Two employees of the Carlsberg brewing company met at a business dinner in their native Denmark in 1986. The couple were Henrik Jorst and Charlotte Kjolbye. They would soon fall in love and move to the US after Carlsberg sent Henrik there to oversee the company’s American business arm.

The couple married that same year. The couple harbored the dream of creating an international design company and came up with the idea of ​​designing and producing watches for sale as corporate gifts, branded with the logo of other companies.

Their initial designs were well received, but they were advised that they would do much better to offer the watches under a new company name of their own, rather than brand their big designs with other people’s logos.

With that thought in mind, Henrik came up with four different styles of watches and had 800 made to test the waters. However, he first needed a company name that encapsulated his and Charlotte’s ideals of simplicity and style in a functional product. The name Skagen Denmark was born from this philosophy.

Skagen is actually a small town in the north of Denmark, famous for the quality of its light and the timeless beauty of its beaches and blue seas. It has attracted artists to paint there since the late 19th century and is known for its tranquility and peaceful atmosphere.

That first batch of 800 watches sold out very quickly. A second batch came out just as quickly, so for the next season the couple devised a range of 30 watches. These were listed in a mail order catalog and sold out completely within weeks.

Over the next ten years, Skagen Watches grew to employ 100 people and began exporting its products to Europe. They now have 170 employees and sell to more than sixty foreign markets. Skagen’s designs can now be found in some five thousand stores worldwide.

A Skagen fan might recognize one of their designs even without the fancy logo. The reason is that Henrik and Charlotte make sure that the products stay true to their original idea. There are no big, chunky, oversized watches with the Skagen name. Their products are usually super slim with a neat and clean look. A trademark is the use of exotic materials such as titanium and finely woven stainless steel watch straps.

You might expect Skagen watches to cost a fortune, but you’d be wrong. Skagen strives to offer excellent value for money and their products cost no more than many mass produced items with no designer flair at all.