Crafting Clocks for a Tech-Free Bedroom with Lisen Båge from Båge & Söner

Join us for a captivating exploration into the resurgence of traditional alarm clocks with our distinguished guest, Lisen from Båge & Söner. Aiming to transform bedrooms into tech-free sanctuaries, Lisen shares her journey of creating these nostalgic timepieces. Inspired by travel memories and driven by a desire to eliminate digital screens, she embarked on a two-year venture with watch expert Federico Casado, culminating in a product that promises gentle awakenings over jarring smartphone alarms. Immerse yourself in the art of crafting these Swedish-inspired clocks, where nature, high-quality materials, and the concept of allemansrätten play pivotal roles in their design and charm.

Our conversation with Lisen goes beyond aesthetics and dives deep into cultural pride and craftsmanship. Discover how Swedish and Italian leathers, alongside rare clock movements, are meticulously chosen and assembled to create these premium products. As we navigate through this horological journey, we touch on how these clocks not only enhance sleep quality but also embody the enduring values of Swedish craftsmanship and sustainability. Insights into the challenges of sourcing superior components highlight a commitment to timeless quality, offering a stark contrast to the fast fashion and mass-produced goods often associated with Swedish design.

Reflecting on the broader dynamics of consumer behavior, we discuss the growing cultural shift towards online shopping and its impact on our perception of convenience and quality. The episode wraps with Lisen sharing valuable entrepreneurial insights and dreams of future collaborations, encouraging listeners to balance modern convenience with environmental responsibility. Through personal anecdotes and professional experiences, this episode promises to inspire and guide you towards creating a harmonious, tech-free home environment.

Check out Båge & Söner here:

https://bagesoner.com/en

Chapters

• 0:01 Reviving the Alarm Clock Trend
• 15:06 Crafting Unique Premium Alarm Clocks
• 22:21 Enhancing Sleep Quality With Premium Clocks
• 39:24 Preserving Swedish Craftsmanship and Sustainability
• 48:15 Cultivating Connection Through Quality Products
• 1:01:11 Dream Collaborations and Entrepreneurial Advice
• 1:18:59 Creating Content With Unique Alarm Clocks

Transcript

Blake Rea: 0:01

Hello everybody and welcome to another episode of Lonely Wrist. Sing it in front of us. This is going to be a first for us, but we do not have a wristwatch company. In fact, we have an alarm clock manufacturer Borga Sonner, and we have Lysin here going to be talking about the brand. Incredible product. Welcome to the show.

Lisen Båge: 0:33

Thank you very much. Lovely to be here and thank you so much for having me on board.

Blake Rea: 0:39

Thank you for being willing to come on. I haven't seen too many of your other. I mean, I've seen some of the articles that you've done. Is, uh, I haven't seen too many of your other. Uh, I mean, I've seen some of the articles that you've done, but I haven't seen that you've done any podcasts. Is this a first for you?

Lisen Båge: 0:50

uh, no, this is my third, but I mean third in four years time, so it's not that I do them every day that's like it's been yeah that's I've been on the. Monocle one, I've been on. Beyond Horology I've been on. Oh okay, this is actually my fourth, because I've been with Benke and Berns as well. Okay.

Blake Rea: 1:13

As long as we're top five, I think, so I think I'm okay with that, yeah absolutely.

Lisen Båge: 1:19

And the second I mean internationally. This is very big. So, thank you very much.

Blake Rea: 1:25

Thank you. I'm curious about so whenever I had got my alarm clock from you guys, I haven't thought about owning an alarm clock for a really long time. How did you decide to bring some? I mean, I I think this, this is technology that we all not a lot of people have these anymore um so what? What made you uh decide to start an alarm clock company?

Lisen Båge: 1:59

the, the kind of the why it came from within. I must say, I was so tired of having the digital screen inside my bedroom and I was caught up in it, just ate up my time, and I didn't feel any better or wiser. And plus, on top of that, you go to sleep. But I, like, I'm an early bird sleeper, and so I went to bed and I said, ok, now I'm going to go have an early night in and I have four kids, four sons, and so I have a busy, busy life at home. So I said, ok, I'll have an early night in and then just read, see if there is just answer, that last text message, or then there's the email, and then the news, and then the I mean all the social media, and then, boom, an hour easily, maybe two hours, and not any visor, and my sleep train kind of passed. So I felt an urge to just reclaim my bedroom with an alarm clock and I couldn't find anything that I liked. And so I looked around and, as alarm clocks haven't been on the kind of cool market for a long time, there was nothing really fun to buy and I like nice things and, um, I've been. For a long time I've been wanting to start my own company and um, so it's kind of like a double dream.

