We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful George Alexander. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with George below.

George, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. So, naming is such a challenge. How did you come up with the name of your brand?

Aphelion is the word for the point in an object’s orbit where it is the furthest it gets from the Sun. In many ways, this word embodies myself and my journey to the watch world. I studied and worked for years with the aspiration of being a basketball coach, and actually achieved that dream, but it wasn’t sustainable economically to continue to pursue that, so I had to move away from something that was at the center of who I thought I was at the time. Other than God and my wife, basketball was what my life revolved around, so I had to move far away from the Sun, so to speak. I struggle to think of anything much further from coaching than designing and selling watches and jewelry. To add to that, I’m from Buffalo, NY, which is not necessarily a major market for watches, so we’re a ways away from the Sun in that regard. Finally, as a Black man, in a space that is overwhelmingly dominated by people who do not look like me, and trying to not only create a seat at the table, but to create the table for those like me, I feel very far away from the Sun, but still on my path. Adding Maison, the French word for House, for me was about adding legitimacy to the brand as a major design house in the watch world, establishing us in that same light as the brands that inspired us, like Cartier, like Piaget, etc.

George, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

We are a Black-owned luxury watch brand, based out of Buffalo, New York but serving the world, born out of a love of high-end timepieces and a passion for culture, for history, for jewelry, and for nature. Our story began with me pivoting from coaching basketball to working in jewelry. I knew absolutely nothing about jewelry and even less about watches, but was told to learn watches if I wanted to be successful, so I immersed myself in watches, particularly the brands we carried like TAG Heuer and Omega. The more I knew, the more I wanted to know, and I jumped down the rabbit hole of the watch world, eventually dreaming of designing and creating my own.

I’m most proud of the fact that we’re different and bring a unique perspective to what Black owned watch brands can be, being that we were born from a luxury watch background and are dedicated to using design elements that aren’t widely used, but still the utmost quality. An example of this would be our first collection, the Pistris collection, which is available for preorder now. The collection is five tank-style watches with genuine stone dials like lapis lazuli or malachite, among others, and exotic leathers like shark and stingray.

The main thing I would want potential customers to know is that I’ve put my all into building a brand that will be at the forefront, not only of Black Watch brands, but in teaching and encouraging the next generation of Black watchmakers and aficionados. Maison d’Aphelion is very much in and of itself a love letter to our people, our culture, our history, the world around us, and time itself.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Earlier this year, I had reached an agreement with a person who wanted to invest in Maison d’Aphelion in exchange for a stake in the company. We had discussed and agreed upon the terms, the amount of investment and the percentage stake in the company that would bring, and were set to really get the ball rolling, as this investment would have provided some very much needed seed money. Unfortunately, due to differences of opinion and commitment requirements not being met, we had to mutually terminate the agreement, which, while it was the right thing to have happen, cast the timeline of the brand into flux, as I now had no idea where the money was going to come from, and thus no idea when we’d be able to launch, and it made this dream seem so far away. I was faced with the choice to either let it sit like that and keep the dream as a dream, or find a way. God showed me a way and provided the avenue to pursue this and make it happen, and I’m so glad I didn’t let a failed deal be the final chapter, because now I wear my dream on my wrist every day.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

Not exactly a lesson per se, but I had to unlearn impatience. By nature, I’m not the most patient person, particularly when it comes to the things I want to do. In working with a manufacturer and having to learn to trust them with my vision, which was an odyssey in and of itself, and realizing the difficulty of what we set out to do in creating a watch that is very much different from what you would normally see on the market, I had a lot of moments of being anxious and frustrated with the timeline, but also having to decide that I wanted things done right and according to my vision, rather than quick for the sake of putting something out there.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.maisondaphelion.com
• Instagram: @maisondaphelion
• Facebook: @maisondaphelion
• Twitter: @maisondaphelion