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AMERICAN BRANDS
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AMERICAN BRANDS
Bright Fire from he Nostalgia Collection . Red abalone shell inlaid in maple wood . Simple and elegant . Time required : 2-3 hours .
CELESTE
Golden Ochre horse is 21 pieces of abalone shell tinted golden ochre , inlaid in mother-of- pearl . A clear stone serves as the dial marker at 12 and also as the horse ’ s eye . Time required to make the dial is 8-12 hours .
Celeste Wong will never look at hardwood floors the same again . And how that relates to the stunning watches she creates may be a head scratcher at first , but it becomes all too clear when she tells you the hurdles she overcame to make her visions a reality .
“ It took more than two years to take the Nostalgia model from idea to reality ,” Celeste shared with About Time . The Nostalgia is the first watch she created for her Springfield , Oregon-based line of aptly named Celeste watches . “ I had this beautiful watch built with abalone and wood and then the first time it rained it stopped working .”
You might think it is because she didn ' t understand the importance of integrating proper water resistance into a watch , but that is not the case . And that brings us back to the hardwood floors . As anyone who has ever installed them knows , you have to leave a gap between the wall and the first line of planks . This is because all wood expands and contracts as humidity and temperature change .
“ So , that is exactly what happened to my first watch with a partially wooden dial ,” Celeste said . “ Then I went back to the drawing board and found fifty ways not to stabilize wood until I finally found a process that worked .” A process , by the way , she has no intention of sharing with anyone else .
Celeste Wong is an engineer by trade , a long-time lover of horology by way of tuna ( more on that later ) and an artist by passion . About three years ago she set out on a journey to bring all those things together in a new watch brand that brings new meaning to the word “ handmade .”
“ The brand started out as something for women , because it is so hard to find a really beautiful woman ' s watch ,” Celeste told us . “ At least what my idea of beautiful is . I ' m not a fan of bling .” But now , Celeste says she doesn ' t put any gender on her watches and some of them have far more male buyers than female .
Her watches incorporate imagery that run from geometric shapes to detailed inlaid constructions of animals from sea turtles to horses to fish – the latter being the centerpiece of her Hook ' Em collection . The Joy Ride collection even features a 1960s era VW van .
Incorporating wood , abalone shell and mother of pearl , each watch is a mini-masterpiece and clearly a labor of love for Celeste . They come in 35mm and 38mm cases , though she is considering larger models , and all use Swiss Ronda quartz engines . For Celeste , it is more about the art than it is about the mechanics of timekeeping . Though she does have plans to offer an Eterna automatic line in the future as well .
Celeste hand-assembles every unit herself with the real work being poured into the creation of the dial . The journey begins in her imagination with the imagery she desires for the dial and from there to the computer and then on to a laser-cutting machine to create the delicate pieces that will become the dial ' s art work . The base is a standard , plain brass dial , which she colors with a ceramic electro-
66 | AboutTime Magazine