Ever since I was a child, I was drawn to the world of small things—the hidden, the intricate, the overlooked. My earliest creations were sprawling LEGO cities with secret passageways and moving parts, carefully built over hours with a patient hand. I graduated to assembling plastic military models, where the joy came not only from building but from the meticulous detail. My father, a fixer of small electronics, taught me how to work with wires, soldering irons, and schematics; we spent many summers side by side, coaxing life back into circuit boards. Outside, I found equal fascination in the natural world—lichen sprawling like miniature forests, mushrooms erupting in delicate, transient beauty. That early love of tiny worlds—both human-made and organic—laid the foundation for a lifelong passion for building beauty and function into the smallest of forms.

Now, this curiosity matured into a creative drive that spans many disciplines. I’ve composed music, painted canvases, cut lino blocks, and built digital art and photography portfolios. Each medium sharpened a different facet of my creative voice, but all carried the same theme: a deep attention to form, precision, and expression. Model train layouts became a way to blend mechanical skill with artistic narrative, echoing the same care I now bring to watchmaking. Alongside this, I earned a PhD in molecular and cellular biology, where I use high-resolution microscopy and molecular techniques to explore the nanoscopic machinery inside our cells. This scientific lens has deepened my appreciation for precision and complexity—values I now channel into every timepiece I design. Watches, for me, are the perfect intersection of art, mechanics, and meaning—a small world on your wrist, built to last, built to tell a story.

I may not have a lifetime of horology experience or come from a generational watch company, but my watches are built using a personal history of creativity, curiosity and ingenuity anchored in a fascination in the world of small things. At Helianthus Watches, each design begins with a story. Our signature timepieces—often rooted in the natural world or in the quiet strength of overlooked human histories, are more than just mechanical instruments; they are tributes. Our signature build La Bergère, for example, honors the life of Simone Melchior a diver and oceanographer who was thought of as the real captain of Jacques Cousteau’s research vessel, a story of understated leadership and grace that now lives on in the details of a timepiece. Designing and building custom watches is my way of connecting with others—of using my creative instincts to fuse their personality and style into something tangible, wearable, and lasting. In a world of homogenous smartwatches and constant digital noise, I believe a mechanical watch offers something radical: a moment of quiet, a reflection of self, and a celebration of individuality. Helianthus isn’t just about telling time—it’s about telling your story.