Introducing
Sophie Scott-Lewis
The series Women in Horology officially began with a profile on Sophie Cassaro a.k.a. @sophies.watch.world. But unofficially, it began by writing about @6ixinchwrist’s two years prior, a yet to remain anonymous watch enthusiast and artist who fused her love for horology with a bursting imagination which bordered perpetual dream-like state and profound introspection. And like we’ve seen before with Xi (@itselevenxi), some members of our community create parallel pathways to horology in art. Xi began drawing the watches she couldn’t afford to buy or couldn’t experience in the metal at the beginning of COVID-19—when the world stopped and we were confined to our homes— and it is this kind of story we’re going to revisit today by looking at the life, professional background, and horological career of Sophie Scott-Lewis (@sophiescottlewisart,) a watch nerd, and an established artist and illustrator from across the Pond (= England, duh.)
There are many things about Sophie which I cannot wait to share with you, and one thing which is different here from any other profile stories I had the pleasure of writing thus far is that I got to briefly meet Sophie at the 2025 British Watchmaker’s Day after interviewing her and before writing this article. There Sophie was sharing a corner of Isotope’s booth to hand out and sign prints of her drawings (which she made of Isotope’s models), which felt special as she had worked with the brand in more than one capacity—therefore creating illustrations of their watches as well as designing unique dials for them—and which, in a way, encapsulated the rapidity at which Sophie created her own unique path into horology, something we will get back to later on. And before we start, I encourage you to not only follow Sophie on her Instagram account, @sophiescotlewisart, but also to check out her website.
Sophie Scott-Lewis
Getting Into Horology with a Bang
Multiple times during the interview Sophie talked about herself as not being a watch person per se until recently, when she purchased a watch from a certain British brand, though she had a couple of early horological encounters which may or may not have led her to become one of us. The first of which took place when she was 8, with her family, she went to the South Coast
of the UK, down to Sussex, on vacation. One day, the family decided to go see a movie and on their way there, they passed in front of a H. Samuel store (H. Samuel is a mass-market jewelry retailer) and Sophie saw, there calling for her undivided attention, a gold plastic watch. She had to have it and so in the family went, experiencing, unbeknownst to them, Sophie’s first horological experience. It was so memorable that she remembers how the sales person showed her how to read the time and actuate the chime.
The chime was so loud, actually, that Sophie was concerned it would set off at the movies, which gladly didn’t happen, just like today we can be worried that our phone goes off during the same occasion. (Or that our tool watch’s lume is so powerful that it would distract the poor folks sitting behind us.) Sophie also grew up with two older brothers whom she played with, chasing after each other with toy guns and playing cops and robbers. As she put it, Sophie liked gadgets and the more classic ‘boys toys’, and she became an expert in handling them in order to keep up with her older siblings. But they were the ones to have these kinds of toys and Sophie felt, and knew, that later on in her life she would want to have her own things. And so came hersecond horological experience which was actually jump-started by and through her brothers as, a little over ten years ago, one of them bought himself a U-Boat watch to celebrate a professional milestone.
Sophie fell in love with the watch—a very heavy, utilitarian monster of a watch—but green with envy couldn’t bring herself to share her enthusiasm for it with him. So she found a way to get herself into horology on her own—and to pay homage to her brother’s U-Boat—by purchasing a Chilli Beans watch during a trip to Brazil when she was 28 years old. Chilli Beans is a fashion brand and the model she bought had a case which came with a whopping 50mm diameter, and a quartz movement inside—so imagine the size of the plastic holder around the latter!— which she proudly wore for many years until the battery died. But there was something about how this watch was made that prompted most watchmakers she went to see—to replace the battery—to stay clear from it. Luckily she found one who was brave enough to replace it. After the Brazilian purchase, Sophie went off to purchase several other fashion watches as many of us have done.
Alas, Sophie doesn’t wear the Chilli Beans watch anymore (she can’t get the battery replaced), nor does she have her first gold plastic watch she bought in Sussex, but these two constituted the first two major horological experiences of her life.
From a Gold Plastic Watch to a Special Edition Speedster
At the time of the interview, December of 2024, and hopefully as it is still the case when writing her story in April of 2025 (shame on me for taking too long to write it,) Sophie has 16 watches in her collection and none which resemble the firsts she acquired. In her current collection then, there are a few which she described as having a distinct masculine tone, there are two smaller vintage watches she has inherited from her mother and grandmother, and otherwise many tool watches and timekeeping devices with large cases and complex dials. She loves complex dials in the likes of chronographs and scientific-inclined watches such as
the ubiquitous Casio F91W and Casio Calculator watches, as she mentioned that as a kid with her brothers, they would build go-karts and make pretend walkie-talkies out of anything lying around in the garden. This historical fact then shouldn’t surprise you when looking at photos of her personal collection spread out throughout this article and in particular, the special edition Omega Speedmaster Schumacher with its striking yellow dial.
