Jacopo Corvo - The Politics of Taste: How Collectors, Retailers, and Independent Watchmakers Shape Horological Culture
For decades, discussions about power in watchmaking have tended to focus on manufacturers. Brands create watches. Collectors buy them. Retailers sell them.
But reality is far more complicated.
In this conversation, Jacopo Corvo of GMT Italia argues that some of the most important forces in horology operate between those traditional categories. Retailers influence taste. Collectors shape demand. Independent watchmakers redefine creativity. Together, they help determine which watches become icons, which stories survive, and which parts of watchmaking history are remembered.
At its core, this conversation is about the politics of taste.
Italy's Historic Role as a Global Tastemaker
For much of the twentieth century, Italy occupied a unique position in the watch industry.
According to Jacopo, Italy was not simply an important sales market. It was a market used by Swiss brands to test products, evaluate design decisions, and gauge collector reactions before introducing watches more broadly around the world.
During the 1990s and early 2000s, Italy ranked among the most important watch markets globally. Brands such as Jaeger-LeCoultre viewed the country not only as a commercial success story but as a cultural filter capable of determining whether a product would resonate internationally.
Italian collectors developed reputations for deep knowledge, refined taste, and multigenerational engagement with watchmaking. Many families had collected watches for generations, creating a mature collecting culture long before many newer markets emerged.
Yet Jacopo believes this strength also created limitations.
While collectors in emerging markets embraced experimentation and avant-garde watchmaking, many Italian collectors remained focused on established brands and traditional definitions of value.
As a result, Italy initially struggled to embrace some of the independent watchmakers that would later become industry leaders.
The Rise of Independent Watchmaking
One of the most passionate sections of the conversation centers on independent watchmaking.
For Jacopo, brands such as MB&F, Urwerk, De Bethune, and François-Paul Journe fundamentally changed the trajectory of modern horology.
Long before today's generation of independent creators emerged, these watchmakers were producing radically different watches that challenged traditional assumptions about design, engineering, and aesthetics.
Many of today's celebrated independent brands, he argues, operate within creative spaces originally opened by those pioneers.
What distinguishes these early independents is not merely technical excellence.
It is courage.
They produced watches that few people understood, many collectors rejected, and conventional retailers struggled to sell.
Yet they persisted because they were creating watches they personally believed in rather than watches designed to satisfy market research.
That spirit of creative independence remains, for Jacopo, one of the defining characteristics of the best independent watchmaking.
COVID and the Transformation of Independent Horology
Jacopo identifies the COVID era as one of the most important turning points in modern collecting.
While major brands paused product launches and adopted cautious strategies, many independent watchmakers continued releasing new creations.
Collectors stuck at home suddenly found themselves with time to research, read, and discover brands they had never seriously considered before.
Social media accelerated that process.
Collectors who previously focused exclusively on Rolex, Patek Philippe, or Audemars Piguet began learning about François-Paul Journe, MB&F, Urwerk, De Bethune, Kari Voutilainen, and others.
The result was a dramatic expansion of interest in independent watchmaking.
COVID did not create independent horology.
But it exposed a far larger audience to it.
For many collectors, it became the moment when an entirely new world of watchmaking opened.
The Corvo Reverso and the Power of Retail Influence
One of the most fascinating stories in the interview concerns the famous Corvo Reverso.
During the Quartz Crisis, Jacopo's grandfather discovered approximately 200 unused Reverso cases sitting inside the Jaeger-LeCoultre manufacture.
At the time, the Reverso had effectively disappeared.
Jaeger-LeCoultre lacked the necessary dials and movements to produce complete watches and showed little interest in reviving the model.
Jacopo's grandfather saw something different.
Working with watchmakers in Milan, he developed a solution that allowed available movements to fit the cases, persuaded Jaeger-LeCoultre to create dials, and ultimately produced a limited series that sold rapidly to influential Italian clients.
Among the buyers were figures such as Gianni Agnelli.
The success of those watches demonstrated that demand still existed.
A few years later, Jaeger-LeCoultre formally revived the Reverso.
The story illustrates a remarkable reality: retailers and collectors do not merely respond to history.
Sometimes they create it.
Why Relationships Matter More Than Business
Throughout the conversation, Jacopo repeatedly returns to one theme: people matter more than products.
GMT Italia chooses brands not simply because of commercial opportunity but because of relationships.
The firm has built partnerships lasting decades because it prioritizes trust, friendship, and shared values.
For Jacopo, independent watchmaking remains attractive precisely because it preserves direct human connections between creators, retailers, and collectors.
Unlike large corporate structures, independent brands often allow collectors to understand the individuals behind the watches.
That human dimension creates emotional value that extends beyond mechanics, materials, or pricing.
In his view, watches are ultimately expressions of people.
Not corporations.
The Difference Between Collecting and Investing
Perhaps the strongest criticism in the interview is directed toward speculative buying.
Jacopo argues that many collectors have been conditioned to evaluate watches primarily through the lens of financial performance.
Questions about future resale value often dominate conversations that should focus on craftsmanship, creativity, or personal enjoyment.
For him, this misses the point entirely.
A genuine collector buys watches because they love them.
They wear them.
Study them.
Live with them.
They pursue knowledge rather than returns.
Speculators, by contrast, often approach watches as financial instruments.
The distinction matters.
Because one approach builds culture.
The other merely extracts value from it.
Retailers, Collectors, and the Future of Influence
Although Jacopo believes retailers possess less influence today than in previous decades, he sees collectors becoming increasingly powerful.
Brands listen closely to important clients.
Collector preferences shape production decisions, waiting lists, collaborations, and marketing strategies.
At the same time, social media has dramatically amplified individual voices.
Collectors no longer participate only through purchases.
They influence narratives, shape perceptions, and help determine what becomes desirable.
The balance of power continues to shift.
But influence remains central.
The people who define taste often shape the future of watchmaking as much as the people who build watches.
What Defines a Collector?
The conversation concludes with a deceptively simple question.
What is a collector?
For Jacopo, a collector is not someone who merely acquires expensive objects.
A collector studies.
Learns.
Reflects.
Builds a coherent journey.
Most importantly, a collector buys watches because they genuinely love them—not because they expect future profits.
Collecting is not a destination.
It is a path.
Tastes change.
Interests evolve.
Collections transform over time.
That evolution is not a flaw.
It is the very essence of collecting itself.