It is with our excitement that we announce we will be at the watch fair Stockholm Time – Watches of Scandinavia on the 14 th of October. We hope to see you there.
For the first time in Sweden, Scandinavian watch brands are gathered for an exhibition/fair. Stockholm Time is held on Saturday 14 October at the National Archives, Riddarholmen, in Stockholm. In these historic premises, visitors will be able to meet experts in the industry and have the opportunity to try and buy the latest watches from some of Scandinavia’s most influential and unique brands.
We’re happy to announce that the Helgonet 38 has now been released. All fully paid orders will be shipped within the upcoming weeks. Everyone with a reservation/pre-order will receive an e-mail with more information once your watch has been dispatched.
If you wish to get in touch with us, as always, feel free to send us an e-mail and we will get back to you as soon as possible. Click here to contact us.
Thanks to all of you for your patience with our release of the Celegin Helgonet 38. All watches are now received and are undergoing final QC before we start shipping. Due to a clerical error, we managed to somehow procure the wrong dimension of screw drivers for our new screwed bracelet. The new batch of screw drivers will be shipped to us next week and we’ll start shipping the pre-ordered watches as soon as we can!
If you have any questions, please let us know. Send us an email on tid@celegin.se.
Just about a year ago, we were preparing for our first release: the Celegin Draken F. A year later, we have produced four series along with a bunch of prototypes. We’ve learned a lot, made many mistakes, overcome a few hurdles and had a load of fun. Here’s a brief update and our current plans and thoughts.
The watch we plan to produce next is the Celegin Helgonet (ref. P18H). The prototypes were finished just before Christmas and we’ll bombard you guys with nice photos taken by Anders Törmä! All our funds from sold watches go directly to produce new ones. Since the fall has been a bit slow for the whole watch industry – us included – we are evaluating other options to realize this watch. More info to come.
Swedish AD
During the spring, if all goes as planned, we’ll have our watches available for purchase through a small, niched physical store in Sweden. More info to follow.
Norwegian AD
During the first half of this year, we’ll close our Norwegian operation (Henma AS). The main reason for this is that we struggle to find time to run two companies in parallel. The Norwegian community has shown incredible interest and support for our designs. Therefore, we plan on having an appropriate AD setup in Norway.
Events
We’ll participate in Oslo Swap Meet and the Fredrikstad GTG. We hope to see you guys in other events too and will keep you posted. Who knows, we may even arrange one ourselves?
We’re shortly going to offer special designed straps from the high-end custom strap make Diaboliq Straps.
Cooperations and custom watches
We are in dialogues regarding custom watches and hope to realize a project this year. If you belong to an association, military regiment/battalion or company that would want to make a special edition based on one of our concepts, please get in touch with us.
This week, an interview of us was published in the group “Watch Collectors of California and Beyond” by Travis Mickel.
Maker’s Monday Interview
Leonard Celegin, Celegin Precision Timing
10-3-22, 10:10 AM
Short bio:
Leonard Celegin is the founder of the eponymous brand Celegin Precision Timing. The watches are all inspired by and dedicated to Swedish aviation, military and industry icons.
1. How did you first get into making watches?
I’ve always been fascinated by watches. A few years ago, my interest got deeper and I started exploring brands and designs that were new to me. As part of understanding different designs, I tried drawing and combining various design elements. Although I quickly realized my drawing skills weren’t excellent, the thought of maybe designing my own watches one day came up and never left. Fast forward to 2021 and I finally had everything in place to launch my first creations.
2. Do you have a “normal job“ or is this your full-time passion?
I have a day job, which at times is quite demanding. My watch brand is mainly motivated by enthusiasm and passion; the business side of it is secondary (all money coming in from watch sales go to new designs and productions).
3. What do you like best about being a successful micro brand?
All the new people I’ve met and keep on meeting. I’ve also managed to build a small team; achieving something together is always the most fun!
4. Which of your watches is your favorite? Are you also a watch enthusiast of other brands?
The upcoming release, Celegin Viggen “Akka” gets 99% of my wrist time currently and I have a hard time seeing any other of my watches getting any for the foreseeable future. I’m definitely a fan of other brands, especially some of the Sinn designs are close to my heart. Other micro brands are also very interesting.
