Although there are an ever-increasing number of Black-owned watch companies, the broader narrative of the watch collection community has tended to leave Black horologists out of the conversation, so they started talking to each other and building their own communities.
According to The Robb Report, Black watch collectors Perri Dash, Rashawn Smith, and Ashraf Rashid used their emergence from the pandemic to meet up at New York City’s storied dive bar Fanelli Café in 2021, where they would discuss watches together over burgers and beers.
“We’d sit outside and have beers and burgers and we’d talk watches,” Dash told the outlet. “Everybody was shuttered in their homes, and it made me rethink how important community was. The minute everything lifted, I just wanted to get back outside. At the same time, all this watch content is exploding on social media and YouTube. It reinvigorated the passion.”
He continued, “I didn’t see us reflected in the watch world. I knew we were out here collecting and moving markets quietly. I wanted a space where we could do it loudly, together. Being a Black collector or a collector of color for a time felt kind of isolating because we just weren’t communicating with one another. And then social media post-Covid explodes, and people are sharing pictures of their watches. And we discover that we’ve already been here just doing our own thing. Then it’s like, ‘All right, why don’t we just meet up and hang out?’ And so now we’re touring the country, holding events, working with brands. It’s kind of a wild time.”
Dash and Smith have, in the time since, become known quantities in the world of high-end watch collectors, using their podcast, “Wrist Check,” to springboard into hosting events and collaborations which have even been attended by Detroit Lions players. As Netflix’s “Receiver” docu-series indicates, NFL players, like Minnesota Vikings superstar and Met Gala standout Justin Jefferson, are serious about their jewelry and accessories.
An event the pair participated in, held in Detroit, hosted by Official CP (Cultured Perspective) Time, and attended by the aforementioned Lions players, was largely lead by Dr. Albert “Al” Coombs, a longtime collector, watch lover, and a dental implantologist in Washington D.C.
Coombs and C’Quon Gottlieb, a fellow watch collector who is now a luxury watch consultant in Miami, started Official CP Time in 2020 in order to blend the art and practice of watchmaking, alternatively, the philosophy of time, otherwise known as horology, with Black culture. As he told The Robb Report, Coombs and Dash, who met in 2022 at CP Time’s two year anniversary, have become really good friends in the three years since.
“One of the things I love about Perri is that we’ve created these spaces independently but there’s so much synergy, we’ve started to collaborate,” Coombs said, before a segue into how he views their ideas on making watch collection accessible to all analogous to the Black church, which was birthed out of necessity due to segregation and enslavement.
“I compare it a lot to Black churches,” Coombs began. “They were birthed from this idea of not being able to go to white churches. One of the cornerstones was, ‘Everybody’s welcome.’ A lot of the churches are Black, but it’s a safe space where everybody belongs. That’s why we talk about CP Time being a watch group ‘through the lens of Black culture.’ It’s an easy thing to be a part of—there’s no pretentiousness. The bigger goal is to create a positive space where if you have a $50 watch, we can celebrate you. Where you can try on somebody’s Richard Mille or Patek. Where somebody that collects AP can say, ‘Hey man, that’s a dope TAG Heuer.’ Use this thing as a means to connect with people.”
Dash echoed Coombs’ thoughts about utilizing the watch collection community to foster a sense of connection, telling the outlet, “I look at watches, especially at these events, as the perfect icebreaker. They equalize the playing field. It doesn’t mean you have to have an expensive watch. I’ve been in situations where I might be wearing an obscure Seiko, and I’m sitting with a Patek collector, and he wants to know everything I know about this Seiko. And then it goes into, ‘What do you do? Who are you? Where are you from?’ And then you develop a friendship, and you end up talking about everything under the sun. It’s amazing.”
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