So how did Sophie go from buying fashion watches to collecting a rare Speedmaster? Well it actually all took place within a short period of time. About a year and a half ago—so late 2023—Sophie and her partner were about to celebrate their 10th year anniversary and she thought it would be nice to mark the occasion with the purchase of one good watch each. As we know, Sophie was into watches but wasn’t a watch enthusiast per se—which means she was “watch curious”—but her partner wasn’t at all. So when came the time to look for the celebratory timepiece, Sophie was much more efficient than her partner at researching what she would buy, which means Sophie learned a lot about watches within a short period of time and pulled the trigger on a few noticeable models, such as a Tissot PRX Chronograph (not a small watch) and a Farer Worldtimer (not a simple watch) before they both settled for a Hamilton Intramatic. Then she purchased the Schumacher and a G-Shock which she thought—we all know the feeling—that this would be the end of the purchasing spree.
Was it the case, Sophie?
Alongside Buying Watches, Drawing Them
As we know it was the case with Xi, Sophie got into drawing watches because her dreamwatches were out of reach. When she was deep into her search for the commemorative watch, she saw many models she could easily see herself add to her humble collection but which she couldn’t exchange money for or even see in the metal. One such watch was the A. Lange & Söhne Zeitwerk which grouped into one model all of what Sophie dreamed of having in a watch. The Zeitwerk also retails for… well it’s the kind of watch that is accompanied by the words “Price on demand” on the website so you get the point here. So, being an artist (which we will talk about in a minute,) she thought “Why not draw it?” So she did, freehand with graphite, and once she was done, she hung the drawing in her house where it stayed for a while before making a second and a third. Friends and relatives who would visit would compliment Sophie on the drawing and suggest she could sell them. Eureka.
Sophie went straight to work and developed and marketed her brand, offering her services for various types of projects. From showroom-quality illustrations like the one she did of the Zeitwerk to illustrations and artwork for packaging. Not long after she bought the Hamilton Intramatic, Sophie had been commissioned to create original artwork for a variety of brands—which she didn’t name drop because that’s’ who she is—and a lot of what she has created so far won’t ever be seen by the majority of the watch community, which is a damn shame. However and more recently, she’s done incredible work for Isotope (as we’ve seen
earlier) and in particular drawing their Moonshot chronograph—a mechanical wonder in its own right—and collaborating with the brand on their special edition British Watchmaker’s Day Cloisonné and Straw Marquetry pieces. (I got to see these two at the show and wow, it’s another world.) So here I am the one mainly name dropping on behalf of Sophie because she so deserves it.
In addition to drawing and illustrating watches, she started working for car collectors, and I particularly adore her drawings of a vintage Land Rover Defender which you can see on her Instagram page. Sophie explained that drawing watches—and I assume cars as well—isn’t as easy as she originally thought, as most things are symmetrical, from the dial and hands to the markers and case which is circular, and so the task should have been relatively ‘easy’. But in fact she had to precisely measure each part of the watches to get the scale and dimensions right, something that can easily be appreciated when looking at any of her creations as they are ultra-realistic whilst not looking like photoshopped scans of watches—as it can sometimes be seen on the internet. (You know when you apply a filter on Photoshop to make a photo look like anything but a photo?) Whichever of her creations you look at, you can see the meticulous attention to detail with which she approached them.
Sophie's Professional Background Let her to Today
As we already know but which I will repeat again here, Sophie does a lot of work for watch brands and car collectors, amongst other clients. So much so, in fact, that only a few months after having started to draw, she was able to quit her full time job to fully focus on her new career. The demand was so high and the recognition of her talent so important that she took the leap into full-time illustration only a few months in. This important decision was made easier because she was in a good place in her life, thanks to her previous professional experience and educational background, she knew she could find another job relatively easily should her new path not pan out. (Obviously, things have worked out quite well for Sophie.) And so now you would like to know what Sophie was doing before and where she comes from. Well, Sophie has been an artist all along as she studied fine arts, photography, illustrations and graphic design.
More specifically, she studied fine art at the foundation level, then did a degree in photography, and finally a masters in illustrations and graphics. Upon her final graduation, she immediately started working, doing an internship for Rankin in London, a renowned photographer (I mean he only goes by one name,) before working for a men’s fashion magazine called ARENA, and then various agencies doing photography and illustrative work. (I may have sounded sarcastic just now when talking about the London photographer because who Sophie is, and the way she carries herself, is the opposite of who I imagine this man to be, but I’m not very good at sarcasm and I might be wrong.) The job she quit only a few months after starting to draw watches was that of art director for an agency, so you can easily imagine how big of a jump her choice was and how much of a demand for her work there has been. Today Sophie is in a very happy place as her two favorite worlds—watches and art—have collided and that she can make a living from it.
