In Search Of Excellence - Ilaria Resta: The Future of the Luxury Watch Market and Audemars Piguet | E149
Episode Date: February 4, 2025Ilaria Resta is the CEO of Audemars Piguet, one of the world’s oldest and most exclusive luxury watch brands, renowned for its tradition of craftsmanship and innovation. Before leading AP, Ilaria se...rved as President and CEO of Firmenich, a family-owned Swiss company that creates perfumes for iconic brands like Saint Laurent, Gucci, and Hugo Boss, with annual revenues exceeding $3 billion. Her career began at Procter & Gamble, where she spent 23 years shaping some of the most recognizable consumer brands, including Tide, Pantene, and Head & Shoulders. Born and raised in Naples, Italy, Ilaria’s journey from modest beginnings to the pinnacle of luxury and leadership exemplifies her values of resilience, learning, and leaving a meaningful legacy. Ilaria offers invaluable insights into leadership, breaking barriers, and the art of building lasting relationships.Timestamps:00:00 – Introduction: Ilaria Resta on Love, Learning, and Legacy01:47 – The Watch Market: Who Buys Luxury Watches and Why?06:20 – Emotional Connections: Watches as Memory Holders and Style Statements12:08 – Women in Watchmaking: Closing the Gender Gap in Luxury Watches16:54 – Limited Supply: Why AP Watches Are Hard to Find and the Secondary Market20:00 – Rule-Breaking in Watchmaking: Innovation and Pushing Boundaries26:14 – Collaborations with Collectors and Artists: The John Mayer Example30:00 – Work-Life Balance: Advice for Women and Men on Choosing Success34:47 – Closing Reflections: Love What You Do, Learn Constantly, and Leave a LegacyResources:Ilaria's LinkedInAudemars Piguet WebsiteAudemars Piguet Instagram Want to Connect? Reach out to us online!Instagram | 1-on-1 Coaching | YouTube | TikTok | LinkedIn
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the three most important qualities that we should have.
Is love what you do or falling in love with what you do.
Second is learn, which becomes more difficult as you grow.
Once because you have less time
or you become more arrogant in thinking you have,
you know it enough, you don't need to learn more.
And then legacy.
I think what you need to do as you grow
is defining for each year,
what is the legacy that will survive me?
That makes business people, organization, relationship
better than when I came,
but set something that is achievable, measurable,
and extremely concrete.
You're listening to part two of my incredible interview
with Alaria Resta, the CEO of the luxury watch brand Omar Piguet.
If you haven't yet listened to part one, be sure to check that one out first.
Now without further ado, here's part two of my awesome interview with Alaria.
So everyone wants to know today who's watching, who's not a watch collector, how much do these
cost and let me just go through some stats here
on you and your competitors.
So we start with Rolex.
The average price of a new Rolex watch is $13,562.
The average price of a Cartier is $6,340.
The average price of an Omega is $7,296.
The average price of a new Patek is $44,389.
The average price of an AP watch is $53,786.
And the average price of Richard Mille,
which is the most expensive watch you can buy on average
is over $200,000.
Who is your typical customer?
What's the percentage between men and women buying your watches?
We don't have a typical customer as such,
but definitely I can bucket you in clusters,
even though I really don't like doing that because there are
so many nuances in each bucket.
Definitely have the collectors.
We have people that over time are building a very thought through collection.
It could be by brand or multiple brand specific complications or like a lifetime, a certain
century they're collecting.
There are different theme, thematics of collection.
Then, and they represent the most knowledgeable of our clients
and the ones that actually transmit their passion externally. So they write blogs,
they are on social media, they are the ones who will spot your watch and comment on it and share
it. And it's a very active community and often they know each other to be collectors in the world.
community and often they know each other to be collectors in the world.
Then there are people who buy to celebrate a certain stage in their life.
People who use watch as a memory holder.
So a new promotion, the birth, the marriage, and in this case, watches also represent an emotional connection to the
person, to the moment, and they capture memories.
