SJX: Many American watch collectors refer to you reverentially, “best” is often used to describe you – how did you become the de facto watchmaker that everyone goes to?ĪK: After coming to the US and completing school I tried to make a living at an assortment of different things.
Our Christmas tree was the talk of the village and everyone came to see it. I connected one wire on the movement and another wire right next to the pallet so that there was intermittent contact and the lights could then go on and off in time with the tick-tock. Then I remembered what makes the tick-tock of the clock many years later I would find out that was called the pallet. I was determined to find a way to do this. Those little screwdrivers and those clocks were meant for me.Īnother interest of mine was electricity, which we didn’t have. My mother’s uncle said that in America the Christmas tree lights go on and off. There was no one else in the whole village that had such an amazing little hammer – out of it came more tools! The screwdrivers along with the clocks aroused my curiousity to no end.
I was eight years old and that little tool fascinated me. The handle of the hammer unscrewed and transformed into three little screwdrivers, one inside the other. He returned to Greece to live out his retirement after having lived in the US for many years. Among the things he brought back were three alarm clocks and a little metal hammer. It started when my mother’s uncle came to live with us. Since a young age I was interested in all things mechanical. Electricity came to my village only three years after I had already arrived on the shores of New York in 1970. SJX: Tell us a bit about yourself, especially how you ended up as a watchmaker.Īlkis Kotsopoulos: I was born in a small village in the mountains of Greece called Platanos, and lived there until I was 15 years old. Photographs by John Clang, a New York-based visual artist and photographer who has worked for some of the world’s largest companies. Lange & Söhne in the country, Alkis also services all manner of fine timepieces at his workshop in 515 Madison Avenue, an Art Deco skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan. Best known as the official watchmaker of A. Greek by birth but a native of New York City for most of his life, Alkis Kotsopoulos is often spoken of warmly and sometime reverentially by watch collectors in the United States for his impeccable work. Share Facebook Linkedin Twitter Weibo Instagram
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