Art for your Wrist! Springfield Watch Maker Celebrates Longevity in Downtown Springfield
Celeste Wong, founder and designer at Celeste Watch Company, celebrates her Business Person of the Year Award for 2022, along with six years of successful business in downtown Springfield, with a dual celebration on Friday, March 31.
A self-taught watch designer, dial artist, and watchmaker, Celeste Wong uses her storied engineering background to refine and improve every process: design, material choices, preparation, coloring, cutting, cleaning, inlay, and building and testing the watches for integrity. She works with individual customers to design custom timepieces, maintains the Celeste Watch Company website, travels to festivals to celebrate her watches with the people she meets, and is always exploring ways to improve everything. We asked Celeste a few questions about her six years as an entrepreneur and businesswoman in Springfield.
Tell us a bit about Celeste Watch Company. Why did you open your shop in Springfield?
Back in 2016, 335 Main Street was a lamp and clothing store. The owner wanted to move to the East Coast, so he was looking to share the rent and eventually leave town. It sounded good initially, but we couldn’t work out the details of sharing the space very well. To my delight, he decided it would be fine to close his store, and I took over the space, opening in February of 2017.
Springfield felt like a good choice because not only was it my hometown, but I was surrounded by a community of people who supported me. I felt welcomed, and knew that I could get help if I needed it. One of the big perks about buying a Celeste watch is that they come with free lifetime batteries. Being central on Main Street provides an easy and convenient location for people to have their batteries replaced on the way to lunch or coffee.
“Springfield felt like a good choice because not only was it my hometown, but I was surrounded by a community of people who supported me. I felt welcomed, and knew that I could get help if I needed it.”
– Celeste Wong
Tell us a highlight of your six years in downtown Springfield.
As strange as this answer sounds, when COVID shut down the city and Main Street was a ghost town, I developed a technique that allowed me to put pictures of people’s pets on a watch dial. I offered to colorized photographs to show the dogs and cats in rainbow colors, and also waived all of my art and setup fees. Within days, I had almost 50 orders, and it was the start of a whole new division of Celeste Watch Company. People brought their pets into the store to meet me and I listened to numerous stories about the magical connections people had with their pets. It was such a fun and heartwarming experience that I’ll never forget.
What is different about Springfield (either Downtown or as a whole) since you set up shop six years ago?
Back in 2017, I landed in just the right place! Springfield has transformed itself into an amazing destination. It’s clean, and there are so many choices for food – the plethora of food choices brings people here, and that provides excellent visibility for me.
What was it like to win the Chamber’s 2022 Business Person of the Year Award?
It was such a surprise and honor to win Business Person of the Year! Being recognized and valued by my community has made me feel really good and more confident about my contribution to Springfield. And hats off to the Springfield Chamber for giving the prize to an art-focused, woman-owned micro-business downtown, who is doing something different. I still don’t know who nominated me, but I hope they eventually tell me so I can thank them. The timing is good, too, since I had been hoping to have an anniversary celebration – now it’s a double celebration!
Anything else you’d like to share?
I’m very happy here in Springfield, and I plan to stick around.
More information about the Celebration
• Special guests, the Chinese Lion Dancers, will arrive at 1pm to bless the business and bring good fortune. A short overview will be given before the dance to explain the tradition and provide background information.
• Water, coffee and Prosecco; snacking foods, sweets from Main Street Sweets, and fortune cookies (maybe you will get an amazing fortune!) will be served.
• A ribbon cutting will begin when the lions complete their dance.
• As a special tribute to Springfield and the beautiful state of Oregon, our Oregon Love, The Springfield Driftboat, Drifting’ in Paradise and Oregon Spirit watches will be half off! This special offer is only available on Friday, March 31, and is limited to stock on hand. Watches can be purchased online or in person.
VIEW THE CELEBRATION PAGE HERE.
The artists at Celeste Watch Company specialize in innovative and bespoke timepieces that are part of “how we express ourselves and show up in the world.” They have an inventory of 80+ designs that are available for purchase and also create custom designs by request.
