Numero 183
Alessandro Ciani
Dieci Caffè
Alessandro Ciani is a major player in the international vintage watch market scene, a world he has navigated since the late 80s. His name and business are known and appreciated among collectors and professionals worldwide. Originally based in Rome Italy, he has been a Los Angeles resident for the last fifteen years. His original, and occasionally controversial, views on understanding and appreciating vintage watches have made him a unique voice in an otherwise typically mainstream environment. He has been involved in the marketing of high-end vintage watches for years and is currently operating through his two restoration workshops but is mainly a scholar, opinion maker and author, ranking among the world’s top 100 online influencers of the industry. Alessandro has explored the vintage watch world in its every aspect and is acknowledged as being one of the world’s great experts in his field.
As lame as it may sound, most of what I do in my life is connected to my work. In fact, I like to think of my occupation as a lifestyle, rather than a way of making a living. Things change over the years – I am a lot more passionate about vintage watches restoration today than buying and selling, and I certainly invest more time in historical research and writing now than ever before – but old watches are truly a passion that I hardly take my mind off of. Outside of this, and besides trying to make as much time as possible for my family (who basically all moved back to Italy now!), I love taking my small boat out to the Channel Islands where, with the pretext of fishing (I hardly ever catch anything), I spend long hours in solitude regenerating my mind and soul in the immensity of the outdoors.
I have spent three very formative years in the US back in 1980, transitioning from High School to College. That experience etched an indelible – and by good measure idealized- memory that I carried with me ever since, on top of changing the direction of my life forever. I always wanted to come back and reconnect with those feeling, and also resolved to offer my daughters the same opportunity to broaden the limits of the future they would decide for themselves. Why Los Angeles? Pure chance. But it didn’t take long for me to build a deep bond with this immense, uniquely diverse city.
This is the question that took me the longest to answer. Los Angeles is a place where I experienced a number of memorable moments that literally define who I am today, it’s hard to pick one in particular. So, I will go for one particular memory I know I’ll never part with: that unique sensation that I felt the first time and keep feeling every time while slowly, lazily driving through a myriad of semi-deserted roads, cutting away from the freeway traffic of the City of Angels under the scorching sun, alone with my thoughts, looking unto a world that appears as some Wim Wenders’ movie in which I absurdly happen to be in. I know this memory will never leave me, possibly presenting itself as a deja vu wherever I will happen to be next in any possible future.
The vast, open spaces of some American post industrial landscapes resonate with me in a particular way. Why, I couldn’t tell: maybe because they remind me of my earliest days in America, when everything appeared to my eyes full of wonder as immense, desolated, somewhat neglected – in stark contrast with the other glittering, rich face of the country, the only one I had learned about through cinema and television – and yet bearing the mysterious promise of a fantastical future. Huge, sometimes abandoned warehouses, railway hubs where old carts rest in disuse, secondary avenues where art rests in glorious graffiti: Downtown Los Angeles offers many of these magical spots.
I am obviously intrigued by Alexo’s work, otherwise you wouldn’t be reading me right now. I personally like the black and white portraits and find the idea of creating a permanent memory of the many different stories that make all of us, so different from one another, part of a very same, unique one: I am fascinated by how this project reminds us of how our destinies are intertwined, often unbeknownst to our distracted minds and hearts.
I believe we can all agree that our Italian background has given us the extra edge that has proven decisive in integrating into this completely different social fabric. It sure has for me, at least. Also, the Italian identity that the immigrants of the beginning of the last century had been penalized for, is nowadays something I can wear on my sleeve with pride: I feel fully part of the local community, but am also conscious at all times that I am a proud representative of an extraordinary culture and way of life.
I will not get into the details of brands and models, but will tell you what kind of watch I would be, the why being relatively self-explanatory. An aspiring ideal would be that of one of the great collectible classics, although not necessarily the proverbial Patek Philippe, Rolex or Cartier: it would be however a solid Swiss artifact from the golden age of watchmaking, let’s say between the late 30s and the early 70s; then, its metal case – gold or steel, indifferently- would have to appear aged, lived in, with all the scratches and dents that tell the story of a long, intense life but still showing some if its true original factory patina, with no sign of polishing, buffing, or other attempts of embellishing. Under its slightly yellowed and scratched crystal, the dial must appear perfect, crisp, vivid, flawless: the only signs of its time in the watch being the warm tone of the of the aged phosphorus material the fills the hands and the hour markers.
