About Us

Celeste Watch is a 100% woman-owned and operated watch company in the US.

We consider ourselves watch dial artists and specialize in innovative and bespoke timepieces that are part of how we express ourselves and show up in the world. We have an inventory of 100+ designs that are available for purchase and also create custom designs by request.

 

How Celeste started

The process of making my first watch was slow and sometimes painful. Starting in 2013, I began taking apart old watches, making my own dials and putting them back together. After some success, my celebration was in full swing when I completed my first inlay dial. I wore it proudly and showed all my family and friends. But during a rainstorm, in a moment that changed everything, I looked down at my handcrafted creation only to discover that my watch was no longer ticking. Weather conditions had swelled the wood and were preventing the hour hand from moving. And so began my next level of training: I had to learn how to stabilize the wood on the dial, ensure the wood and shell were the same thickness, make a precision inlay, design a watch case, reliably build watches, and craft beautiful leather bands. The learning curve was steep and I had personally discovered at least fifty ways how not to make a watch dial.

Creating such an unusual piece, I knew I needed feedback so I applied to be a vendor at the Eugene Saturday Market. I was so nervous my first day! I set up my booth and only had one table. I’d worked all week to make four watches and was beyond excited to get comments about this idea for a watch that was probably unlike anything most people had seen. My booth was 8’ x 8’ with only four watches. I felt I could do gymnastics in the back and I worried that no one would be interested. But to my relief, the watches were well received and I sold two that very first weekend. I was so buoyed by the response that I went home and made another four the following week. The next Saturday I was immensely proud to have six watches on the table.

 

Nostalgia, my first watch, was a good design to present to the public. Talking to people about making the watch itself, I was often asked to identify the abalone shape. To me, it was an abstract wave, another symbol of the ocean, but not everyone saw it that way. So I’d ask people what they thought and was delighted by the different visions people had—cats, octopus, quails, dolphins, a dancing hippo, and more. This impromptu “Rorschach test” gave me a way to play with my customers and build connections that motivated and inspired me to add more shell colors and expand the wood choices. The watch could be anything to the wearer—whatever was most meaningful to them. Being organic, each piece of shell had a different mottled nature that made each watch unique. A cat in one watch could become a dancing lady in another.

 

The Nostalgia design was clean and simple without numbers on the dial. Several people told me it was difficult to tell time without numbers, so eventually I designed a watch with dial dots called Radiance. In many different colors, this starburst allows light to radiate from behind the mother of pearl. I felt euphoric with two designs on the table.

 

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