Lisen Båge: 3:36

I, I, I met with federico casado and together he has a watch background and he has visited many of the big houses of the clocks because he was working for one of the big chains here in Sweden and he was Sorry, filip, du måste gå ut. Close the door, sorry, that's okay. Okay, close the door, sorry, that's okay. Sorry, we have to cut this one out. So, please excuse me. So I was looking around for alarm clocks anyway, and so I met with Federico, who was also. It was just a good timing and we started the journey together. To you know, I had this idea from my childhood memories of bringing back the travel alarm clock that I think many have a reference to from their childhood memories. Or an old auntie or someone has had this kind of triangular. Do you have? Did you have one? Do you know which one?

Lisen Båge: 4:50

uh, no, no no because it's the travel alarm clock which is like a triangular one that you would stand up and they could fold back into a little case uh, yeah, I know what you're talking about, but, um, honestly, the only alarm clocks that I've owned have been the little digital radio ones oh yes, I had one of those when I was little, very cool waking up to the radio I'd wake up to like the most gangster rap music every morning when I was that young.

Lisen Båge: 5:23

That's a bit of a rocky start yeah, it was why not?

Lisen Båge: 5:29

but anyway, so I was, uh, we were looking around and um took us almost two years, and then a little bit of covid as well occurred during the time of, you know, setting the design and finding the right suppliers and everything. But I wanted to make something that's that would last long and would be something as sustainable as you can be, because if you make something that's long lasting, it has a long-standing value for both the owner and also the materials they have. A long lasting. Yeah, you know I, I love the alarm clock. I'm looking at it now. Um makes me very happy every morning when I wake up and and I love my little procedure of flipping the little button to the to the side the alarm on.

Blake Rea: 6:19

It's very nice yeah, I I have been thoroughly enjoying mine, opposite to the harsh rap music I used to wake up to. It wakes you up very gently. It's very weird because you know the phone like I'm used to waking up by the phone and the phone will just go crazy. You know, blasting these crazy sounds at you and you think, like you know, you're having to like evacuate, like the entire city. Yeah. It's so obnoxious.

Lisen Båge: 6:54

Yeah, it's so obnoxious. Plus it has also like nine minutes of snooze, I think, which is a little bit on the long side for me anyway.

Blake Rea: 7:04

Yeah, it hasn't. It's something I didn't really think about. You know, I didn't I didn't realize that, uh, how important it was. You know, I mean, obviously I think about like the most important way that I start my day is like I get my tea, I get my breakfast, but how you wake up is something I never really like thought about. And you know you talked about your, your grandmother's clock. It's kind of like the inspiration.

Lisen Båge: 7:37

That's absolutely the big inspiration, my grandmother's clock, and I think I was thinking of the childhood memories of sleeping peacefully and I was visiting my grandmother. My grandparents lived in Switzerland, in Lausanne, and I was always, you know, cuddling in her big, nice bed and she had this nice alarm clock on her bedside table, which I just thought of like peaceful, nice moments, and that's how you want to wake up, isn't it? And also how you want to sleep. You want to have your bedroom in harmony, not any disturbance or trying to have that kind of peaceful dreamy place.

Blake Rea: 8:27

Yeah, so I think I saw the photo.

Lisen Båge: 8:28

that's the photo of uh on your on your website of yeah, that's I mean, I'm not sure my grandmother would approve of me putting it there. She was also very, very chic lady, uh, but she, yes, that's, that's my grandmother, suzanne, and my brother, my one of my little brothers, carl, who's also done the logo actually and the packaging, and he's been helping me a bit, um and me in that bed when we were do you?

Blake Rea: 9:01

do you still have the alarm clock, did you somehow? No, no, that's sad.

Lisen Båge: 9:09

Unfortunately, it just kind of yeah, I'm not sure it was working. The last this was. I don't know where it went, but it was not one of those. I know that, audemars Piguet, it was not one of those big brand posts.

