“Classic execution, timeless appeal,” is how Andrew Waldan describes the ethos of his watch brand, Waldan International. The 23-year-old CEO was exposed to these values early on through his father, Oscar, who founded the company in 1979. In addition to life values, his father taught him watchmaking from when he was just ten years old: “Even when I was younger, around five years old, I would sit on the watchmakers’ laps and watch them work. When I got a little older, he started teaching me on a day-to-day basis, not just about how watches work, but also about how the business works,” says Waldan.
The circumstances under which the older Waldan honed his craft gives the brand an inspiring and fascinating legacy. Born in the ’20s in Dobczyce, Poland, he first learned watchmaking by cleaning and repairing his father’s pocketwatch. During WWII, he was forced into a concentration camp; In the camp, he befriended a watchmaker who would repair the guards’ watches and thus was given better treatment. By apprenticing under the watchmaker, Waldan developed his skills and was also spared some abuse—moreover, he says it in part contributed to his survival. After liberation, he studied horology in Germany and then worked for Charles Tissot in Le Locle, Switzerland, where he submitted his first realized watch design, the Tissot Navigator. He eventually started working on the sales end as well, and after decades in the business he decided to branch out on his own.
In 1979, Waldan opened a factory in Bienne, Switzerland and a watch repair center in New York. During the quartz crisis of the 1970s, Waldan bought up substantial inventory of complicated movements from brands like Zenith and Valjoux to use in their watches—several of their current watches still use retro movements acquired during the ’70s and ’80s. Originally, the company almost exclusively manufactured watches for other brands, but ten years ago, they relaunched and focused on making Waldan-branded watches and a New York–based watch repair and servicing business. Today, Waldan produces five watch lines, including two chronographs, a world timer and a moonphase calendar.
Andrew Waldan took the reins three years ago, following his father’s retirement for health reasons. He originally had a different career in mind: “I wanted to be a musician throughout college, and I pursued that, but when my father wasn’t doing so well, I dropped everything and moved back to New York. I spent day and night learning the operations,” explains Waldan.
During his brief time at the helm, Waldan has expanded retail and distribution, most recently opening in New York at Wempe Jewelers, and built the company’s e-commerce website from scratch and enhanced the brand’s digital presence. Additionally, he has been hard at work on the early stages of new watch designs: “We’re working on a tonneau-shaped watch with a moonphase as well as our first tourbillon,” says Waldan. He oversees all aspects of the company, from marketing to the watch repair business, personally: “I’m very hands on with the company—I kind of take after my father in that sense.”
He stresses the company’s commitment to quality, especially when it comes to using plentiful amounts of precious metal, noting that “the case of the Chronograph Chronometer alone is made of 44 grams of solid gold.” His vision for the future? “Establish more distribution for Waldan, especially internationally. Also, to stay true to our core values. The watch industry has changed dramatically over the past decade, and we want to hold firm to the traditional art of fine watchmaking. We’re a boutique-style company, and we want to keep that charm and identity.”
—Edward Lord