Luxurious timepieces made of jade

For the mom who has everything, shopping for Mother’s Day is difficult, but one thing she probably doesn’t have is a jade watch — the creation of which marked a six-year trial for jewelry designer Nikolai Tsang.

Long before she became known as a jade specialist, Tsang, of Jade by Nikolai, started collecting watches as a 16-year-old in love with the colors and designs of the Swatch brand. In her collection was a limited-edition Keith Haring Swatch she’d purchased in the mid-1980s for $40. A few years later that Swatch became worth thousands of dollars.

"After that I was hooked," Tsang said.

She got into collecting American watches from the 1920s through ’60s, such as those made by Bulova and Hamilton.

"I’d drive around and stop at one of the vintage stores, and if they were inexpensive and working, I’d buy them, to the point where I had 150 watches."

In travels to Hong Kong, she learned there was a huge demand for American vintage watches, so she started unloading her collection in favor of vintage Rolexes, and now creates her own watches.

It wasn’t easy, with every step presenting a puzzle that needed to be worked out before pressing on.

"It was a fun project, but it took a lot of trial and error. I got the idea in 2008 and did the casing but couldn’t get the movement to fit. Once I got the movement to fit, I realized I didn’t factor in the stem (winding assembly). Then the band was the toughest. It took me two years to figure out, and it came to me while I was driving," she said.

She originally envisioned a solid band, but ended up cutting lengths of jade held together with stainless steel or gold pins that allow seamless flexibility.

Then there was the matter of working with Swiss watchmakers who didn’t know what to make of the blue-haired (now pink-haired) Chinese designer. They also didn’t understand the scarcity of the material and wondered why she couldn’t meet their minimum run requirement of 500 watches.

Tsang eventually started working with a small company and came up with a limited-edition, numbered run of 28 jadeite watches in nine different colors, ranging from white and honey to lavender, and a deep black that shows up as a vivid green in sunlight. The watches come in two designs, lotus for women and dragon for men, and prices range from $5,200 to $22,000. Each piece comes with a certificate of authenticity of natural untreated Burmese jadeite.

"For six months we tested them to make sure there were no issues, making sure they’re water resistant, wouldn’t break. They keep time very well," Tsang said. "We’ve also been stacking them with other jade bangles, and none of that has created a problem."

She’s now working on commissioned pieces incorporating precious stones and is looking forward to starting on her next collection, which will incorporate her signature three-dimensional designs of insects and nature shaped from diamonds, aquamarines and other precious and semiprecious gems.

"I’m so happy they’ve been well received," she said. "So much was wasted in the process, but I kept all the jade pieces that were part of the trial and error and want to use them in a timeline as a way to document my first watches."

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Inquire about the watches at Honolulu Co., 50 S. Beretania St. C-205-206; call 521-6818.