Blake Rea: 9:26

Yeah, that's okay. I mean, it kicked off your passion for horology, which is you know, I think, what we share in common. You know, obviously today is a very digital world and you know you talked about kind of separating the, the smartphone, from the bedroom. Uh, I guess what, what kind of made you believe in, you know, this timeless value of?

Lisen Båge: 9:55

you know, physical alarm clocks, and you know I think we are all reading more and more in from researches and from well-being, well-beers or whatever, that sleep is really essential for all well-being. It's, I mean, if you want to lose weight, you want to keep your, you know, you want to stay away from all old dimension. Uh, you want to, um, yeah, focus, you want to just well, be in general, be happier, everything I mean. We all know how that wonderful feeling of a good night's sleep is kind of like, sets your whole day in a good mood kind of. So I think that's kind of my own. That was my own kind of wanting that.

Lisen Båge: 10:49

But why I did just borge and sarna was uh, I wanted to make something really really nice and I love watches and the whole and the. If you were looking on the market, there's nothing you know nice to buy. With the modern. We put a little light and a snooze to this kind of very simple, disconnected, classic alarm clock. But we did it, you know, with leather, tempered mineral glass, nice metals, nice colors, decorated dials. We tried, like you know, to take a lot of elements, as many as we could, from the fine watchmaking houses into our clock find watchmaking houses into our clock.

Blake Rea: 11:52

Yeah, I, I like I said whenever um whenever you guys had reached out to me about you know, uh, like like setting this up, I I didn't know what to expect uh yeah and then, and then I unboxed it and I was like this thing is like a brick, you know, yeah, so heavy.

Blake Rea: 12:07

And then, uh, yeah, I mean it's, I was impressed. You know, a lot of times when people reach out to me and they send me something, or, uh, I'm not the type of person where I I want to go on and and endorse a product that, uh, I don't feel comfortable endorsing. You know, call it pride, integrity, whatever, um, but you know, I don't, I don't go online just to say negative things about, about products, you know, and so if a brand sends me a product and this happened, you know, they send me a cheap watch and I'm like, look like, I don't think I'm the right type of creator that you're seeking. You know, I'm not gonna go and read from this script and you know, I just I don't have much good to say, so I just would not say anything. Um, and and yeah, I mean this is like I said, I've been very impressed, uh, and I, I love, I love sweden, I love sweden.

Lisen Båge: 13:03

I spent quite a lot of time in stockholm oh, you do.

Blake Rea: 13:07

You must come and visit us, yeah, yeah um, I, I'm in the process right now of uh planning, planning stuff for for watches and wonders, and I have to yeah, yeah, I have to, um, go shoot some in germany. And then I have to, and yeah, I mean, I'm sure when I'm coming out of Germany maybe I could stop by and see you guys.

Lisen Båge: 13:31

That would be a pleasure. And we are just today signed new a new premises that we're moving to in a month's time, so wow.

Blake Rea: 13:42

Yeah no, wow, yeah no. And something that I noticed about like spending quite a lot of time in Stockholm is the lifestyle, like the quality of life in Stockholm or just, I'm assuming, in Sweden in general, is so important to the Swedish mentality. And you know, having like a good work to life, balance, like eating healthy, like being active, like being in touch with nature, like these are all things I mean not as much so in Stockholm but in other parts of Sweden, and obviously I mean Sweden is known for having great, great design. Um, I mean any, and you can walk down like the gamla stan, and then I mean you could pretty much like every corner you see, like, uh, like a niche product store where it's like high quality furniture or like high quality like clothing, or like linens, or it is all like swedish designed and gamla stan is very much like that, because that's where you have the ancient.

Lisen Båge: 14:52

A lot of handcraftsmanship is located there. It's the old town, it's so pretty and so so much harder lots of tourists as well, but it but it's really worth going. But I agree, swedes are very I think it's called allemansrätten that we love to go out in nature and that's something that we, that I love. It's kind of essential in my everyday life to go out, to be outside to. I walk, to work every day, I try to stay in the week, as to sports, and I try to be outside, I love it. But I think also that reflects also in our in the product names that we have um, it's the name that are inspired from nature and dreams, and um, you have an afternoon delight there, if I'm not mistaken uh yes, yes, yes, exactly so the name was inspired to have like an afternoon delight nap.

Blake Rea: 15:55

Maybe the song is that yeah, no, no.

