About us

Petar on the way to Geneva

Petar, a Vienna-based management and IT consultant, had only recently become a watch enthusiast when, in 2019, he got the idea for what would become 11i11 saat.

Despite his lifelong interest in arts and design, making dad jokes was about the only creative thing he had done before the watches. The watches themselves started as an idea for a dad joke made physical: a simple printed-dial watch playing with the visual similarity between Arabic 11 and Roman II.

Had it not been for the pandemic, the idea might have been executed just as a joke, with paper prints glued onto throwaway watches.

Initial

From the message to the designer and friend Gelevski, if he|d like to join the project, early 2020.

With all the stay-at-home time in 2020, the project’s ambitions escalated.

Developed together with leading Macedonian designers – Apostol Tnokovski and the Koma Design Studio led by Nebojsha Gelevski – the design evolved to feature two first-ever uses of the watch crown: as part of an index at 8 o’clock, and as an analog reminder by turning the crown to different positions.

In the process, the original idea of playing with the 11 and II numerals – referencing the 5-to-2 or 10-past-2 time – evolved into showing 11 past 11, with an hour index for 11 o’clock and a minute index for 11 minutes.

The watch development in pictures - no lab coats in sight!

Initial render - the crown is a sphere, the outer dial ring is brushed metal.

Showing the project to a friend in a bar at 3am – he suggested the barrel crown, for a 2D eight o’clock look, aligned with the other indices.

In a hurry to finish the prototypes before the Chinese New Year break, the suppliers mistakenly delivered dials with a white outer dial ring and a hole at the 8H position. Both worked great and I accepted them. This opened the possibility for a black dial version, too.

Note the balancing of the index at 11 minutes and the Power Point, consultant Petar’s graphical tool of choice during much of the design process.

No lab coats and watchmaker tables were used in developing the watch.

A through and through urban process.

Friends as 3D print testers.

Introducing an 11-minute index instead of the 2 o’clock one required a serious exercise in threading the needle: how to stay true to the conventions of the right size and position for a minute index, while minimally disturbing the symmetry of the dial.

On the other hand, putting the date window inside the Roman numeral was a symmetry-enhancing decision, but it came with a serious commitment: we paid for Sellita’s SW400-1 movements – the only ones on the market with a large-diameter date window – before the final design and producer were even in place.

The result is a striking design that gives a minimalist first impression, but reveals layers of details and meanings upon closer view.

Manufacturing and provenance details

We use Cattin Watch from Switzerland as our watch producer. The decades-long experience of Guy Cattin and his team, together with that of their long-term Asian parts suppliers, results in watches of rock-solid quality.

The mechanical models are Swiss Made overall: the technical design and assembly are done in Switzerland, using Swiss Made Sellita movements and other parts produced by Cattin Watch suppliers in China.

The quartz models are China-made overall, using Swiss Parts Ronda movements made in Thailand and other parts produced by Cattin Watch suppliers in China.

We use straps from Hirsch in Austria and steel mesh bracelets from Staib in Germany, both leaders in their fields. Some straps and bracelets are made in the suppliers’ home countries; others are made in Asia.

Taking the Sellita movements for a walk around Zurich's Bahnhofstrasse.