5. What advice would you offer someone that was interested in creating their own brand of watches?
Design what you like, trust your gut feel and don’t try to design based on what everyone else likes. Surround yourself with people you trust and who’s opinions are valuable.
6. What do you think really sets your watches apart from others?
The Swedish concept; all text and all print on the watch is in Swedish language. Our pilot watches are dedicated to Swedish fighter jets; our diver watches are dedicated to our naval divers and our racing watches are dedicated to a classic Swedish sports car, the Volvo P1800.
7. What are some things that you wish everyone knew about you and your work? Any interesting brand trivia? Any personal info you’d like to share?
We plan on donating our prototypes for charity. Right now we are in dialogue with a Swedish veterans association where they will get one of the Celegin Draken S prototypes for a raffle among their members where all proceeds are going to their ends.
Trivia: The name, Celegin, is originally Italian and slightly misspelled. Apparently there are less than 20 individuals in the entire world with the surname spelled this way.
Some personal info: As a kid, I used to be very interested in aviation and spent hundreds of hours flying various combat flight simulators.
8. What has been your biggest surprise so far, as you have built your Celegin Precision Timing brand?
All work leading up to a complete design and delivered product involves hundreds of decisions of different magnitude. None of them can be ignored since they all have an impact on the end result. Therefore, everything we’ve done is a result of a deliberate choice. We’ve also been incredibly lucky; because many times you need to make a decision based on too little background.
9. What future plans do you have for your brand?
We have a lot of interesting ideas on the “dream board” and hope to bring some of them to life next year. The Viggen “Akka” is our first watch that doesn’t have a black dial and I think there will be more colors in the coming releases.
10. How many watches per year do you typically sell?
We just started, but for this year we’re looking at a few hundred watches sold.
11. What is the story behind your brand name/logo?
Instead of opting for a generic name, I wanted to manifest my commitment to the quality and watch experience by branding it with my surname.
12. Who is your ideal customer?
I honestly can’t say that one type of customer is more ideal than another. Regardless of what your relation is to watches, we still wish to give you a great experience. So far we’ve managed that well with both beginners and advanced watch freaks like ourselves.
13. Where do you see the Microbrand industry headed? What are just trends, and what is here to stay?
I’m happy to see less of the opportunistic profit driven kickstarter projects. I love the creativity that micro brands in general are able to demonstrate (typically where established, major brands don’t dare to go). Something interesting is also the development where micro brands are starting to get a very serious position in the market.
Yeah, the praise in Fratello is something I’m very proud of! The original Celegin Draken was a bicompax Chronograph inspired by Heuer 1550. We dropped the chrono and went for a three-hander (SW200) for the first release. I still wanted to make the chronograph and we developed a new version around the SW510. It’s a very expensive movement so we’re 100% dependent on preorders to make this one happen. We feel that the preorder deal is quite good; probably $500 below any other watch with this movement.
15. What is a question I did not ask that you wish I would’ve along with the answer?
If any of our watches have been sold to California. The answer is actually yes; we’ve delivered a few pieces to the Golden State already. Plus I long to get back and visit again – it’s been quite a few years since I was there personally.
A few weeks ago, we received the prototypes of the Celegin Viggen “Akka”, model reference J37A. Having waited patiently we were quite naturally very excited about finally seeing this new design “in the metal”.
Celegin Viggen “Akka”, ref. J37A Photo: Anders Törmä
The Viggen “Akka” is our first watch that doesn’t have a black dial following the inverted design of the Viggen Cockpit GMT. While matte, the dial is still silver plated which makes it spring to life in ambient life. We have struggled to get the photos to make this watch justice..
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Perhaps somewhat biased, our small team has fallen in love with our new white watch and we very much look forward to the release in November!
The silhouette of the JA37 Viggen embossed and polished on the case back
About a month ago, we announced our two upcoming productions: Viggen “Akka” (ref. J37A) and Helgonet (ref. P18H). TheViggen “Akka”is well underway and is expected to be launched in mid-November as planned. We’ll release more information and some beautiful pictures shortly.