And we had, for instance, the other day I just learned a couple came to our boutique
and he offered in front of the Buzui managers a watch engraved with the
will you marry me to his girlfriend.
And it's the first time we kind of assisted with this request for managing a boutique.
So that was clearly the case of somebody who buy for an emotional connection to the watch
in the moment.
And then we have the stylers, people who just love how the watch looks, they choose watches
for the aesthetic appearance, also for the complication appearance, and they make it a statement for themselves or for others to
buy a watch.
And then there are many more.
What we are trying to do is to have a diverse enough reach to the prospect clients and the
clients in terms of opportunities.
We are underdeveloped with women.
We are in the range of below 20% of buyers of our watch are women.
When we know that by 2030, 45% of women will buy a watch in the industry, mechanical watch.
And the scene is changing because in the past, women were not so much into mechanical watches,
and now they are getting more and more interesting.
And what we see actually is with the younger generations of kids, they at the age of between
20 and up, they start being interested in watchmaking and they even bring their fathers
who are not into watchmaking into this world.
And yesterday we had an event, the son was the one bringing the father and educating
the father on the art of watchmaking. And it's interesting because this is an hyper-connected generation that you would say,
why would they buy a mechanical watch? And actually they are rediscovering vintage
in many areas, including watchmaking.
Finding an AP watch is a process, right? One of the things that people like me and everyone else, you go in an AP store, nothing's for sale.
You go in a Rolex store, nothing's for sale.
I remember going into my first AP store, my son showed me this Royal Oak watch.
He had an opportunity to buy one and he said, it's very hard to get.
It can't be that hard to get.
I walked into the store, said, hey, I would like one of these.
And they look at me like I was from the planet Mars. When I finally did some research,
I said, well, I would actually like one of those. I'm in Aspen. I walk into the store,
I meet Leslie Cameron who was great. And again, there was a whole song and dance there, right? I knew I'd done some research that I had to
basically get to know her, get her to know me,
trust me that I'm not gonna flip the wash.
We'll talk about flipping in a minute.
And basically talk about me and my buying behavior.
And I started with, I collect art.
So I put myself in the category.
I've been an art collector now for 25 years.
I don't flip pieces.
If you flip a piece,
meaning for those people who don't know
what flipping a piece is, you go to an art show,
your relationship with art galleries
that you've developed over the years,
there may be 10 or 15 pieces from that show
and there may be four or 500 people who want them.
So the people who get them,
get first choice are the people who are loyal customers,
who have good collections and who don't flip the art.
If you can flip a piece of art,
and I bought a piece of art from Mihai Nicodem,
Mihai, I love you.
Thank you for letting me be a very good customer.
And this piece of art was $80,000.
And he promised it to me because I had bought a larger
piece of art from him, much more expensive,
maybe a year before.
And he promised me from the same person
who painted this painting.
And he said, I'll give you the second piece
of his next show.
The first piece was going to Charles Schwab,
who was gonna put it in a museum. He's gonna donate. So I got the second piece of his next show, the first piece was going to Charles Schwab, who was going to put it in a museum.
He's going to donate.
So I got the second piece and it was a small piece of art,
but there were several small pieces and there were three of these.
This one was the best.
So he offered it to me.
It was $80,000.
That night he said the person who bought the second piece will pay you $250,000
for that piece.
I could have made a lot of money instantly.
I said no.
And why did you say no?
Because my piece was a lot better than the other piece.
Then it came back with an offer for more money for that piece and I still didn't sell it.
Right?
And it would have been okay at that point to sell it because it was going through the
dealer, but I still didn't want to sell it. So I still...
And why? Because you...
Oh, I love it. It's in my house. I look at it. I mean, ART brings me tremendous satisfaction
now carrying amazing watches. And I have a brigade. That was the first watch my mom bought
me from graduation. I have a Chopard watch, which is cool with a rubber van.
My wife for my 50th birthday bought me a Heblot watch,
which is my daily watch is very, very meaningful.
