Many of us spend a lot of time daydreaming about turning our passion into a career, but Vincent Brasesco is someone who has made that happen.
Vincent’s fascination with all things mechanical began when his grandfather would take him to antique stores and garage sales.
His love of watches, however, began one summer while working at a summer camp when he was 15 years old.
It was at camp that his friend Greg introduced him to the beauty of vintage watches, kickstarting a lifelong obsession.
After graduating college, Vincent initially worked in finance, but a chance encounter at the Jaeger-LeCoultre boutique in New York led him to be introduced to pre-owned watch specialist Analog/Shift and within 18 months, he was working for them as chief operating officer.
“To say the next four years were an adventure is the understatement of a lifetime,” he says.
“Eventually, I led the successful sale of Analog/Shift to the Watches of Switzerland Group, which, I think, remains an excellent home for and steward for the brand. So, I began looking for the next adventure in watches.”
He found it at watch collector magazine Watchonista, where he now directs the US operations.
“No two days are ever the same here,” Vincent says. “One day our senior photographer Liam O’Donnell and I are time-traveling back to the 1970s in a bar. Next, I’m planning a scavenger hunt through an auction house with our marketing coordinator JJ Owens.”
It is the magic of Watchonista’s storytelling that Vincent is most proud of, with the platform recently locating James Dean’s lost Jaeger LeCoultre watch, and an incredibly important late-1960s pre-moon landing Omega Speedmaster owned by the short-lived yet legendary race car driver Swede Savage.
“I think that is really what our industry is all about — keeping that passion for the mechanical alive and sharing the stories of the brands and people who care,” Vincent reflects.
