Cloister Watch Company was an accident.

It grew from a personal love of wristwatches and remains so guided today. And it began with a seemingly innocuous decision: to buy a watch. One became two, and then four, and then more. Somewhere along the way, I began to face the collector’s dilemma. The disparity between my growing number of wristwatches and fixed number of wrists grew wider, and many treasured pieces went unworn.

The exercise of parting with sentimental items—even those relegated to sock drawers or safe deposit boxes—is a challenging one. It was made less painful when the few watches I did part with went to friends who I knew would love them as I had. Slowly and unintentionally, I began to trade, restore, and sell watches.

In 2009, a routine project altered the trajectory of Cloister Watch Company. An acquaintance asked me to locate and restore a watch from his birth year—a 1963 Rolex Datejust Ref. 1600. By the time the project was complete, the acquaintance had changed his mind. Poor form aside, this created an opportunity. I decided to keep the watch and transform it into something uniquely my own.

The most obvious place to start was the dial. I began mixing paint and ultimately created what today we call “Just Orange.” A craftsman in Bavaria transformed the watch’s dial using the paint sample and period-correct techniques and tools. At the same time, a metal fabricator created a sapphire crystal caseback for the watch, exposing the movement.

The watch—which immediately became my daily driver—was not for sale. But less than a week later, a fellow collector fell in love and convinced me to part with it. And so it began. Just as the re-imagination of one Rolex breathed new life into my passion for wristwatches, so too did the first “Just Orange” Datejust and other early commissions transform Cloister Watch Company into a design house for unique watches crafted from vintage and modern timepieces.

— Cooper Zelnick