How does someone get an AT watch for the first time?
You answered yourself the question.
You're gonna say, I don't want that to go in or to all I interview.
That is not an interview.
See, by the way, which is, Ledger is gonna be embarrassed by the way.
But what I'm gonna say, but you know, she's going back and forth, you know, to the back room.
I don't know what she's doing, right? But I have some, there's some due diligence going on.
I'm not sure who she's calling, but when she came back for like,
Now I know.
Oh, she's calling you. And so, so when she came back, I, I, I
glanced at her phone and my, my website was on her phone. So I
knew what was going on back there. So sorry to embarrass you,
Leslie, but what, what, what's the process there?
Let me answer you in the simplest possible way.
If we were in the business of revenue, all these were going to happen.
If our obsession and objective is, you know what?
Let's maximize revenues, let's get rich, let's sell.
We are in a business of relationship and passion for quality.
I'm here again to make sure that this way of doing business perpetrates for 150
years.
When you want to build a relationship with somebody, you don't go and say, okay, will
you marry me to the person you just saw in a bar?
Yes, you don't do that.
You build a relationship, right?
We are in a business of relationship as much as we are in a business of timepieces selling. Because the moment we create a relationship, this relationship
lasts for many, many years and beyond you. We receive watches that dates a hundred years
ago and we service them and we repair them. We take pictures because we discover movements
that we are not producing anymore. And you enter in our family and we are truly, we call our clients, AP family, most of them,
because they really start to get into know us.
We know their collection, we can curate it.
And then if you come to Lebrassu, which I really would love to have you to Lebrassu, and maybe you
do a video recording on the way we produce, you will see that it's so much manually done.
And there is so emotion in the process of finishing and watch and letting go.
Where I had one story, one woman watchmaker, she asked me the favor, because I was in my
onboarding asking, what can I do for you?
What can I do better?
Is there anything, any help in either?
She said, yes.
Can you please bring me back the watch I helped to assemble to say goodbye
because before he leaves me.
The level of attachment these watchmakers have with their creation is very high.
And it's for us, it's important that we create a relationship with the people
then they bring those watches to their wrist.
We need to make sure that we give you also watches with the highest standards of excellence.
It takes months, if not years, to develop them. So we are not in a transactional business where
you want, you buy, you go home, and we don't see each other anymore. This is not our business mode.
It's interesting when you talk about the prices of watches. I mean, $53,000 for the average price watch.
I mean, I was in the store in Vegas.
I was in Lior's store in Vegas as well.
And they were showing me a $400,000 watch, which is which I'm not going to do right
now. Yeah.
And we spoke. But but but when you when you think about it, every customer is a millionaire or they're not being financially
responsible because when you're paying $50,000 for a watch, that means you have to earn,
at least in the US, you're in the highest tax bracket, you have to earn $100,000 to
have a watch.
And some of the watches are $100,000, $130,000.
So you're talking about a lot of people who have an eight-figure net worth coming in to buy the watches.
The figure you mentioned indeed is an average. So we have, we spun differently in price. This is not our entry price for watches, but three or eight thousand is your entry price, right?
Yeah, we have less. We have lower as well.
And then show me the lower one, by the way.
Maybe because they know you so well that they want to cater to your need.
You see, okay, that's intimacy with clients because we know you and
we offer you what you deserve.
But no, jokes aside, the prices range depending on again, complications and development and materials.
We just launched the Universal, which is the most complicated wrist watch that won also
the Grand Prix de l'Horloge V in Geneva last year.
This watch is more than a million, but it takes at least two years to assemble manually
by one watchmaker that wakes up every day to do only that watch in Switzerland.
You can go visit the person and see your own watch under development over time.
The time and the price is connected to what I call the overall value equation of the timepiece. And we're after value creation with materials, with the
complication and innovation behind.
So our calibers are, some are a trademark because we do so much research
on micro mechanic before launching that.
That's what goes behind the price that you read.
You'll get a Birkin bag, Hermes.