Lisen Båge: 15:59

but you know, having an afternoon delight, afternoon nap, but like an afternoon delight, like giving yourself a bit of an afternoon delight, it was kind of the inspiration for the name. But, like here, I have the French kiss, which is the same that you have, but I have the red.

Blake Rea: 16:16

And that's got the gold face. The gold plating or the gold metal, yes exactly, that's got the gold.

Lisen Båge: 16:21

Yeah, this one has the gold. Yeah, this one has the gold. And then I have also with me today the Borgen Saaner with Monocle, that we did a very special edition. I don't know if you want to.

Blake Rea: 16:36

No, I don't think so.

Lisen Båge: 16:38

So this one is limited edition and it has a. California dial yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Good light on it. So it has Arabic and Arabic and Roman numerals. That's the traditional and sunray in the inner alarms.

Blake Rea: 17:03

I love California dials.

Lisen Båge: 17:07

And this one is actually called california dreaming wow, yeah, it's insanely beautiful.

Blake Rea: 17:15

Um, what, what elements do you feel like make your alarm clocks stand out? I mean, obviously, when, when I think of an alarm clock, I think of like a plastic, you know digital square, with like a radio and a snooze button that's like the size of like my cell phone. Um, but to you, like, what defines you what an alarm clock should be?

Lisen Båge: 17:45

Just Borg and Sander or Borg and Sander alarm clocks. I think that we have really captured. I think we've made it unique. We found a uniqueness in our clocks and they are all. You can feel it from the weight, as you said yourself, but also in how the dials are decorated. They're not like just printed. Like all other alarm clocks have printed dials.

Lisen Båge: 18:11

This, this one, has a the applied indices and patterns in their inner alarm zone. I mean, the whole dial is divided in three different zones, so to speak. You have the outer and in there but the inner alarm zone, and then the outer part and then the divider in the middle. Um, also, the hands are, um, shaped a little bit. Um, they're all. It's all decorated and it's made with. We made it, make it in our. We mount them all in our workshop. We shape the leather Swedish leather, calf leather that we usually work with, mostly Swedish leather. We have a few models in Italian land, but it's all true premium materials that age beautifully.

Lisen Båge: 19:05

And now I'm so proud of our clocks. They are, I think they are one of a kind and I think it's. You know, in the old days they used to have table clocks everywhere. If you look on the antique stores there is a few table table clocks, and so this is a table alarm clock, so of course it's smaller, but I think this is something that it's hard to find nice table clocks in general. If you want, I I like to put it on my. I always have one on my desk so I can focus on what I'm working on, even though, of course, my, my, my computer, is connected.

Blake Rea: 19:51

Yeah, I have. I have an entire studio here, so I have to stay connected. There's a table here for shooting. Ironically, my wife my wife does her nails over there. She's got a little nail studio all right, love the family business.

Blake Rea: 20:09

Yeah, yeah, I mean it's uh it's for person hers is personal, but this is I mean yeah, I've got like 14 lights, I've got like seven cameras down there. It's wow, it's hard, it's hard to to have that kind of separation yes, um it's hard, and, and you I read too uh, you know. So which of the elements are handmade, you know. You just talked about the pattern on the dial.

Lisen Båge: 20:39

I mean, is that done by hand or everything is um, made, custom made for us according to our drawings and everything. So all the parts, but not the movement, the movement. We have, um, added a snooze and alarm to it, but uh, that's off, the it's nothing. We buy it off the shelf as it is. All other parts, the mineral glass, the gasket, the backside what we do in our studio is what we mount them. That's what we do. So all the parts are made specially for us in Asia and then we mount them. And we mount also the leathers we make in our workshop. So we do all of that in at the place. But, like you know, the minute hand comes and the alarm clock I mean the alarm hand car they're all in, we all mount. So it takes, it takes a little while to make one, but uh, it's not as long as if you would have done the movement yourself too.

Blake Rea: 21:46

Yeah, and that was something that I thought about too. I mean, obviously I don't know much about alarm clocks or desk clocks or anything, but was there a lot of options for movements? I mean, did you have like this huge catalog where you like, oh well, we can choose this or that or this? No.

