NEW SCOTTISH WATCH BRAND.
LAUNCHING A LIMITED EDITION COLLECTION
ON KICKSTARTER SOON:
The Saltire Collection
Named after the flag of Scotland. Designed with subtle features reflecting the uniqueness of Scottish history, culture, natural beauty, and art.
Limited edition, featuring vailed Scottish elements in design.
Flag of a Nation
Designed By Scottish Horologists
Canny Craftsmanship
The Saltire Collection
Scotland Watch Company is the only watch microbrand creating themed watches including Scottish elements in the design.
The Beginning
Tomek Borkowy, a fully Scotticized Polish horologist was founder of Scotland Watch Company. For most of his professional life he worked in international performing arts, but for as long as he remembers he have been interested in watches. For many years Tomek collected pocket watches and realised that a lot of them had lost their silver and gold cases, sold for their scrap value. He heard that some watch enthusiasts were creating wristwatch cases for pocket watch movements creating fitted watches, known in the USA as marriage watches. He followed the idea, designing and producing special wristwatch cases for movements such as Hebdomas and chronographs like Le Phare.
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As a public person in Poland, thanks to film roles there, Tomek was appointed ambassador for the Polish Clock and Watch Festival “It’s all About Watches”.
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Being an associate member of the British Horological Institute he invited the organization to take part in the 2019 edition in Poland. There, he noticed that new Polish watch microbrands were mushrooming, and decided to create a new Scottish watch company. Tomek invited his friend, Scottish horologist Colin Graham to join him and they co-opted a young budding e-commerce entrepreneur, Robert Reid-Kay, and Scotland Watch Company was born.
Designed in Scotland
Aventurine and Enamel Dials
We design our watches in-house and purposefully select artisanal manufacturing techniques, that you will not see anywhere else. The Saltire, flag of our nation, is carefully recreated onto the dial, and only reveals itself upon close inspection.
SCOTTISH HOROLOGICAL HERITAGE
By producing Scottish themed watches we would like to also focus your attention on the long history of clock and watchmaking in Scotland. From the mid 15th century Clock Masters were working in all large towns in Scotland instating and meaning tower clocks.
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From beginning of the 17th century Edinburgh and Glasgow were centres for clockmaker. Edinburgh’s Clock Maker’s Land was created in the West Bow, where innovative clock and watchmaking masters worked and educated a number of apprentices. The most famous of the era was David Ramsay born in 1585 who became clockmaker to James VII of Scotland and I of England, and later to Charles I of England. Between 1677 and 1694 Paul Roumieu was praised for his craftsmanship and the quality of his time pieces.
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An apprentice who applied to the Guild to become a Freeman, had to design and make a timepiece to prove his ability. There were a number of very distinguished Scottish makers: such as Andrew Brown, James Cowan, John Smith, George Munro, Thomas Gordon to mention a few of them. In the Victorian era James Muirhead was “Watchmaker to the Queen”.
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All Scottish clock and watch makers were advancing horological progress, but they rarely patented their inventions, as the Scottish clock and watch trade understood that an invention belongs to its inventor. However, many innovations were “adopted” by English and European horologists. In 1914 two Scottish submarine officers designed the first watertight wristwatch, which was produced by Edinburgh jewellers Brook & Son in 1915 under the name of Submarine and manufactured by Swiss Tavannes. Three years later high society London jeweller, Birch & Gaydon launched the same design of watch manufactured by Zenith under the name Land & Water. In the future we will tell you more about this significant Scottish watch.