You can't get one unless you go in.
And again, it is based on your spend, right?
There was a class action.
There is a class action lawsuit filed in March of 2024 saying, hey, this is monopolistic
behavior.
A customer should just be able to walk in and buy a Birkin bag.
When you saw that lawsuit, what were you thinking?
Are you worried that AP may be facing
the same issue along with the other high quality watchmakers? We don't ask people to buy certain
amounts of watches. We don't create these connections. I'm not entering the case of
Hermes because it's a separate case that I don't know enough to express any opinion and I don't want to. But in our case, we have a certain capacity of production that is a choice.
And the choice comes from excellence.
If we would do these watches assembled online with zero human power, if we
would copy caliber of others, if we wouldn't use these materials, we could produce more.
We decided not to produce more. We decided to produce less than the number you gave before because we are aiming at the
highest, highest standard of watchmaking, which makes us in the need of making choices vis-Ã -vis
our clients.
We welcome all our clients.
It's a matter of time when we can serve them with the timepiece that they want.
But we are not into the business of combining or bundling,
which is not part of our...
For limited supply watches like yours,
demand is usually greater than supply during COVID,
the pandemic, wealthy people had nothing
to spend their money on.
So a lot of them bought luxury goods that went way up in price on the secondary market.
You can't get one from the store.
A lot of stores weren't open and then they wanted they still wanted to spend money.
You had watches like the Royal Oak.
You have a lot of models, but going for five times their value.
And when you see watches trading on the secondary market for that kind of price,
there's an opportunity to sell your watch for a lot of money.
Luxury watches over the last five years, depending on the brand, the average
luxury watch has beaten the S&P 500.
Are watches good investments?
Well, watches have always been also asset class like many other luxury brands.
I think what matters is more the innovation behind the watch, how much craftsmanship there
is behind the watch.
Most of our clients in our agency don't buy thinking of an asset class.
They really think about the usage, the importance of the watch in their own collection and in
their life.
There's a huge secondary resale market for luxury watches.
It's estimated to be $25 billion a year.
That's revenue that you could be collecting on certain watches that you're not collecting.
There's been talk of you starting a secondary watch
market for lack of a better word where you're reselling these secondary AP watches.
Is that happening or going to happen?
We're working on a project that has the mission to create the offer a service to our clients
in terms of certification of our watches and offering them the chance to renew their
collection if they want, hence sell certain watches.
We are honestly thinking still how and if this proposition can work.
And if it works in the next years, we will launch it.
There's a company slogan which says, to break the rules, you must first master them.
Is that true at any successful company?
Depends on the company, it was true for us
and it's still true for us.
We are a rule breaker in a positive sense.
In the sense that Dodo Marpegay in the history
has always been so edgy to go and try to do things
that didn't make any sense.
And that's what I call it rule breaker. You don't have to go back too many years ago, but when the Royal Oak was invented,
it was a rule breaker across all aspects.
I mean, it was in steel, priced like gold in a huge shape.
Because at the time, the 39 diameter was considered to be gigantic.
That's where the name Jumbo came.
It was a big, big watch.
In a context where we were at the onset of the quartz crisis, so coming with that launch
was like, are you crazy?
I mean, what happened to you?
And in fact, it was received with mixed feelings by the market and then it became a good success.
Few years after, we launched the thinnest perpetual calendar.
Again, in a moment where extremely expensive in a content because it's the
highest complication possible we could do instead of focusing on entry price
to fight the courts, we focus on the highest complication to set ourselves to another league.
And then if you look at all the marketing campaigns, the collaborations, we've always
been in, if you want, in the watchmaking industry, by doing things that pushed outside of the
edges of what was considered normal.
And that's the way we work.
If you go and come one day to visit us, you will see these personalities in the company.
That's why I believe that there are certain people who can work at Audemars Piguet, some
others cannot work at Audemars Piguet because we have this witty spirit, this sense of not
taking ourselves seriously, yet our job is extremely serious and professional.