Lisen Båge: 22:08

There's a lot of movements around, but it's, we are working with the one that we found was absolutely the best on the market for us. But there is nothing to buy. Actually, if you want to add the snooze and alarm to to the movement, there's lots of movements. If you want to just have, you know, a clock with no functionality, just a normal clock, um, there you can, then you can buy a lot. But uh, on, on the alarm clock segment, there's a lot in the same kind of region, uh, and there's no high. There's a lot of um, the movement is actually not so um, not so high. You know high end, so it's a very good it's. It's as good as it can get for now. It's, it's the best one we found. But there's a lot of sheep movements around on the market, so high quality alarm clock movements is hard to find.

Blake Rea: 23:10

Yeah, I again. I don't even know where to start.

Lisen Båge: 23:15

There's a lot of like a lot of brands. They buy off the shelf from Switzerland, or that's from Germany, or Miota you know from, from Japan or so there's, and then you can make your own design and you mount your, you make your own design, which is basically what we've done too. But we took, we have, yeah, we, we bought. We couldn't buy the movement from. We have to buy it from Asia.

Blake Rea: 23:45

Yeah, we actually had another Swedish brand on the podcast and they make wristwatches. But they talked a lot in their episode about like what it means to be from sweden and to have like a premium product. So I kind of wanted to ask you something along the lines of you know, what does being a premium swedish product mean to you and how, how important is it to, uh, to bring your culture and your pride into a product like being a Swede?

Lisen Båge: 24:33

I think it means a lot for us to bring the Swedish pride into our clocks and I think to be a Swede is you you were mentioning it before but we are very aware of quality and design, and I think that we, for me, it means a lot to bring a product on the market that people can enjoy and to enhance the life quality of their sleep and their bedroom harmony, so to speak, and I would love people to get inspired to to do that.

Lisen Båge: 25:12

I think we it's a tough world out there and we all live very intensive lives um, I think, to bring a product that is both beautiful and have high quality uh to a market, uh, where, where we all are needing this type of um, I think we all would benefit I'm not needing, but we all would benefit for from to kind of maybe slow down a little bit, to retake some time for yourself in the day's 24 hour and to I I, for me, I made the slogan it's time to reclaim your bedroom, and it's just kind of it's that's one room, but you could also say it's a few hours of the day's 24 hour when you are just disconnected and you are with yourself, and that enhances your quality of of you life yeah, yeah, I, I um sorry, go ahead.

Lisen Båge: 26:17

Yeah, you see what I mean. I'm trying. Sorry, my English is.

Blake Rea: 26:23

No, you're doing amazing. Yeah, I'm assuming. When you went down this rabbit hole, you know what was your sleep routine like before you designed an alarm clock, Like you said you would go through, flip through the phone. Yeah designed an alarm clock, like you said you would go through, flip through the phone. Um, I mean, a lot of sleep experts recommend, you know, removing device digital devices from the bedroom. Yes, um, what, what you know? How? Can you, uh, you know, advise people, uh, you know how to, how to get out of those patterns?

Lisen Båge: 27:13

I think, uh, it's good to kind of maybe set a time on when you said, okay, so it's nine o'clock, now, bust out, no more, no more messaging or emailing. It depends on how your daily, daily life is, but for me I try to go to sleep at at 10, so at I mean even before nine, I try to put my phone away. Uh, I do put my phone away, put, put it on charge, or I just leave it outside and then I concentrate on my kids and myself and try to my hubby as well, my husband, and try to. I think that's a try to have kind of a good routine to not bringing it into the bedroom is a good one.

Lisen Båge: 28:00

Just putting it on the same spot every day, okay, good, that's kind of like my routine. I put it there just outside my it's like in the hallway outside my bedroom, and then go brush my teeth, cut my hair, getting ready for bed, read with my son and then, yeah, go to bed but and try to talk a little bit with your husband about today's routines In general. I try to kind of also, after work, try to not look at my come home and just look at my phone, try to kind of a little bit, disconnect myself from the ongoing, which try to kind of slow things down a little bit, but I have four children and they are 14 years apart, so it's uh, from the youngest to the oldest.

Lisen Båge: 28:56

Oh, my god and so, before actually launching the alarm clock, my um you were asking, it's 14 years apart. So while the 15 year or like 14 and a half year olds were going out for the first time and my little one was actually feeding time still at night sometimes, and waking up, and I would be caught up looking at the time, like did they come home yet from going out? And then, oh no, he's crying. Okay, no, Okay, does he need eating or just a pacifier? So I felt my sleep was very disturbed from that. So I think in general it's a very good routine to not bringing it into the bedroom, but of course it happens to me too.

