Bird Dogs, Penguins & Pirates: The Fantastical World Of Celeste Watch Company

After a successful career as an engineer, Celeste rediscovered her childhood fascination with watches and made it her second act "I've seen pictures of myself at four years of age with a big watch on my wrist Almost every picture I've seen of myself from my Mom's old photo albums shows me wearing a watch.

It's been a lifelong fascination." "I was spending too much time polishing cases and testing movements My aha! moment came when I saw the Lady F by Laurent Ferrier It changed my life.

Celeste Watch Company was born out of a love for that dial." The dial is made of mother-of-pearl carved in an arabesque motif; it triggered Celeste's love of the decorative side of watchmaking "Even though every watch goes through 72 hours of integrity testing, I can't test for all the ways people will wear them Bringing them back in for a battery allows me to check everything out, from how the inlay is holding up to the way the strap is wearing.

I love the opportunity to improve." For now, there are no mechanical movements in Celeste watches, which have 30mm, 35mm, 38mm and rectangular steel cases, but Wong is scoping out automatic movements for the future The watches sell for $200-$500 and can be found at arts festivals and at the Celeste boutique/gallery/workshop in downtown Springfield To find out more about Celeste and her handmade watches, visit www. Source