These constant try to go further, break the rules on materials that cannot be produced
because they will crack.
We use the ceramics that can be destroyed easily,
that takes a lot of trial and error to produce,
and yet we do that.
So there is this common desire to go beyond
that belongs to us.
We've talked about extreme preparation,
how important that is to our success.
What are three of the most important qualities that we can have that lead to
our future success?
The future in Audemars Piguet?
Yeah.
What are the three most important qualities, ingredients of success as people
that we should have?
I have mine that I keep repeating all the time and they're coincidentally three.
It's love, learn and legacy.
For me, in any job you do, in anything in life you do, I have these three guiding words,
is love what you do or fall in love with what you do.
And normally it's much more falling in love than loving because it's very rare you will
love always what you do, the bosses you work for, your colleagues.
It will be much more an active role of falling in love that you need to have.
Second is learn, which becomes more difficult as you grow.
Once because you have less time or you become more arrogant in thinking you
have, you know it enough, you don't need to learn more. And learn and make learning accessible to others.
Especially now with all the changes we see, what I learned 30 years ago,
working at P&G is completely relevant now.
If I would stack to that learning, I would be obsolete as a CEO.
So learn, learn constantly and then legacy.
I think what you need to do as you grow is defining for each year, what is the legacy
that will survive me, that makes business people, organization, relationship better
than when I came.
It doesn't need to be a grandiose legacy.
People say, ah, save the world, reduce CO2 emissions.
Sure, if you have that chance, do it.
But set something that is achievable, measurable,
and extremely concrete as a legacy every year.
And that's how I judge my people.
In the performance evaluation, the question I have,
what's the legacy you left behind
that wouldn't be here without you?
You talk a lot about women in the workforce.
You're one of only two female CEOs in the luxury watch business.
You talk about, tell us briefly since we're getting to the end of our show,
about what you said about cheerless acknowledgement on Women's International Day. And
what's your message to women and in the workforce who want to have very successful careers.
Find mentors and find the supporters along the way.
Don't be shy in asking for help.
I think what we women normally, and I hate generalizing
because there are different women,
there is this fear of asking for help
and putting their needs because it's felt inappropriate.
I think the broader the net you cast to get supporters, to get coaching, the better.
The second for me is really extremely, be extremely vocal on what you want.
Because sometimes we are relegated in a role because others are trying to help us.
It happened to me when I was expecting my first child, I came back after maternity,
I didn't get a job in P&G.
They put me, I was managing a business and I came back to become event organizer.
I said, sorry, why event organizer?
Because we wanted to help you as the first child, you want to be home more often.
Maybe the intention was positive, I don't even know, but definitely it was a killer for me.
So for my second maternity, I learned the lesson.
I said, I'm going to come back when my child is three months old.
I want to have a job as big, if not bigger than the one I'm living based on my performance.
You have nothing to worry about in terms of work hours, because I will work as much as before.
And then I got the job.
So I now had no issue of hearing in calling it out.
And if you feel an injustice has been done to you, speak up.
I've been there because there are people who want to help you.
It's just what I don't like is this constant feeling of it has to be this way
because it has been decided on me this way.
And last advice, and I really believe in it, start talking about your life in terms of
choices and not sacrifices.
Because as a woman, there is this constant sense of guilt or feeling that I'm making
sacrifices, I'm not there for my children, I'm not there at the birthday party.
If you leave all these choices as a sacrifice, then first you're not in control with your
life and you live miserably and you don't achieve anything.
While instead, make it a choice. Make the choice and define what is
a real choice for you. Being in the driving seat of your life.
And not the passive suffering of the nature of being a woman.
That is the advice I give to women.
You have a huge job. You have two kids, teenagers, one nearly a teenager. Your husband works
from home. You've talked about the sacrifices on work-life balance and the guilt you have.
Do you have any general advice for women or men stay at home, stay at home, men stay at
home, women, both sides on what's the proper balance there?
Again, it needs to be a choice.
