OTOTTOÏ founder Julien Toretto does things differently. With a professional background in high-end menswear, a personal wardrobe heavier in sneakers than sartorial wear and a penchant for ‘90s skateboarding culture – he’s a watch dealer for the it crowd.

The parallels between skateboarding and rare vintage watch dealing might, at first, be difficult to trace. The former unravels in the streets and skateparks, and feeds on adrenaline and abandon in the pursuit of scaled-up tricks. The latter has traditionally been the domain of stuffy rich men in suits, with wins scored in the palatial surrounds of an auction house or among highbrow networks. But in the case of Julien Toretto, his interest in skating and cult menswear only bolsters his approach to selling highly coveted vintage timepieces. His methods – and uniform – might be different: DIY, self-taught, self-styled, but he’s just as sharp – just as authoritative. 

In 2025 vintage watches have never been more visible. They’re on the wrists of celebrities such as A$AP Rocky, Bad Bunny, and Michael B Jordan, and now a part of the fashion zeitgeist, swiftly identified by eagle-eyed social media watch sleuths the minute they hit a red carpet. The vintage timepiece is a meticulously crafted accessory and extension of an outfit, capable of creating noise with elevated design and rarity.

Toretto’s approach is laid out artfully on his Instagram feed, where watches feature among other contemporary markers of a modern 2020s aesthete – coffee table books, vintage bicycles, and envy-inducing fitchecks. It’s the nucleus of the 33-year-old’s highly tapped-in online niche. 

When we meet over video call, summer has entered its final stages in Paris, where Grenoble-born Toretto calls home. He wears a faded black T-shirt with a ‘Geneva’ baseball cap from Miami-based watch curators Very Special. It is overlaid with embroidered Rolex, Patek Philippe, and Cartier logos on the front panel. He speaks into the microphone of his chunky wired earphones and intermittently sips on an iced black coffee. 

Ambient conversations swamp the background, silenced when he begins to explain his fateful introduction to the world of horology. “I lost my father when I was super young and his boss came to the funeral,” Toretto explains. “My mum told me this guy had really made it in life and he had a super nice Bvlgari Diagono on the wrist. So in my mind, I was like, ‘Okay, when you make it in your life, you have a nice watch.’ So this was the starting point for me into watches.” If we apply this logic to the yellow gold Rolex Datejust ref. 16018 clung to his wrist, you could say Toretto’s doing pretty well.

Despite watches entering the picture at a young age, it was Toretto’s dissatisfaction with his earlier fashion career that signposted him to the industry professionally. In 2012, he set up Codryo, a menswear store that carried fashion guru favourites such as Raf Simons, Rick Owens and Carven in Valence, a commune in southeastern France. When the store closed in 2016, a move to Paris followed, as did a stint as a store manager at Comme des Garçons. But with a major hankering for horology bubbling away, and free-time spent studying watches, luxury retail wasn’t scratching the itch. So he began connecting with collectors, visiting vintage watch dealers and attending auctions. 

“Sometimes [I] felt a bit awkward to be in a place where everybody was wearing a suit and tie,” he reflects.“I’m covered in tattoos. You feel weird because you’re like, ‘Okay, I couldn’t belong here.’ But I was so in love with the product that I was like, ‘Maybe there are other people who have had the same feeling as me. So maybe I should do my own thing and talk to those people,’” he recollects. “Because many people around me were already asking me about watches: ‘What should I buy?’ ‘Is it cool?’ ‘Is it not cool?’ I could feel that people were waiting for answers, and maybe they [didn’t want to go into the classical watch shop].” 

These early interactions and genuine passion helped Toretto establish himself as a tastemaker for a new-gen watch guy; design-savvy and fluent in avant-garde fashion as much as movements and complications. He founded OTOTTOÏ (named after the Japanese term meaning ‘two days ago’) in 2019 as a way of appealing to this new breed of collector. He got things going with four watches: a Bvlgari Diagono,Tudor Mino-Sub, a Rolex Oysterquartz with a service dial, and a Submariner 14060.

