Mo Eden, the owner of Mo Eden London, a bespoke jeweler in Hatton Garden in London, couldn’t find the kind of watches he wanted, so he decided to make them himself.

“I’ve been making watches for a few years now,” he explains. “I am a bespoke jeweler by trade, making individual pieces for private clients. When doing bespoke jewelry, however, you have to do what you are told. I really wanted to do my own thing, and my passion has always been making watches.”

The first watch Eden did was a ring watch–that’s right, a small watch placed into a ring. Eden acquired a number of Blancpain vintage movements, and he made and sold about 25 of these ring watches. “With the ring watch, I wanted to create something really spectacular and show-stopping–I wanted it to be spotted and noted; it is a very loud piece. When you walk into a room with it on, you get noticed.”

The success of the ring watch really fueled Eden’s watchmaking desires. “I’ve been working on a men’s watch for a few years now,” he explains. “I love cars and I love driving watches. Rather than putting a crystal on the bottom of the watch, where you have to take it off to see the movement, I decided to put it on the back of the watch.”

The movement in the driving watch is an ETA 2678. Eden plans to do some versions with diamonds, some without, and some with sapphires. Eden plans to stock the driving watch in England with the best retailers, like Marcus and Frost.

Based out of his workshop, Eden does a lot of work on the watches himself. “A little minnow like me, I manage a lot of processes,” he says. “Take the sapphire crystals, for example. We don’t order them from Switzerland, we order them here and the person who cuts my rubies and sapphires cuts them for me. I love running around here in Hatton Garden and finding people who can help out. Another example is the case, which is cast here in London, using the lost wax process, because we retain a lot of the detail as to where the sapphire crystals fit.”

Eden will retail the driving watches for about £15,000 – £40,000, depending on whether they are bejeweled or not.

You might expect Eden, who just decided to start making his own watches, to be impressed by himself, but the opposite is true. Sure, he has had success, but he knows his place in the world. “Last time I went to Basel, I met some big players and one retailer ordered 100 pieces, but I don’t have the capacity to produce such large amounts, so I am definitely in the market for a partner,” he says. “I am here in Hatton Garden, a block away from Fleet Street, where British watchmaking was based in the glory days, so I know where I stand in this country’s glorious horological history. I’m a one man band, so I have to be humble.”