When this is a sacrifice, the choice,
either to stay home or to leave and work, it doesn't work.
It's a short-term, it creates tensions,
tensions within the couple, with the kids.
And by the way, you said the wrong example to your kids.
My role, I see it in a positive way
to say, I tell my kids every day when I go to bed, I had a wonderful day. I learned so much today in
Miami. I went to see our Basel and I saw this piece of art. And by the way, the weather is like that
and I send pictures. Yes, I'm not physically there. Yes, maybe sometimes it's tough, but you know,
what I bring them, I believe I bring them the visibility of the world through my eyes and the fact that it's
possible to have a satisfying working life and being a mother at the same time.
I want my children to consider this a normal fact.
I felt guilty with my mama because for my mama, this choice of life was absolutely unacceptable.
I was this nomad going around the world,
leaning the poor kids behind in desperation.
How could I do that when I could have been
a teacher in kindergarten like her?
So it's all goes back,
make the choices, get the most out of it,
big smile, or change the life.
So you make these interesting watches named after
people like John Mayer has his own watch.
And these watches are on, first of all, why?
And second of all,
when are you gonna make the Randall Kaplan watch?
First of all, we're gonna make the Randall Kaplan
when you come to Le Brasseau, you're gonna see how we work.
Jokes aside, John Mayer is a great example of a collaboration that I
feel is extremely valuable for us.
John is a collector, watch collector, is a watch connoisseur, and he's been very
close to us in providing inputs and kind of a point of view on the voice of the
collectors and our esteemed clients who understand watchmaking.
So when I met him, I told him and I offered this role, which is the role of creative conduit.
It's somebody who brings in a creative way the external world of collectors inside Audemars Piguet.
I cannot have discussions with thousands of collectors, but John, in a way, as he participated
in lots of forums on watchmaking,
he knows what's sought, he knows what people like,
and I like to have always an external voice
to my creative team.
And then he was extremely passionate for certain material,
for the perpetual calendar,
for a certain type of blue and finishings,
and he came with this idea that I felt was new for us.
He pushed our boundaries and we decided to do it.
I don't like doing collaborations that are just for the name of a celebrity or
somebody who is famous and then we do a collaboration.
That doesn't bring anything to the market again.
These collaborations I will not do.
But any collaboration like Cause, we've done a collaboration
with Brian Donnelly, the artist of Kaws.
And that one-
And to be clear, they've one watch, it just came out, you had a big party for it.
And I believe the retail price is $220,000 for that watch?
Correct.
It's a concept tourbillon with the companion of Kaws attached to the sapphire crystal.
And we developed for that watch a new movement also, which is a peripheral
time display, so we don't show the time with the index, we show it with
the peripheral time arrows, not to occupy the central space of the watch
and leave everything to the companion.
That was a wonderful collaboration because once again, Koss came with an idea to have
the companion attached to the Sapphire Crystal looking at the wearer of the watch.
But then what we do with the showing the time and we decided to create this new movement.
So it's a new movement inspired by the work of Koss.
All right, we're at the end of our show right now and I always finish a show with a game that I call Phil and the Bling to excellence.
Are you ready to play?
Ready to play.
The biggest lesson I've learned in my life is?
Stay humble.
My number one professional goal is?
Leave a legacy on people in my organization.
My biggest regret is?
Not having traveled more. My biggest fear is? Not having traveled more.
My biggest fear is?
Not having enough time to travel.
The proudest moment of my career is?
Now.
When you landed this job as CEO,
what did your mom say to you?
I can't believe you got this.
But she could believe it, right?
Yeah, she was very proud.
Proud.
And she said your dad would be extremely proud of you.
He was no longer with us.
The craziest thing that's happened in my career is...
Ah, many.
You know, when you are surrounded by people that left your team
and they went somewhere else, and after multiple After multiple years, they write you love letters,
they bring you tears is just the most rewarding part of my job.
Just to hear back from people that you think were forgotten,
and they're still around for you and remembering you.
