Italian Independent Watch designer, Stefano Macaluso is an external consultant in design, sales, marketing and strategy.

1. Describe briefly your childhood.

I was born in Piedmont, a region of Italy’s North West, an area rich in rivers and hills and beautifully crowned by the Alps. Since my childhood, these landscapes influenced my life and pushed me to larger horizons and explorations.

I had the chance to grow up in a family where creativity was a relevant value: travels, visits to art exhibitions, films and books were part of my early education. I always considered these experiences like precious gifts.

2. As a child did you have any driving ambition?

My first idea was to be an architect, when I was 8 I trained with a Lego town growing every day. Then I moved my ambition to car design. Turin, my hometown, was one of car design world capitals: Giugiaro, Pininfarina and Bertone were (and are today) a constant inspiration.

3. What is your first significant memory as a child?

The first bicycle ride without any help.

4. Have you ever had another profession?

Very young, I have been working as team manager in the FIA Junior World Rally Championship.

5. What made you decide to go in the direction you are currently in?

Watchmaking is a means of expression with many potential applications. I landed in the watchmaking world almost 20 years ago thanks to my family and I had the chance to explore different sides of it. The most important driver in my job is the love for the product. I like the whole development creative process: from design to communication and distribution.

6. What’s the worst job you’ve had to do?

Sometimes happened to be involved in meaningless projects.

I prefer “impossible” projects.

7. What’s been the hardest moment in your life so far, and how did you overcome it?

The loss of my parents. Life is a sequence of challenges and the only way to overcome is to move to the higher steps.

8. Who has had the strongest influence on you?

Most probably my father was the first person to inspire me. Then film directors like Stanley Kubrick, Akira Kurosawa, Federico Fellini, Orson Welles, George Lucas and many others. Architects: Guarino Guarini, Le Corbusier, Mies Van der Rohe, Frank Lloyd Wright, Renzo Piano, Carlo Scarpa, Santiago Calatrava. Car designers: Giugiaro and Pininfarina families, Nuccio Bertone’s team. Car manufacturers: Ettore Bugatti, Enzo Ferrari, the Lancias. In arts: the holistic artists of Italian renaissance, the XX century avant-gardes and the conceptual artists of 1960s and 1970s. My favourite fathers of watchmaking are Abraham Louis Breguet and Constant Girard. Nature and history will be always the best teachers to be inspired by.

9. What are you most proud of?

I’m proud of watch projects where I’ve introduced well-integrated architectural concepts like structure, volume, light and symbols.

10. What advice would you give to a 20 something someone thinking of taking a similar path as you?

I would suggest keeping an independent point of view and looking for an original approach to creativity. It will not always be easy, but if it will work the result will be substantial.

11. Name three things on your bucket list.

Race the “Beijing to Paris” classic car rally.

Play a part in the next Star Wars.

Travel to Aci Reale, Sicily, and have a pistachio granita

12. Where do you think the industry is going to be in 10 years time?

In a world where changes happen every day, 2031 sounds like another life.

Watchmaking has been one of the most stable industries for decades. It expanded together with the globalization process. Now its development is becoming less linear and probably we are at the end of a cycle or at the beginning of a new one.

If we consider the industry of niche mechanical watches, I think the potential will be always high, though it will have to be adapted to the expectations of new generations, since concepts like “classic style” or “fun” or “luxury” are constantly moving. Creativity will help.

The large-scale production will be strongly influenced by major changes in the distribution network. The most reputed and professional retailers will be even stronger, but the sales channel will be very diversified, even far beyond our experience in 2021.

To learn more about Stefano Macaluso