Helgonet has now finally reached its prototype stage and we hope to see it “in the metal” in shortly before Christmas. We’re obviously very happy about this new design since it adds a few dimensions that we’ve been looking for to develop:
The new 38 mm case
Stepped, sunburst dial
A classic, somewhat more dressy watch
One of the most common questions we get is if we’re planning on making watches that are smaller in size than our current 41.5-42.5 mm pieces. These are based on our 41 mm case. While 41-42 mm is an optimal size for many, many have also found that the 38-39 mm range is very befitting and comfortable.
We’re a super small company with limited means and therefore we have to take each development and evolution step by step. Helgonet was originally designed on both the 41 mm and the 38 mm case, but we ended up going for the latter only. The bezel diameter will be 38.5 mm with a fairly dominating stepped dial in black and turquoise.
Following Viggen “Akka”, Helgonet will not only add more color to our range but also sunburst dials. Where Draken, Treudd and Viggen are all in the “tool watch” cathegory, Helgonet is an excellent opportunity to bring more life to the dial.
Being a slightly more dressy watch and in order to capture the 60’s vibe, both the hands and the indexes will be polished. In combination with the sunburst dial, we believe Helgonet will add a new dimension to the watch experience that we want to give.
The no-date version of SW200 (1 b) has a longer lead time than the date version (SW200-1 a). Our hopes of having Helgonet ready for launch in or around February are therefore not longer feasible and we’re looking at summer 2023 as the planned release for this exciting piece!
Since the release of the first renditions more than a year ago, certain design elements of the Treudd(Trident) has generated a lot of comments, discussion and engagement. The watch released, our founder’s limited edition (ref. KA1F) continued to engage. Here are the five most frequently asked questions and their answers.
Celegin Treudd, ref. KA1F Photo: Johannes Mattsson
Does the watch have the golden trident on the dial?
Answer: No. Treudd (ref. KA1F) comes without the golden trident. Instead we’ve added the water resistance in the Swedish fathoms (famnar). 1 famn = 1.78 m.
As related, we ended up dropping the golden trident that was featured on the first renditions and prototype. In short, there were three reasons for that. First, the golden trident made the dial too busy. Second, it didn’t give the other two tridents (case back and crown) justice. Third, it overshadowed the other design elements and didn’t go well with the blue bezel insert.
What does Treudd mean and how do you pronounce it?
Answer: Treudd is Swedish for Trident. It is a dedication to the Swedish combat divers and coastal rangers.
It is pronounced “Treh-uddh” with emphasis on the first syllable. Since our concept is high spec, high quality watches with dedication to Swedish traditions and icons within aviation, military and industry, we wanted to dedicate our professional diver’s watch to the ones mentioned above. Their insignia is a golden trident.
Does the watch come on bracelet or strap?
Answer: Both. At delivery, the Treudd is mounted on bracelet and has a two-piece nylon strap on the side.
All our watches are delivered with a complimentary strap and the necessary tools to change. The reason for this is that Celegin Precision Timing is founded and run by watch enthusiasts. As such, we want to inspire personalization of the watch. The best way to do that is to change straps and that’s why we add a secondary strap as a starting point.
We aren’t huge fans of making limited editions. However, as part of the inception of Celegin Precision Timing, we decided to offer our first two productions at a very favourable price as so called “founder’s limited editions”. Our coming, regular productions won’t be limited although the batches are limited in production. This means that when sold out, it may take a few months or even up to a year before we have it on stock again.
What about a no-date version/different color/different size (etc.)?
Answer: In due time. By altering 10 common features of a watch, with a few options on each, you quickly end up with tens of thousands of different permutaions.
The Treudd concept is something we really like and see has many interesting paths. Our current plan is to release 1-2 versions of Treudd within the coming year and both will be quite different from the KA1F.
We’re happy to announce that the Draken S, ref. J35S will be released on the 20th August 2022. All fully paid orders will be shipped within a week after the release date. Within the coming days, everyone with a reservation/pre-order will receive an e-mail with more information. If you want to get in touch with us, as always, we’re available at tid@celegin.se
