The Kartel Watch Experience, St Andrews: an afternoon in the workshop, and a watch to show for it

A dram, a lesson in Scotland's forgotten watchmaking past, and a bench full of cases and straps to choose between. In its St Andrews studio, Scotland's only true watch brand turns buying a watch into the best rainy afternoon in town — and you wear the result home.

Most of what you bring home from St Andrews is a memory. The exception is a watch. Kartel has been making them in this town for ten years, in a country that once made some of the finest timepieces in the world and then, for most of a century, stopped. The brand's whole idea is that Scotland deserved a watch of its own again, and that the town which gave the world golf was as good a place as any to start.

The Watch Experience is the brand turned inside out. Rather than choosing a finished watch from the window, you are invited into the studio, sat down with a drink, walked through where Scottish watchmaking came from, and then given the run of Kartel's range to compose a watch nobody else has. It is done by appointment, at your pace, and it ends with an engraving machine and a caseback that has your words on it.

Why go

Because it is the one souvenir of a St Andrews trip you will still be using in ten years. The Old Course gives you a scorecard and a photograph on the Swilcan Bridge; this gives you something you will look at forty times a day, and each time it will be the afternoon you made it. It is also one of the few things to do in town that has nothing whatever to do with golf, which for the half of every couple that does not play is worth a great deal.

And because it is generous. The experience is as much hospitality as retail — tea, coffee, beer, a dram of local whisky and the shortbread Kartel is quietly famous for — and nobody is watching the clock. The gift version comes as a voucher in an envelope and a gift bag, with a credit toward the watch built in, which is why it has become the thing people in St Andrews give for a big birthday, an anniversary or a retirement.

What happens

It runs in four movements. First, the history. Before you touch a strap, you are taken through the story of the brand and of Scottish watchmaking itself, which most visitors are surprised to learn exists: from the seventeenth century, watchmakers in Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow were producing timepieces of a precision that earned them a reputation across Europe, before the trade faded and the country forgot it had ever had one. Kartel's claim is to have picked the thread up again, and the history makes sense of everything that follows.

Then the hospitality: the kettle, the whisky, the shortbread, and time to settle in. Then the building, which is where it gets slow. You are guided through the full range of components, starting with the case — size, finish, the shape that suits your wrist — and moving on to the straps, in leathers, stainless steel and fabric, of which there are more than you expected and among which you will change your mind at least twice. The person guiding you is the person who would otherwise be selling you a watch; the difference is that here you decide.

Last, the personalisation. Kartel's engraving machine is in the studio, and once the watch is composed the caseback is cut with whatever you choose: a date, initials, a hole-in-one, the name of the person you are giving it to. Then it goes on your wrist, and you walk back up Church Street checking the time more often than you need to.

"The one souvenir of a St Andrews trip you will still be using in ten years."

The detail people remember

The engraving. Until then it has been a pleasant hour of choosing and a good dram; then the machine runs, the letters appear, and the watch stops being a product and becomes yours. People go quiet at that point. Couples doing it together tend to engrave something for each other and not say what until the wrists are turned over.

Who it is for

Couples, on a wet afternoon or an anniversary. The non-golfer, while the golfer is out on the Jubilee. Anyone buying for someone who is difficult to buy for, since a watch you built for them beats a watch you bought for them. Fathers and sons or daughters for a round-number birthday; retirements, for which a watch is the traditional gift and this is the untraditional way to give one. And golf groups, who can come as a party and leave with a matching set, each caseback carrying the date of the trip.

It is not for anyone hoping to strip and rebuild a mechanical movement with a loupe in their eye; this is composition and personalisation, not horology school, and it is the better afternoon for it. Nor is it a browse: it runs by appointment, so book.

A little history

Scotland was once serious about time. From the 1600s, clock and watchmakers in Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow supplied instruments to shipowners, astronomers and the gentry, and the names on the dials were known well beyond the country. By the twentieth century the trade had gone the way of most Scottish making, and when Kartel opened in St Andrews a decade ago there was no Scottish watch brand at all. There is now, with the original studio here and stores in Edinburgh and London — but the Experience in St Andrews is the one in the town where it started.

What to do nearby

Fisher & Donaldson on Church Street, thirty seconds away, for a fudge doughnut on the way in.

Lunch on Market Street afterwards at Forgan's, two minutes. Read: Forgan's, St Andrews.

The cathedral and St Rule's Tower, eight minutes along South Street. Read: St Andrews Cathedral, where the story began.

The R&A World Golf Museum and the first tee, ten minutes the other way. Read: The R&A World Golf Museum. [link when published]

Build it into the weekend: Read: A perfect weekend in St Andrews. [link when published]

Know before you go

Address: Kartel Watches, Church Street, St Andrews — between Market Street and South Street. Also available at the Edinburgh and London stores.

From the Old Course: Ten minutes' walk; Market Street is around the corner.

Hours / season: By appointment, all year. Weekend slots go first in summer and before Christmas.

Price: The Watch Experience gift card is £245 and includes £195 of credit toward the watch you build, plus the voucher, envelope and gift bag. Book direct for your own visit.

How to book: Through Kartel's online appointments page, or in person at the store.

Good to know: Allow an unhurried hour or more. Tea, coffee, beer, a dram of local whisky and shortbread are included. Engraving is done in the studio. Perfect for one, better for two; ask about groups.

Best time: A rainy afternoon, or the last afternoon of the trip, so the engraving can carry the date.