Aurelia Horology

Aurelia Horology is an independent atelier in Austria's rural Waldviertel region, founded in 2024 by master watchmaker Benedikt Prand-Stritzko — and named after his daughter, whose birth he describes as the defining moment that set everything in motion, bringing the family back to Austria and him into independence. His credentials are serious: he honed his craft as a movement development engineer for H. Moser & Cie. (working on calibres including the HMC 201 and the HMC 805 tourbillon) and Hautlence, where he led the re-engineering of the Hautlence Sphere — a watch honored at the GPHG in 2023. Back home, he began freelancing as a complications developer and prototyper for several manufacturers while building 'that one watch' for himself, uniting everything he admired in fine watchmaking: a special hand-finished movement, a wearable case, a beautiful dial, hand-finished hands, and a proper leather strap. Friends and family took notice, and a tiny batch grew out of it — the sold-out Founders Edition with its JA97FE movement. From day one he has worked alongside Severin Loewert, regarded as one of Austria's most talented young watchmakers, who shapes and finishes the movement components.

The brand's public debut came in 2025 with the Kollektiv I and II — both of which sold out within 48 hours — and the name reflects the philosophy: a collective of exceptional craftspeople, with every element (movement, case, dial, hands, strap, clasp, even the box) developed in-house or with local Austrian partners. The heart of the Kollektiv series is the JA97/98 calibre family: a heavily reworked hand-wound architecture with custom German silver bridges, gold chatons, an integrated crown-wheel ratchet click, and meticulous traditional hand finishing — hand-engraved balance bridge with anglage, Côtes de Genève on the three-quarter bridge, snailed crown and ratchet wheels with polished grooves, and poli bloqué screws. The 2026 collection comprises the Kollektiv Edition 3 (40.5mm × 9.2mm steel case, JA98-3 with 58-hour power reserve, EUR 5,500 excl. VAT, eight pieces per month) and the Edition 3s (34mm × 8.8mm, new JA98s with 45 hours, EUR 4,950, two pieces per month) — both wearing a deep purple dial with griffé finish, dégradé noir, and an applied steel arch element, under domed sapphire with a sapphire caseback.

At roughly ten watches per month, production is deliberately tiny, and demand has outpaced it — production slots stretch many months out — yet pricing stays remarkably accessible for hand-finished work of this caliber, a deliberate stance the brand sums up as 'accessible and independent.' Attention has snowballed: a Monochrome portrait, interviews with Nico Leonard and the enthusiast press, and a fast-growing collector following. The roadmap is ambitious — a fully in-house base calibre for the Kollektiv series, designed and manufactured in Austria, plus a high-complication haute horlogerie collection with its first prototype already ticking on the bench — positioning Aurelia as the standard-bearer of a budding Austrian independent watchmaking scene.