We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Alessandro Ciani a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alessandro, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.
I began to be curious about high-end watch in first year in college. I actually bought – $ 390.00 – a rare Rolex watch that I normally trade today somewhere around the $ 70,000 figure. I sold it a year later for $ 300.00! So much fr starting with the right foot… a couple of years later, after moving back to Europe, I realized that I had made a big mistake and that, for once, I had seen before most others ahead of the curve of something that was about to become a global cultural phenomenon. I started looking into that little that was available back in the day regarding vintage watches – back then a marginal space of the much bigger world of antiques – and devouring all the information available, be it books, magazines, auction catalogs, to fuel my insatiable passion and curiosity. I was 20 years old: the rest is history.
Alessandro, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I started with a single watch, plenty of passion and a lot of ambition. I was so eager to create an opportunity for myself to become a professional in a world that fascinated me in spite of my absolute lack of resources, knowledge and connection, that I just disregarded all the hurdles that lay ahead, and started devoting my every available minute to achieve this goal (I was twenty years old and working a regular job). Thirty-five years later, I can say it has been a great ride: I owned some of the most amazing timepieces ever made, traveled literally everywhere across the globe, had the opportunity to make incredible friendships, met all sorts of interesting, extraordinary people and ultimately created a fair safety net for my family. But one thing I am particularly proud of is that I never have never been a hard competitor to anyone. Quite the opposite, actually: I always shared what I have learned – sometimes the hard way – to pare others the pains of those challenges; I never kept any of my resources secret and proactively supported many a young aspiring new dealer to climb his way to the top. Through painstaking efforts and multiple failures, I have put together a phenomenal team of talented young professionals teaching everythingI know to help perpetuate the lost art of watchmaking and, especially, vintage watch restoration, my legacy in the industry I devoted the best years of my life to.
How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?
In my industry you need some serious capital, especially nowadays. This being said, it shouldn’t discourage anyone from getting into it. More affirmed business owners and collectors will be those who will offer you the resources if you can prove your trustworthiness and deliver what is expected of you: actually a tad more, if possible. To my surprise, I met along the way bigger dealers who were happy to take me as a partner in significant acquisitions fronting my part of the money in exchange for my time, and collectors who trusted my judgement sending me out there to operate on the market with their money to build their collections. .
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
If you are planning to have an interesting life and have the tenacity to pursue real long term objectives, expect this to happen multiple times during your journey. I experience a number of these moments, both in my career and personal life. However, I have clearly one in my personal history that changed everything. I gave up college halfway through to get a full time job that would give me immediately the financial independence I so much craved. It was a good job in the banking system and, for any number of reasons, my career took off at very fast pace: five years into it, I had a managerial position and a direct line with president of the bank: the future was already holding for me a path to professional and financial success. However, by then I was also already in love with a different future, where I was just moving the first steps with no certainty in the future whatsoever. Quitting that job to start the life I wanted has been one of the hardest decisions I have ever made, giving up security, career, the lucky strike that had already fallen upon me and so many others could only dream of. Yet, I held my breath and jumped, having decided that I was either going to have my shot at the life of my dreams or nothing. So, my lesson was: don’t make stupid decisions gambling on the toss of a coin; but if you know in your heart that you are ready for the challenge, give yourself the trust you deserve and open that door.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://alessandrociani.com
- Instagram: @alexcianivintage
- Facebook: Alessandro Ciani, Luxury Vintage Concept Inc
- Linkedin: Alessandro Ciani
