There are people I would talk to for hours, not just about watches. Characters whose uniqueness shines through in everything they put their hand to. Angelo Gallamini is one of them. In addition to his passion for watches, Angelo is a 360 ° vintage hunter, a scholar and researcher of particularities, in all the aspects that this word can represent. Nothing is left to chance for him, he thoroughly studies every detail of every single object he collects. The search for beauty, history and its peculiarities are the foundations of his collection and his way of life. 

Going back to the original advertising, how and why a watch, dress or travel accessory was created and even who was the first owner is information that Angelo tries to obtain for every single piece of his collection. This continuous research is very complicated, as it is increasingly difficult to find information especially on watches that were produced in very few units in the 40s and 50s. Each of its watches tells a unique story of its kind.

Angelo Gallamini is a unique collector and uniqueness is what distinguishes him in the world of collecting and especially in the field of military and diving vintage watches. Not only is he a scholar of timepieces, but also of fabrics for the clothes he produces under his brand, Ermanno Gallamini. Each of these fabrics is studied in every detail in order to obtain a precious and high-quality garment, completely handmade in Italy. With this interview I will try to tell you who Angelo Gallamini is.

VITTORIO MACCHI

Angelo, you are a 360 ° made in Italy craftsman, would you like to tell us how you started working in this field?

ANGEL GALLAMINI

Thanks to you Vittorio first of all for the interview. So, I started working for a large drilling multinational, always cultivating this passion for fashion. Unfortunately, no one has ever given me the opportunity to be a representative or a salesman, so I started to be an entrepreneur. I started traveling all over the East and importing very fine fabrics in Italy, to then use them in my clothes.

“Maybe I started as a joke or a joke, but time, experience and as I always say“ the search for the candle on the cake and never for the sponge cake ”has contributed to being who I am today. "

VITTORIO MACCHI

How is an Angelo Gallamini dress born?

ANGEL GALLAMINI

It was born thanks to the help of my wife Beatrice who advises and supports me. On a technical level, the knowledge of the raw material, such as cashmere and various silks, is fundamental, because that is what allows me to give life and illuminate a dress with its own light, so I never start from the design of the dress but I ask the fabric in what wants to be transformed.

Thanks to my experience of over 30 years of raw materials that I produce and distribute to many designers around the world, I am able to play with the fabric and transform it into the most beautiful jacket or outerwear that can become. Our garments are eternal and ethereal, they do not follow fashion but are a way of being. So you fall in love with the fabric first and then do it justice by turning it into a beautiful product. Our garments are special with a capital p, the work we do is 100% Hand Made in Romagna and with love. 

Unlike other colleagues in the fashion world who pass themselves off as Made in Italy artisans, the dress is cut, sewn and finished entirely by hand. Each garment has its own history and its own path made entirely by my company, so we give continuity to a garment that the end customer can wear for 10 or 15 years and which will always be beautiful and contemporary as it is made with the highest quality materials.

VITTORIO MACCHI

Let's move on to the passion for watchmaking, when did it start?

ANGEL GALLAMINI

Let's say that my passion started around the age of 25, looking at the watches my father had on his wrist. He has always had elegant watches, not of noble brands, but always of great charm that he also wore at home. Then it all started by chance in this area too: on my birthday, many years ago, passing through the Riccione seafront with my wife, in front of a watch shop window, I fell in love and bought my first two watches. A Rolex Explorer ref. 6610 with the red writing and another Rolex, a Submariner ref. 6205, without knowing them yet and not knowing anything about watchmaking yet but only for the beauty they emanated.

VITTORIO MACCHI

When did your passion for the world of vintage start? 