What Wearing Watches Mean to Sophie
As it is customary to do so whenever interviewing another human being who is into watches, I had ought to ask Sophie what wearing watches mean for her. And her response is linked to how she perceives the watch community so I will group both topics into one section. As we know, Sophie’s collection is made up of many large and complicated watches which aren’t typical for
women to wear and which are generally—and stereotypically—worn by men. Sophie herself described her collection as being, for the most part, masculine, and as a kid, she played a lot with her two brothers doing what boys usually do, running around with toy guns, building go-karts, and playing cops and robbers. Perhaps Sophie, when she was a kid, didn’t fit the typical mold, and neither does she today maybe an adult, as a wife and mother, and professionally having quit a stable career as an art director to fully embrace her de facto watch nerddom. So it is mainly through her watches that she can safely express her unique personality.
Sophie explained that, through her watches, she can express more of her personality than she can through what she wears. Sophie shared that growing up she wished she had known more about watches and worn them more often. Being a little socially anxious (Sophie’s words), she sometimes uses her watches as an armory, as a way to redirect attention from her to her watch, saying, without words, Hey look at my watch, don't look at me, just look at my watch and we talk about it. Sophie also described herself as being an introvert and shying away from doing small talk (I do too), especially when she doesn’t know the person, and had she been wearing watches for a long time, she would have felt much more comfortable during social functions as she could have used them to direct the attention away from her. Perhaps this is why she wears big watches full of complications.
When talking about her experience being a woman in the watch community and the latter as a whole, Sophie said she has only had good experiences thus far. She read some of the other profiles I wrote about women and felt sad that many of them had, and still have, bad experiences. As she rightfully pointed out, perhaps her experience is a positive one because she hasn’t been part of the community for too long (just over a year) or because she doesn’t share many of her opinions about watches like other women do by way of written articles, photographs, or videos. And she further rightfully pointed out, there are bad apples in all walks of life who feel safe criticizing women for being successful, from the safety of their computer screen just like people who suffer from bouts of road rage feel safe inside their car road raging for no apparent reason. And she further shared that we shouldn’t stereotype men as being assholes because that would be doing a disservice to so many who act well.
On Men vs Women Watches
In the article I wrote on Katlen Schmidt, we talked about how she believes it’s useful for brands to make a distinction between men and women watches, especially for those who aren’t watch nerds as it helps guide them towards models which would, theoretically, match them. (As a reminder, Katlen is head of US marketing operations for Norqain.) Although Sophie can see why this is done, she looks forward to a time when brands don’t feel the need to label watches as being better suited for either men or women. She finds that a man wearing a small Cartier Tank is as attractive as a woman wearing an Omega Speedmaster Moonwatch—when Sophie goes to a boutique to look at watches she goes there sporting the Tissot PRX Chronograph or the Speedmaster Schumacher and asks to be directed to the sports section—and that making this distinction seems old fashioned and should have been a thing of the past a long time ago. (I told her that my favorite watch has a diameter of 32mm.)
People should be who they want to be, as she said, and not be put-off by whether a watch is aimed at the opposite sex. It should be pointed out that today, it is still mostly men who dictate the marketing and PR strategies of most watch brands. Moreover, as a mother of two sons and a daughter all under the age of eight, Sophie wishes for her kids to grow up not being told who to be, what to do or what to wear, and that they shouldn’t have to feel they have to fit in a boy or girl mould or that their gender should dictate anything about the ways in which they live their Lives.
Conclusion: What's Next for Sophie
As it is often said in the watch community, the hobby is not about the watches but about the people, and that is exactly how it felt talking to a human being who is as wonderful as Sophieis, and to attempt to transcribe the depth and meaning of our conversation into words. It was just a little over 18 months ago that Sophie drew the A. Lange & Söhne Zeitwerk, a decision which started a new professional chapter for her, one that has led her to fulfill many commissioned works for brands and collectors. It’s what puts food on the table, gives her professional freedom, and allows her to marry her love for watches with her creative soul. She’s currently working on an exhibition project in which she would showcase portraits of key members of the watch community from all walks of life, those who have made a profound impact on the industry and which have helped it make a big comeback after the Quartz Revolution.
And she’s working on this all the while doing commission work, and she aims at doing more with micro and independent brands because, as she explained, only with them is it possible to have the conversations which she feels the most passionate about. For example, getting into the nitty gritty of why they designed watches the way they did with the people who started the brands,
which presents a challenge for her as she feels obligated to work extra hard to pay homage to their work, passion, and dedication. As someone who’s been following what you do since you started, I can assure you, Sophie, that you are doing much more than creating superb illustrations of watches. You’re bringing your own contagious passion to the community and watches, your own artistic talent and voice, through which you’re making a unique contribution to our niche world. Your voice is critical and I hope that you will continue to broadcast it for as long as you can and as wide as possible.
In addition to all of what we now know Sophie is currently doing, for the past decade she has also been running a digital illustration and graphic design studio called Tiny Grey through which she assists brands with impactful visuals for their marketing, publishing, advertising etc., which makes sense given what she now does for watch brands.
So please take a moment to check out Sophie’s website and Instagram page and to give her a follow!
Thanks for reading.