About us

Petar on the way to Geneva

The creative work...

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 art and design, making dad jokes was about the only creative thing he had done before starting the watch project. The watches themselves began as 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 purely as a joke, with paper prints glued onto throwaway watches.

Initial

Initial design sent to designer and friend Nebojsha Gelevski, asking 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 Koma Design Studio, led by Nebojsha Gelevski – the design evolved to feature two first-ever uses of the watch crown: as part of the 8 o’clock index (the CrownIndex) and as an analog reminder.

In the process, the original idea of playing with the 11 and II numerals – referencing the times of 5-to-2 / 10-past-2 – 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.

Petar showed the project to a friend in a bar at 3 a.m. – back came the idea for a barrel crown, with 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 unexpected features worked great and became part of the design. This opened the possibility for a black dial version, too.

Notice the balancing of the 11-minute index – and the use of PowerPoint. Petar’s graphic tool of choice from his consulting days remained central to his own work on the design through most of the process.

Nebojsha “Bane” Gelevski created the minimalist logo, which displays the brand’s name in Cyrillic: 11И11.

No lab coats were used in developing the watch. Watchmakers’ benches made only very rare appearances.

An urban process, through and through.

Friends testing 3D-printed prototypes.

“Taking the mechanical movements for a walk around Zurich’s Bahnhofstrasse.”

The photo was a joke. The logistics and trade issues that led to carrying the movements personally were anything but.

Introducing an index for 11 minutes in place of the 2 o’clock index required a serious exercise in threading the needle: staying true to the usual size and position of a minute index while disturbing the symmetry of the dial as little as possible.

By contrast, putting the date window inside the Roman V was a symmetry-enhancing decision, but it came with a serious commitment: we paid for Sellita’s SW400-1 movements – the only movement model on the market with a large-diameter date wheel – before the final design and the production partner were even in place.

The result is a striking design that appears minimalist at first glance but reveals layers of detail and meaning on closer inspection.

Image

...that resonates with creatives

The design has helped 11i11 saat watches reach far beyond the world of watch enthusiasts – though we are always happy to meet fellow enthusiasts too, at watch fairs and elsewhere. Some customers have told us that ours are the first watches they have worn in years, or even decades.

Alongside this, we are proud to support arts and entertainment events and help build connections between Austria and Macedonia.

At Die Presse SCHAU in Vienna

At D Festival in Shtip, Macedonia

Part of the Austrian booth at the Diplomatic charity bazaar

At the same time, 11i11 saat has found an unexpected resonance with artists, performers and other creative people.

Having previously been strictly a consumer of creative endeavors, Petar remains amazed that so many accomplished creatives have appreciated the watches – an unexpected and rewarding part of the story, captured in some of the moments below.

For more than 30 years, Petar has been a fan of The Young Gods – a band that expanded the boundaries of rock music, influencing artists such as David Bowie and Nine Inch Nails. And then…

It’s amazing when people who have directed or produced films that have won prizes from Venice to Sundance and been shortlisted for Oscars – and who are aesthetes incarnate in their private lives – like our watches.

But it’s absolutely next level when Tamara and Jordan turn meeting for a coffee into a photo session for our watches.

A fantastic side benefit of starting the watch brand: accidentally meeting – and getting to hang out with – people like Barbara, whose work has brought her both mega popularity in Brazil and global critical acclaim.

Tomeka has redefined the cello’s place in jazz while taking it across genres and creative contexts. It was indeed a match of vibes. :)

Theater and film and stand-up and music and Stranger Things… Nikola had seen a creative thing or two before we had the honor of meeting him.

Krste/Kristo is known for mixing genres, from New York’s downtown avant-garde jazz scene to Macedonian folk traditions. Petar once flew from Vienna to Skopje for the weekend just to attend one of his concerts with some US jazz heavyweights.

Last year, he flew in again especially for Krste’s music – this time as a supporter of the mini-tour.

Bringing innovation to centuries-old traditions through deep research into them.

That’s Vera in traditional Macedonian music; that’s us in watches.

Most Macedonians don’t need our watches to know what time it is when they see Atanas perform. It’s time to laugh.