About

You are the protagonist of your own story

Livia Karsten checking one of her watches in a field of orange Namaqualand wildflowers

You’re an individual and appreciate making your own choices of what to wear and how to project yourself.

Unfortunately you are traditionally faced with two choices:

  • Watches that look like all other watches.
  • Cellphones on your arm that require regular charging.

Most brands only promote themselves on the item, meaning you become a brand ambassador and outdoor billboard for a large corporation or tech company. What ever happened to your ideas, your opinions, your identity? Why not claim it back for yourself?

I have worked very hard to innovate and offer you exclusive adornment items that will reflect your individuality by means of an elegant timepiece that can be customized easily by yourself for any occasion. That is correct — besides the combinations that I have built on this site, you are most welcome to get in contact if you want to change it out with similar combinations found on the site.

You are after all the protagonist of your own story!

Being unique is not following the crowd.
Being unique is to follow your own heart.

Why a chameleon

The Livia Karsten mark: a watercolour chameleon held between two brackets

Nothing changes itself more readily, which makes it the argument of the watch in one animal. The case, the dial and the strap are not fixed to one another, so a piece can become something else for a different day without becoming a different watch.

It is a particular chameleon. Bradypodion pumilum, the Cape Dwarf Chameleon, lives at the Cape of Good Hope — in the country the brand comes from, and where every piece is still assembled by hand.

Look at the outline and you are looking at a watch. The chameleon was drawn from the internal movement of one, its curves taken from the shapes inside the case.

Where the designs come from

The African and Standard collections carry the designs the brand was built on. The Cape Town and South Africa collections carry places — Muizenberg’s beach huts, the cableway, the penguins at Boulders — printed onto the dial. The bags are named for flowers.

Not quite the one you had in mind?

Every piece on the site is a combination that has already been put together — but the case, the dial and the strap are not fixed to one another. If you have seen a dial you like on one watch and a strap on another, say so and we will tell you whether it can be made.

Write to us

Orders, returns, deliveries, or a question before you buy. Include your order number if you have one — it begins LK-.

We use what you write here only to answer you. It is kept with our other correspondence and nothing else is done with it.