The funniest thing that's happened in my career is?
I always mix up names of people, celebrities. I have bad memory for names.
The best advice I've ever received is...
Observe first, then listen.
The worst advice I've ever received is...
You should change the way you behave and your posture.
Ten years from now, I'm going to be doing...
I hope this job.
Twenty years from now, I hope I'm going to be doing. I hope this job. Twenty years from now, I hope I'm going to be doing.
Teaching, university.
If you could pick one trait that would lead to somebody's success, what would it be?
A trait.
One trait.
Learning, desire.
The most important thing that's contributed to my success is...
Learning.
Learning, desire, curiosity.
The one thing I've dreamed about for a long time
but haven't done is? Actually teaching at university. If you could go back in time and
give your 21 year old self one piece of advice, what would it be? Keep changing challenges in
your work and live when you feel comfortable. If you could meet one person in the world alive today,
comfortable. If you could meet one person in the world alive today, who would it be? My father. That's a beautiful answer. So the last question I have, I actually have two more
questions. The one question you wish I'd asked you but didn't is? Oh, it's very difficult this one.
It's all the questions related to my personality. Who are you as a woman?
Who are you as a woman?
Oh no, I shouldn't have done that. It's so personal. I am like a curious cat. I am somebody who really, really leaves and breath knowledge and discover places, people.
I'm a connector.
CB As a new customer and someone who's new to the luxury watch market, are there any
questions that you'd like to ask me that other potential or new watch buyers would like to
hear the answer to?
LR How do you feel like wearing this watch with feelings that it gives you?
I mean, I get up in the morning and when I look at the watch that I want to put on today,
it makes me feel great. It's not only beautiful and I love looking at it because I like looking
at beautiful things. I like art, but it's personal because I'm wearing it on my body.
And at some point too, just coming from a humble background,
the fact I've done well enough through all the hard work
to afford a hard watch, to afford an expensive,
beautiful watch like that is very meaningful.
I love looking at this watch.
I love looking at all my watches.
They all speak to me in different ways, different colors.
This gold is very... I'm not a blingy person. This has a little bit of a bling bling. But
I love it. When I go into your store, of course, I want to buy more. And I was a bit impulsive
when I went to Las Vegas and Lior was kind enough and I know how lucky I am
to sell me three watches.
I have a pre-sustaining friendship with him.
So I was very grateful for that,
but it really is a representation to me
of all the hard work and success.
What you've done.
And all the work that I've done.
And it is inspirational to go in there.
It's like when I started collecting
art, I got this. Oh my gosh, I really got to do this and I'm feeling that way about watches.
AP, I'm just on a mission. I've looked up Patek and it's a beautiful watch. It's not my thing.
Rolex, beautiful watch, not my thing either. There's too many and I like unique watches.
Beautiful watch, not my thing either. There's too many and I like unique watches.
I like AP watches.
I know this is a bit of a, I'm infomercial in many ways
and rightly so.
I mean, I'm a huge fan.
I'm a huge customer.
And I think this episode too,
and I really want to mention this.
Everyone listening to the show today
and all my podcasts want to do
better, right? It's meant to inspire, motivate them to do better. And a lot of that comes
with, which means, um, they want better jobs, they want better advice, they want to do better
and they want to make more money. And you know, they, they, they want to afford a home,
they want to afford a car. And at some point when you can afford it they they want to afford a home, they want to afford a car,
and at some point when you can afford it they want nice things. It's aspirational and so
for me when I start looking at watches it's aspirational you know for me so makes me feel
great and I appreciate the question. Wow I I should hire as our spokesperson. Amazing.
It has been amazing.
Thank you.
Alari, I appreciate you answering my email, a cold email says a lot about you. I'm a huge fan.
Me too, are you?
And I'm grateful for your time. Thank you so much for being here. It's
truly a pleasure and an honor to meet you in person.
Thank you, Randall. A great pleasure to be here and I hope I helped somebody to get good
advice.
Awesome.