Mr Market Maker
Alfredo Paramico has spent decades buying and selling some of the world’s most important watches. But in a market increasingly shaped by social-media exposure, Paramico prefers to let the watches speak for themselves. For him, the real currency is trust – built over decades and lost in a single bad deal.
Text by Marcus Dunberg
When he turns his attention to a particular watch, reference or period, others tend to take notice.
“Ultimately, this remains a relationship business.”
Paramico travels around 100 days a year, something he still enjoys. Which is fortunate, because even in a global market where a watch can be discovered in Tokyo and sold to a collector in New York within minutes, proximity continues to matter.
“Seeing someone face to face, having dinner together, handling watches together – these things still matter.”
“I would rather miss ten deals than do one I’m not completely comfortable with.”
Paramico’s journey into watch dealing happened gradually. He was working in investment banking while becoming increasingly serious as a collector. Before long, people began asking for his opinion, then his advice, and eventually his help finding watches.
“I realized that the knowledge, relationships and instinct I had developed as a collector had real value. From there, the transition became quite natural.”
His first serious acquisition was a gold Universal Genève Tri-Compax, bought from Luca Musumeci, the prominent Milan-based collector and dealer specializing in important vintage watches.
For anyone hoping to follow Paramico into the business, his advice is characteristically direct.
“Study first. Trade later.”
Too many people, he believes, want to become dealers before becoming collectors. “Handle as many great watches as possible. Study condition, originality, movements, dials, cases and provenance. Speak to people who know more than you do. And protect your reputation at all costs.”
“Information is not the same thing as knowledge.”
“Discovery can also mean rediscovering something that has always been there.”
Can an important watch still remain undiscovered in a market documented in such obsessive detail?
Fortunately, Paramico says, the answer is yes. Not as often as 20 or 30 years ago, but extraordinary pieces continue to emerge from original families, private safes and collections nobody knew existed.
Discovery, however, does not necessarily mean finding something hidden.
“There are still extraordinary references and watchmakers that the market has not fully understood. I think that is one of the most exciting aspects of collecting.”
There are watches he wishes he had kept. One in particular still hurts: a unique Patek Philippe Ref. 2497 in platinum with emerald Breguet numerals.
“It remains one of the most extraordinary watches I have ever seen, never mind owned.”
“As I get older, I care less about fashion and more about quality.”
The discipline extends to his body. Paramico has trained for decades, beginning when he was still an investment banker. He combines strength work with cardiovascular exercise and tries to train almost every day.
“With food, I keep things relatively simple. I eat cleanly and I’m careful about what I put into my body. Consistency is much more important than following fashionable diets. For me, it isn’t really a program anymore. It is simply the way I live.”
Unsurprisingly, the character trait he considers most defining is intensity.
But he is Italian, after all, and discipline does not have to mean punishment.
“A great plate of pasta or a gelato at the right moment is one of life’s pleasures.”
“I don’t believe there is one watch market anymore.”
After the dramatic rise and subsequent correction of recent years, Paramico sees a market becoming increasingly selective.
“The period when almost everything went up together was abnormal. Average watches will behave like average watches. But exceptional watches, rare pieces in exceptional condition, important independents and historically significant references will continue to be chased by serious collectors.”
He would never simply claim that watch prices will rise. What he does expect is for the distance between the ordinary and the extraordinary to grow wider.
Our fascination with rare and expensive watches, however, is unlikely to disappear. Ultimately, he points out, it has very little to do with telling the time.
“Human beings have always been fascinated by rarity, craftsmanship, beauty, history and objects that somehow survive their creators. A great mechanical watch combines all of those things in something you can wear on your wrist.”
Technology will change. Tastes will shift. Prices will move up and down. But Paramico does not believe that fascination is going anywhere.
Outside watches, his greatest luxuries are simpler: time, freedom, family and friends. Being close to the sea. Travelling, photography, good food and the ability to decide how he spends his day.
“As you get older, you realize that those are much greater luxuries than owning another object.”