Blake Rea: 29:50

What type of feedback are you hearing from customers that are switching from more digital alarm clocks or cell phones? I mean, I, I again, I would have never jumped on this podcast if I didn't feel like, you know, you had a great product and, uh, you know something useful. And and, yeah, I, I've been, uh, I've been sick and uh, I, I was, I had the flu over the weekend, and I had the flu over the weekend and, uh, and it was rough, it was, it was rough, but, um, you know, I, I had turned my alarm clock off, um, and then on Sunday, uh, I turned it back on and I woke up and I felt like I was like much improved and, mind you, I've been taking medicine to knock me out. But what have you heard from customers that you know are now using your product and you know what's the feedback been?

Lisen Båge: 30:55

I'm so overwhelmed, actually, from many clients who are customers who write to us and saying thank you so much. I had we had a very fantastic, uh sweet australian lady who wrote to us and she said thank you, she bought a starry sky and she said the starry sky means the world to me and she was uh very unhappy before, and now she's uh having the starry sky next to her when she goes to bed and she was feeling very happy again with the starry sky and she feels she's under the stars with her starry sky. So that was very sweet. But in general, I must say our customers are very pleased. Uh, they are, um, we are.

Lisen Båge: 31:40

They feel it feels like the alarm clock grows on them to become their buddy, their little friend next to them on the bedside table. So you get a relationship to your clock. It greets you in the morning, says goodnight to you at night and even though that's not how they describe it, but it's like if there's a clock that needs to be serviced and they send it to us and when can I have it back? And I miss it so much and I love it, and so it's a very close relationship. I feel like Borg and Son, our alarm clocks. They are loved. We have hardly any return rates. There are no returns, I think. I think we sold more than 1,400 clocks last year. I think we had 10 returns wow max.

Blake Rea: 32:48

So that's um very high something too like, um, I never really thought about and, uh, you know, I this whole past year and I've moved and you know know I went through some family, family tragedies and things like that. But you know, during the move and you know I kind of was like taking stuff out my entire room was just looked like a tornado had came through, and the only part of my room that wasn't like a tornado or you know, like a crime scene, uh was my nightstand and uh, the only thing that I keep on my nightstand are my glasses, my ring, my watch, and now my alarm clock oh, thank you so there's, there's very uh.

Blake Rea: 33:47

It's one of the first things you see, right when you wake up and um, you know that that's the whole reason why I got into watches, um, and you know, now my, my dad, you know, my dad passed away, but now I have his wristwatch and the coolest thing to me is now understanding that. The second my dad woke up, the first thing he did reach onto his nightstand and put his watch on, and so now I have the ability to do that. So, um, so, yes, I, I didn't, I haven't thought about these things before. You know, introducing an alarm clock, but it's one of the first things you see before you go to sleep and it's one of the first things you see when you wake up.

Blake Rea: 34:48

Um, and you know it's. It's very special. You know, the, the, the only you know. The only other things that can kind of fit into that boat are, you know, like, maybe your significant other, um, you know, maybe your, uh, your animals, your pets, if you sleep with your, your dogs or cats, but there's not too many things on that list that you can say.

Blake Rea: 35:04

Every single morning I wake up and I first thing I see is that and um and so it, it has the all, the uh, all the key elements to be important and special for, for the, for the rest of days, you know which is uh, it's a very weird thing to think about it is.

Lisen Båge: 35:28

it's one of those. It's very, it's very precious and and very beautiful. Love how you, how you have your relationship with your dad's. Watch it. It's really beautiful and I think it's the same with the clock it grows, you get a relationship and connection with it and it's also kind of a peaceful makes you at home, like you say you feel at home when you have it. You set your eyes. I wake up in the middle of the night sometimes and I press the little side button button and I have the little light. It kind of settles me down. It's only 4.15. I can sleep a little longer. Yeah.

Blake Rea: 36:15

I think the way that I feel about my dad's wristwatch is the same way that you feel about your grandmother's alarm clock yeah you know, you want to bring that kind of like that feel yeah, it's like. I know, I know that he's next to me. You know um, you know it's situation's a little different, but um but yeah it's, it's a very special thing.

