Get to know C’Quon Gottlieb
The 1916 Company Client Advisor and CP Time Co-Founder shares his approach to collection and community building.
Collecting is a deeply personal pursuit, and it is essential to have a trusted advisor who takes a genuine interest in your collecting experience. C’Quon Gottlieb, a Client Advisor and longtime watch enthusiast, understands this well. He believes that he is one of three crucial components in a “circle of passion.”
“There’s the passion of the person who made the watch — this person went to school for a long time and dedicated decades of their life to making this watch. Then there’s me — I’ve dedicated my life to selling this watch, and lastly, the collector who has dedicated themselves to doing what it takes to acquire and enjoy this watch.”
Gottlieb’s distinct appreciation for the world of watchmaking and collecting allows him to approach his work as less of a salesman and more of a curator. For Gottlieb, your collection is an exhibit, and in working together, your collection can shift from singular objects of appreciation to a cohesive vision; highly personal and something to cherish.
Viewing client advising through a creative lens, rather than purely transactional, is a character trait rooted deep within Gottlieb. This vision is a product of his lifelong passion for film, media and music. While growing up in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, Gottlieb spent a lot of time watching movies with his dad, a movie buff and creative himself.
“My father was always into photography. He would be the guy at the horse races on the islands with a very big telescopic lens, taking the finish line photo just for fun,” Gottlieb said. “I remember when he got me a video camera.”
Gottlieb’s penchant for film inspired him to study digital media production in college, where he zeroed in on the art of storytelling. Later in his career, this knowledge would be utilized in our very own The 1916 Company studios, where Gottlieb plays an instrumental part in all the productions he hosts.
There are myriad reasons Gottlieb was drawn to working in the watch industry, one of them being the autonomy he had to be creative in his stewardship.
“Good watch guys are like filters. There’s so much clutter and information, especially now, and my job is to help the client get to their destination,” Gottlieb said. “I’m very charismatic, and I’m very casual. I enjoy bringing people to my level — not everybody wants to go under the engine and look at every gear.”
In turn, some do. And Gottlieb loves pulling back the curtain into his horological insight.
“I don’t look like your average watch person, so a lot of people think I don’t know a lot. When I open the door, it looks like I’m the security person — I have a beard, I’m bald, I have this imposing presence,” Gottlieb said.
“When I offer deep knowledge, it’s almost like a palate cleanser. There was no expectation, so when I go super high, they’re so captivated. It’s always fun for me to play that game.”
Approachability in watch collecting is often the barrier between the wrist and the watch. Gottlieb recognized this distance in his own community and is closing that gap through CP Time. He serves as the co-founder of CP Time, a collectors group dedicated to the love of horology through the lens of Black culture.
“I felt like we needed a safe space in our community, and I didn’t know if one existed. I looked and looked and didn’t find anything,” Gottlieb said. “I reached out to Dr. Al Coombs and asked if he knew of any groups, and he didn’t, so we started one, and it just turned into this beautiful thing.”
Gottlieb not only makes watch collecting approachable, but he also ensures watch knowledge is accessible to clients around the globe, as well as his network of collectors in CP Time. Gottlieb believes in the client-advisor relationship and believes with knowledge comes responsibility. Without camaraderie in the watch space, mistakes happen, and collectors may find themselves thousands of dollars, if not hundreds of thousands, in the direction of a fake watch.
“You see Lil Baby with his fake watch, which was such an embarrassing moment for a millionaire. Take away the fact that he’s a rapper, for somebody who’s at that level to be embarrassed so publicly…he should’ve had somebody,” Gottlieb said.
“Forget me as a salesperson, he should’ve been able to hit me up and say ‘Hey man you think this is real?’ Forget me wanting to make a commission. Guys hit me up all the time and say ‘Hey what do you think about this?’ He should’ve been somewhere in our network.”
Gottlieb’s holistic view of watch collecting and the art of horology is thanks, in part, to his transient nature. He’s lived and worked around the globe, from Alaska all the way to Dubai and beyond.
“When I went to Dubai, I saw a lot of these little [collector] groups, and they wielded their power so well with the brands, and they had great events,” he said. “We could do that, we just need to concentrate our buying power and let our intentions be known. Why not? It all goes back to having no fear.”
Having experienced the world, near and far, Gottlieb has developed a lack of fear that allows him to take risks and make change.
“There’s a certain life I could’ve had…a pleasant life in the islands, probably have kids right now. I could be a little big shot in the islands for sure. For me to sacrifice that life, I have to make this life a very interesting one,” he said.
“You have to take chances and keep pushing. Worst case scenario, I end up selling coconuts on the beach to some tourists — and it’ll still be a great life.”