ANGEL GALLAMINI

My passion for vintage was born thanks to a friend named Vittorio, this name still haunts me today with you, who one day, seeing that I dressed in a very elegant and traditional way with clothes by Brioni and Zegna, told me: “Angelo, in my opinion, you would also look good with an old military trouser or an old Burberry trench coat” so he decided to buy me these two dresses and I changed my look, entering at that moment in the world of vintage. I often went around with him as an "adept" for antiques markets and from there I completely lost my bearings and got "sick" of everything that could be vintage, to buy old leather jackets, Levis or Wrangler jeans. From men's clothing the curiosity arose to understand how even the wife of the "period" man whose clothes I bought was how she dressed and what she wore and even how they traveled.

So I started to buy samples of vintage women's clothing and I threw myself headlong into vintage suitcases, used or with labels and then I began to wonder ... what watches was this man wearing? What watches could the woman use? And since I'm insatiable ... what toys did the children use? So, being greedy and “sick”, my passion for buying vintage toys, clothing advertisements, backpacks and trunks as well as watches also began. So all this resulted in this "disease", the desire to be surrounded by beauty and beauty with objects made well, in a maniacal way, which could and still can serve me for my work as a starting point, without having the need to be noble or with a name, but to have the beauty, the aesthetic form and the particularity of the detail and I see myself very much in them with my philosophy.

VITTORIO MACCHI

So how has the passion for vintage evolved, applied to the world of watchmaking?

ANGEL GALLAMINI

Let's say my focus initially started with the watches of the 10s and 15s, with the first wristwatches, which were actually for the woman since the man used the pocket watch. Then I moved on to the particular shapes of the 20s and started collecting the first automatic watches from the early 30s, with novelties of the time such as the Wig-Wag that was wound with the wrist movement, Harwood the first automatic watches or the “horse” watches which, with the movement of the horse, were wound on the wrists of the jockeys.

Then from the 40s to the 60s I started collecting chronographs, which are my main passion together with divers. From the 70s I decided to collect only a few racing chronographs.

VITTORIO MACCHI

On your Instagram profile I notice the watches that most collections are vintage divers and military watches from every decade of the twentieth century, what particularly attracts you of these types?

ANGEL GALLAMINI

I have a particular passion for diving watches and skin divers, everything that was used in the abyss and in the underwater world, because the watches that were used had to withstand enormous pressures and helped the man to survive which he mainly used for decompression. or the ascent. They were tools to aid the diver who worked or did underwater research, so they were real work items.

In addition to divers, my passion also deviates to military watches: which have their own magnetic force. It fascinates me to think of the stories they could tell and the scenarios they have seen during their lifetime. In the same way in clothing all the fashions of the 50s and 50s are taken up and studied even today by military clothing that had to be robust, comfortable and durable. 

So let's say that there is an intertwining between clothing and military watchmaking of the time, therefore with charm, an instrument that accompanied the military in long transhumances and certainly in everyday life, therefore for me the military watch of the first or World War II represents a real veteran.

VITTORIO MACCHI

Which of the many in your collection is the watch that has a special place in your heart?

ANGEL GALLAMINI

It's hard to say, it's like telling my two children which one I love the most or my 6 dogs which one I like the most. I wear them all in the same way except for one in particular which is the one my wife gave me, a Zenith Underwater A3630, with a Gay Freres bracelet, which I find very beautiful and which has its own story as it represents a continuation from my wife's father. to me.

I wear it with a lot of honor every day as a lucky charm as I am also superstitious, so I accompany it to another watch every day. It's my "Lucky Charm"

VITTORIO MACCHI

Angelo thank you for giving us this fantastic journey into your world of vintage. I want to ask you one last question, if you had to choose a watch of your dreams? 

ANGEL GALLAMINI

This is another difficult question. I would say my collection is all or nothing. I am convinced that I do not miss anything, so today I say no because over time I have managed to buy beautiful objects but unfortunately, and I say this with regret, every now and then something remains "attached to my hands". There is always something that I don't know, and being greedy and greedy to know, every now and then I find some timepiece that leaves me amazed, that I want to try, study and understand and if I can with my possibilities I buy it.

To discover Angelo Gallamini and his vintage universe, follow him on Instagram @angelogallamini