“I think there is a whole new generation of watch dealers and collectors that are exactly like you and me. They are young, they like fashion. They like the same kind of music. It feels like watches is a new subculture for the fashion people,” he says. “In our small world of people from the fashion industry, it feels like an underground culture to check watches. This is how I feel.” 

And, “It’s more like a lifestyle that I’m selling, more than just watches.” OTOTTOÏ’s website contains a mood board tab packed with grainy stills, spanning Mike Tyson’s 2007 Supreme photoshoot, screengrabs from The Sopranos (the series is a firm favourite and one he likes to revisit frequently), and ’90s covers of American skateboard magazine Thrasher. If you’re into the same things, you’re part of the club.

Toretto is well versed in the technical knowhow that entices more traditional collectors, learned through books, sometimes purchased at auction packed with details not available online. But, for him, design always takes precedence over other aspects, – the internal movement or whether it is a jewellery watch or not, for instance (some collectors discredit some jewellery models because of a lack of mechanical complexity). Sure, the method might not speak to everyone. But it sings to those with the same appetite for design. 

“I started OTOTTOÏ, in a way, to speak only to people like us. I [wanted to] do exactly the same as Rei Kawakubo for Comme des Garçons or Martin Margiela. I’m going to do something that speaks only to the people that I like,” he says. “If you [like] it, I know we already have a connection. If you don’t understand it, you’re not going to text me. I needed to do something really radical, because there are many amazing watch dealers, and I’m just one. It’s hard to do your own thing. Everything that I do, it’s like 100% me.” 

With six years in the game, the Paris-based watch dealer has built up an inventory that reads like a luxury timepiece hall of fame, with limited-edition Audemars Piguet Royal Oaks, Rolex Day-Dates, Patek Philippe Aquanauts, and Piaget Polos bulking out the inventory. You’ll often see these on his own wrists before they end up on his business page. But he’ll never fall into a trap of buying something outlandish just for likes. “I’m not going to buy it if I don’t like it. 90% of my stock is yellow gold watches, because I love yellow gold,” says Toretto. Sometimes [people ask] ‘Do you have a collection?’ Yes, my collection is my inventory. I can enjoy the watch for a couple months, a couple weeks, and then I sell it. I like buying more than collecting.” 

Only engaging with customers who align with yourself and sticking to selling what you’d wear might seem like a restrictive approach. But in a saturated market, where pristine wrist shots dominate watch-focused algorithms, creating a carefully defined brand has made Toretto stand out. It’s made his client-base devoted to his work – not just aligned on watch tastes but with his cultural outlook, too. 

“In today’s market, taste is currency. The strongest dealers have an identity: they curate in line with it, communicate it consistently, and attract people who want to project themselves through that same lens. Julien embodies this perfectly,” says Maxime Couturier, Creative Director of Geneva-based watch magazine Heist-Out, who has been a friend of Toretto since childhood. “By borrowing references from outside watchmaking, he builds credibility post after post, convincing followers that his eye can be trusted. That trust translates into desirability: people want to buy what he cherishes. At his best, he anticipates what his clients will want before they even know it themselves, and that foresight is what makes a dealer more than just a reseller.”

As for who is shopping at OTOTTOÏ, Toretto keeps that under wraps. “I’m selling quite a lot to people from the music, fashion or sports [worlds], but I’m trying to not say what they buy or if they do.” He has been pictured with fellow hip-hop and fashion enthusiast Tyler, the Creator in Paris, just to give you a taste, at least, of the company he keeps. Toretto agrees with the statement that identifying his watches in the wild requires some detective work. He’s light-hearted about it, but it shows the commitment and integrity he has to the business. When asked what’s next, he calmly articulates plans for expansion with an in-person boutique in Paris – a pragmatic next step, you could say, in this finely-tuned operation. 

Sure, the similarities between skateboarding and selling vintage luxury watches might not be immediately obvious. But this watch enthusiast makes them a little clearer; to do both activities well, you need a fanatical mindset and passion. When done right, and combined with an astute fashion sensibility, both have the potential to be the coolest thing in the world.

Julien Toretto offers a welcome design-led mentality into the vintage watch market. He’s bringing a skate rat verve and obsession into what he does, and he’s not slowing down. “I don’t spend an hour without thinking about watches,” he says. “There is no day off.”

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