Our Story
Nine hundred watches a year, and not one of them in a hurry.
Kalonda began because two people were tired of building beautiful things for a company that sold them badly.
The idea was narrow on purpose: make a small number of mechanical watches to a standard nobody would argue with, then sell them without the three hands they usually pass through on the way to a wrist. That is the whole business. It has not changed in fourteen years, and it is why a Kalonda costs what it costs rather than three times as much.
Everything is assembled in Geneva. We buy our own hairsprings, we cut our own bridges, and we regulate every movement in six positions over a fortnight before it is allowed into a case. If a piece does not hold to within four seconds a day, it goes back to the bench rather than into a box.
We are eleven people now. That is roughly as large as we want to be — big enough that a watch can be finished properly, small enough that the person who built yours can be asked about it by name.
How we got here
2011
A bench in a back room
Two watchmakers left a large maison, rented a room behind a printer's shop in Geneva, and finished eleven watches in the first year.
2015
The first calibre of our own
Four years of drawing and revision produced the automatic movement that still sits inside most of what we make.
2019
We stopped using retailers
Selling directly took a third off the price of every piece without taking anything out of it. We have not gone back.
2024
The Royalty Collection
Eight references, four for her and four for him, meant to be the last watch someone needs to buy for a very long time.