Introducing “The Five:” A Unique Panel, and an Afterparty

Watches & Wonders 2026 is here, and several of Luxury Bazaar’s staff are in Geneva. Luxury Bazaar is no stranger to producing video content about all the novelties released at Watches & Wonders, but this year we’re doing something different. Our CEO Roman Sharf is teaming up with four other noteworthy personalities, each with a different background in the watch world, to form a panel known as “The Five.” In addition to creating content together that covers a breadth of perspectives, The Five will also be hosting an afterparty on Thursday night after their panel. We’ll quickly tell you about the crew as well as the details of the events.

Lex Borrero

Celebrated music industry executive Lex Borrero (@lexborrero) is an enthusiastic luxury watch fan who has appeared on several podcasts to talk about watches. He’s an experienced collector, and his long list of professional accomplishments–including two Latin Grammy nominations, founding the successful NEON16 label with reggaeton superstar Tainy, and numerous advertising awards–are all unrelated to the watch industry. So he will bring a unique “outsider” perspective to The Five.

Lex is big on the storytelling aspect of watchmaking, and pays close attention to the design and culture of watch brands. His focus tends to be on the artistic and emotional side of watch collecting, and for many of us, those are the real reasons we buy watches anyway.

Ella Kirby

Ella Kirby (@ellaakirby) is the Digital Editor of one of the publications we respect most here at Luxury Bazaar: WatchPro. When WatchPro reports something, you can count on it to be correct.

Since joining WatchPro in 2024, Ella Kirby has become one of the more visible voices behind their “Women in Watches” initiative, including written coverage of women in the watchmaking industry as well as their inaugural in-person event last month. Ella’s extensive expertise in the fashion industry will surely give her a unique perspective among The Five.

Oscar Strong

After joining London-based high-end watch reseller Official Watches in early 2022, Oscar Strong (@oscar_officialwatches) quickly became the face of the company on social media. If you’ve seen his high-energy approach, you’ll understand why he was the right man for the role.

His knowledge and sheer enthusiasm for the watches he describes–along with the fact that those watches are often insanely expensive and rare–have helped rocket Official Watches past the half-million-follower mark. I have never seen anyone extoll the virtues of a $4 million Patek Sky Moon Tourbillon with quite the same conviction as Mr. Strong.

Andrea Casalegno (Casa)

Known to the online watch community as Casa, Andrea Casalegno (@iamCasa) has managed to successfully walk the line between care-free influencer culture and serious watch collecting. He doesn’t sugarcoat his opinions about watches but he’s not overly cynical, either. If you watch one of his Instagram reels, it’s easy to see why people like him and how he gained almost 50,000 Instagram followers by age 27.

Casa also founded the Milan chapter of Redbar, a popular watch collectors’ meetup group, and is a member of the GPHG Academy (meaning he gets to help choose the winners of the GPHG awards). Although he started out making Italian-language content, Casa now primarily (but not exclusively) makes English videos. He has a passion for independent brands but is happy to talk about Rolex as well.

Roman Sharf

As CEO of Luxury Bazaar, Roman Sharf represents the unapologetic “unauthorized dealer” side of the secondary market. With well over 20 years in the business, Roman was one of the first luxury watch dealers with a large presence on eBay. He was also one of the first creators to make video content about the day-to-day realities of the watch-selling business.

Now as a younger generation of dealers also thrives, Roman has what I would call “OG status” in the industry. Recently, when a collector decided he had to have a steel Patek Philippe 1518 worth about $20 million, Luxury Bazaar is who he called to safely and expertly facilitate the deal.

When is the Party?

“The Five” will host their panel at 7PM on Thursday, April 16 amidst the hubbub of Watches & Wonders Geneva 2026. The afterparty will then take place at 10:30PM local time, but an invitation is required, and the location won’t be revealed until the day it happens. So, if you would like to attend, see the form at the bottom of the Five Unfiltered website to request an invitation. It should be an awesome time.