Stay tuned for more updates on our kickstarter launch date and get your hands on a limited edition Carpathia Ascent.
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What was once a dream is now becoming a reality. I have started a watch company and have seen my designs and ideas come to life. From sketches, vector art, to prototypes. Those that have doubted my skills have yet to see my fully assembled Carpathia Ascent which is sure to prove them wrong.
Carpathia Watch Co. represents the return of the luxury watch brand to Chicago and strives to create distinctive timepieces that embody tradition and cultural influence for a new era. Taking inspiration from this diverse, world class city our watches are versatile yet timeless. Every Carpathia watch is designed and assembled in America, influenced firmly by our European roots, with a Swiss movement at its heart.
Founder Mark Para is a lifetime watch enthusiast as well as a relentless discoverer and renovator of vintage watches. With years of experience in restoration, he resolved to leave his mark on the world of fine timepieces. At Carpathia Watch Co. we relish the hands-on experience of creating something personal and to create a watch that outlives trends, continuing to be handed down in tradition for years to come.
Mark Para is Carpathia’s founder, designer, and watchmaker. He is a first-generation Polish-American, born in Chicago. A graphic artist by trade, he aspired to turn his lifelong passion for wrist watches into his main enterprise. He has designed watches for several other companies, and has spent years collecting and restoring vintage timepieces. His love of antiques extends to his vast collection of watchmaker’s tools including an original 1920’s J.H. Rosburg watchmaker’s desk produced in Chicago.
At Carpathia Watch Co., we are craftsmen, artists, and watch aficionados.
Founder Mark Para began his lifelong affinity for horology as a child traveling through Europe and ogling watches through shop windows. If anyone in the family had an old watch laying around, he was sure to try and claim it for his own, slowly building a collection. Listening to the distinct tick of every watch with wonderment, he pondered the mechanical inner workings.
At the onset of design, we knew we wanted our watch to be rooted in tradition but to reflect modern trends. We drew influences from those little known European watch brands Mark collected, as well as high end luxury watches. With understated elegance, high quality and simplicity, Carpathia watches are true originals.
Our name comes from the Carpathian mountain range which traverses the land we originate from in the southern part of Poland. We wanted to embody in our product the overwhelming sense of beauty and inspiration we feel when we return home to the Carpathian Mountains. The breathtaking simplicity and grandeur. Our logo, the white stork, represents the concept of lifelong migration and is considered a sign of prosperity
