CQ Gottlieb — Who Gets to Collect? Identity, Access, and Power in Watches

In this episode of Watches & Politics, I’m joined by C’Quon “CQ” Gottlieb — Senior Client Advisor at The 1916 Company and co-founder of CP Time Collective — for a conversation about identity, access, and the shifting power dynamics of modern watch collecting.
CQ approaches watches not as transactional objects, but as cultural artifacts — tools for belonging, storytelling, and self-definition. From his global background and advisory work to building CP Time as a space for under-represented collectors, he offers a rare inside view into how taste, legitimacy, and influence are being redefined today.
We discuss how collector networks act as cultural nodes, how new geographies are reshaping what counts as “important,” and how heritage is being reinterpreted through new voices rather than inherited authority.
This episode captures a pivotal transition in horology: from centralized power and brand dominance to plural, community-driven narratives.