captivated by astronomy and astronomical clocks growing up, and for the first time, she was able to begin to understand the practical concepts involved in mechanical timekeeping. It wasn't long before she began to volunteer after work and on the weekends at the watchmaker’s shop, eventually finding her way to the Horological Society of New York.
"It became clear to me that I either had to go all into watchmaking, or my knowledge would just stop at a certain point,” Raso says. “So I decided to go all in. Watchmaking is unlike anything I've ever pursued. I have a lot of hobbies and interests, but nothing quite felt as right as watchmaking to me. The high degree of accuracy and standards that you must have for yourself to complete a movement properly. I also had the perspective of knowing just how sentimental these pieces can be.”
Raso already had a budding career – she graduated from the University of California Santa Barbera with a degree in film and had spent the late 2010s working at an international film festival in Italy and then in Germany.
The choice to move back to New York was motivated by a desire to be close to her family during the COVID-19 pandemic, but she never anticipated falling down the watchmaking rabbit hole so quickly and so deeply.
She made the decision to apply for watchmaking school last year and was quickly accepted by Pennsylvania’s prestigious Lititz Watch Technicum, a two-year full-time program founded and funded by Rolex, where she joined the class starting in fall 2022.
Almost halfway through her official horological education, Raso is even more in love with her new career than she was when she started.
“My goodness, time is passing like crazy,” she says. “It feels like a constant uphill battle, but then I look back and I realize how far I've come and how much I’ve learned. I know that the next year is going to go by in the blink of an eye. I know that this is, like, it's almost over. I just genuinely can't believe it.”
Once Raso graduates, she’ll be certified to the SAWTA standard, a curriculum developed by Rolex to best suit commercial watchmakers in the United States, whether working for a watch brand, a high-end retailer, or their own independent workshop. In fact, when I spoke with Raso earlier this week, she told me that her class just started work on their individual school/student watches that they’ll work on developing and building over the next year.
As for her scholarship? Raso was one of only two students (alongside Weinberger) to receive the Benjamin Banneker scholarship this year, awarded to Black individuals pursuing watchmaking as a career at a full-time watchmaking school in the United States. The scholarship is named after an 18th century self-taught mathematician, astronomer, and horologist, who built one of the first wooden mechanical clocks in North America in 1753.
This is the third consecutive year that the Horological Society of New York has awarded the Benjamin Banneker Scholarship, which provides a total of $5,000 to each winner, broken into four payments and delivered to each winner throughout their studies. Raso plans to dedicate her scholarship funds to help cover her living expenses and necessities such as rent and food while she continues to attend the course full time over the next year.
As for her post-graduation plans? Raso hints at a return to one of her earliest fascinations – astronomy.
“I hope to have my thesis done by the end of this program, which I would like to do on orreries, and astronomical time and complications,” Raso says. “The thesis would be developing the blueprints and the plans, and then my five-year goal post-graduation would be to actually make the orrery. I’d also like to make a ring watch because I'm very interested in ladies' movements; I love servicing them. I'd love to design and, and make a, a small ladies’ movement for a ring watch or just a general ladies’ wristwatch. And I think, with the skills that I'm learning in this program, it won’t be impossible. It's not an impossible goal, which is very cool to say.”
You can learn more about and bid on all items in the HSNY 2023 Charity Auction, right here. One hundred perrcent of the proceeds are going toward supporting the HSNY's efforts in supporting young watchmakers just like Raso.
About Phillips In Association With Bacs & Russo
The team of specialists at PHILLIPS Watches is dedicated to an uncompromised approach to quality, transparency, and client service. Phillips in Association with Bacs & Russo holds the world record for the most successful watch auction, with its Geneva Watch Auction: XIV having realized $74.5 million in 2021. Over the course of 2021 and 2022, the company sold 100% of the watches offered, a first in the industry, resulting in the highest annual total in history across all the auction houses at $227 million.
About Logan Baker
Logan has spent the past decade working in watch-focused media, reporting on every aspect of the industry. He joined Phillips in Association with Bacs & Russo at the start of 2023 as the department's Senior Editorial Manager. He splits his time between New York and Geneva.
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