Today we’d like to introduce you to Alessandro Ciani
Alessandro, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I became curious about watches during my first year in college, when I was an eighteen years old exchange student at Seattle University . Unfortunately, that was over forty years ago. I bought my first pre-owned Rolex watch a year later in Atlanta, Georgia: it was almost la cheapest Rolex money could buy at the time… a über-rare stainless steel Rolex Daytona ref 6241! I sold it a year later – taking a loss – to finally step up to a new watch. Talk about starting on the right foot. In the back of my mind I knew I was making a mistake, but failed to trust my own instinct: a mistake – that of not having enough trust in myself – I have devoted the rest of my life to make up for. After moving back to Italy, I got my first job and started meeting people from all walks of life. I quickly realized that the world of vintage watches was not just something that fascinated me, but had the potential of spreading much farther. It was only a matter of time until I quit my banking job and became a professional watch dealer.
Back then there were other collectors, especially in the UK, Germany and Japan, but Italian collectors in the 80s and 90s were definitely the biggest group and the ones who were investing the most in this industry, both culturally and financially. I belonged to the generation of dealers whose vision has been decisive to the transition of this market from a local, isolated phenomenon to a global reality.
I spent the best years of my life enjoying some of the most incredible timepieces ever made and learning new things every day, while seeing my passion turn into a true profession. To this day, I buy every piece with the same enthusiasm and excitement I experienced at the beginning of my career: just like the old adage goes, “do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life”.
For the last fifteen years I have been operating my business from Los Angeles, California. I have had the privilege of initiating many young aspiring pros to this world, and am currently working at creating an international network of vintage watch restoration workshops, training young talents who are ready to follow in my footsteps, hopefully keeping my legacy alive.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Of course it hasn’t been a smooth road, but I imagine that every career has its challenges and I just had my fair share of them. I have known dark moments and had my emotional and financial struggles. I have been the victim of robberies, grand thefts, fraud. Competition has been fierce and the blows below the belt countless. But I survived everything to this day with the strength given to me by my passion and the awareness that I am good at what I do: nothing could have changed my mind. The struggles that I have experienced made me stronger and better able to accept that life is not always fair, nothing is easy, and good times will eventually arrive but will not last forever.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Watchmaking is arguably an art, both for the engineering part, the craftsmanship involved with manufacturing – especially when everything was made by hand – and, of course the design part of it. The creativity, the ingenuity deployed, first imagining this objects and then making them become alive, ticking miniature mechanical instruments make of watchmaking an undeniable form of art. Some watches are not just meant to tell time, but celebrate it through the magic of their beauty and mechanical complexity. My work is to understand and interpret this art, offering my vision to other aficionados through watches I occasionally sell, restoration as a service and a decent amount of media engagement.
On top of the original design of these timepieces, there is the added “magic” that the ravages of time occasionally add to the whole picture. Over decades – and sometimes centuries – these objects acquire an individual unique aspect that makes each and every one of them different from the other, even when they are the same model, designed by the same person and manufactured by the same watchmaker. Determining if a watch has further grown into an even more “magic” object, or has just been worn down by years of use – or abuse – is sometimes a complex exercise that requires knowledge, great taste and keen eye: a process not so dissimilar from the of observing and interpreting a painting.
When it comes to watch restoration, not only this ability to understand what makes a watch beautiful beyond its original characteristics is the game changer, but being able to preserve it, enhance it or even re-creating it where it’s lacking, is truly being an artist yourself: what I experience looking at a watch that shows the perfect balance of beauty and aging, let alone when I contribute myself to making that happen, is pure joy.
Risk taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
I have taken many risks in my career, many of which I probably shouldn’t have, as the consequences of failure would have disproportionally outweighed the hoped gain. But I did, many times unconscionably, driven only by a blind desire to achieve a goal, generally the ownership of something I really couldn’t afford or the mere desire to just do things my way. I guess I have been lucky. However, taking risks is what took me where I am today and I can’t but agree with the idea that if you don’t take risks, you will eventually work for someone who does.
Pricing:
- When it comes to pricing, I have always been shy of pushing what I felt were the fair limits. However, my favorite quote with regard to price remains Aldo Gucci’s: “Quality is remembered long after price is forgotten”.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://alessandrociani.com
- Instagram: @alexcianivintage
- Facebook: Alessandro Ciani,Alessandro Ciani Luxury Vintage Concept