Blake Rea: 36:41

And, uh, and you know, my, my friend, uh, you know it's, it's a bigger watch than I would normally wear. But, uh, you know, I said something to my friend. I was like, yeah, I mean, I don't wear it as much as I was wearing it yesterday actually, um, and and he's like, well, why don't you wear it more? I'm like, oh, it's a little bit bigger, but it's my dad's. And and he's like, well, why don't you sell it more? I'm like, oh, it's a little bit bigger, but it's my dad's. And he's like, well, why don't you sell it and get something smaller?

Blake Rea: 37:05

I was like, no, how can I do that? This was his. This was like, yeah, but anyways. So yeah, the way that I feel about his watch is the way that you feel about your, uh, your grandmother's alarm clock. It's one of those things that, thankfully, I I'm in possession of it and I will never let go of. I've got two of his watches, um and uh, and he was actually borrowing one of my watches because I was collecting watches before, um, and and like my dad had a hip replaced, like maybe like five years ago.

Blake Rea: 37:45

And then, um, and then, so he, then his other hip went bad and then, uh, he just started kind of getting like things back up and running. Um, and he was like Blake, like let's go, you know know, to a watch store and let's get a wrist watch and and you know what, what, what would you suggest? And it was like me, my dad, my wife, um, I took him down to to my, my local watch shop and we, you know, spent hours just picking something out and going through everything, and so it's really it's much deeper than just something that he owned. And uh, and I remember too, uh, you know, my dad, as long as the time was right, like he didn't care, like if the date was wrong or anything else, like he just, and so, uh, every like, maybe, like every like once a month or something, he would you know like, uh, call me, uh, and you know, because of his mobility issues, we live together.

Blake Rea: 38:40

Um, he would, you know, like, call me and you know, because of his mobility issues, we live together. He would like scream like Blake, blake, blake, like come change the date you know, it's like I don't know how to do it or like my watch stopped running or something Like come fix it. So then I would have to show him how to like wind. You know, take the crown out and wind it. And you know, take the crown out and wind it. And you know his bezel would be all like, like, twisted around. It was a Breitling, but I'll send you a picture of it.

Lisen Båge: 39:10

I'd love to see it. It's cool yeah.

Blake Rea: 39:17

It's cool. Are there any elements of Swedish culture or craftsmanship that you feel are kind of disappearing and if yes, how does Borga and Soner preserve those elements, those ideals?

Lisen Båge: 39:38

I'm not sure if there are any elements that disappear, but I think that they're just Swedish. But I think in, I want to embrace kind of the nature and the world of dreams, and I think that's something that I'd like when we talk a lot about, you know, try to retake your dreams and to do that. That's why we put also all the names. It's like oh honey, for example. You wake up and you're like oh honey, example, you wake up and you're like oh honey dreams, or forest dreams, or sea breeze, or it's like the sensual, the scent, the scent, sensation, uh, sensations as well. French kiss could be someone who just breezes a little kiss on your tribute to my grandmother. She was french from origin, so that's why we have the tricolor with the french flag, you know, the blue and white red, yeah, but I think, in in terms of swedishness, nature is very important to swedes, as you were saying before, as we've been discussing, um, but I'm not sure if there's any special thing that Borg Sanner is bringing back.

Lisen Båge: 41:03

I think that to start a company and you start with doing a lot of craftsmanship like you know, people that come to our office are customers or like wow, did I buy a clock and you're doing all of this here.

Lisen Båge: 41:18

Did I know this?

Lisen Båge: 41:19

It's amazing.

Lisen Båge: 41:21

They are truly impressed and I think that's something to bring back to understand that's been something for me too, while bringing the Borgenshainer to life to understand and to respect the craftsmanship behind everything, like all things in general, actually, that there's actually a person you know, even though they're machined, machined, you know, machined CNC machine or something, somebody has to do that and put it back in their little, to be careful enough to wrap it up and to place it.

Lisen Båge: 42:02

So it's all perfectly perfect for for us to kind of build from, or every leather that we choose, that we see, okay, this skin is a good part from the, from the, um, yeah, of the skin that we can use. So this is not so good, so we can maybe have to save it for something else. Um, it's, it's, um, I think the natural, the resources of nature, is something that I've been trying to think about when we were building this watch, uh, this clock I mean the two to respect that too like sustainability, it's very important it's very important and when you build a new product, there is, I mean, of course, building a new product.

Lisen Båge: 42:49

There is no way to I mean, it's not sustainable to build a new product because you have to do to break new elements, but in if you build a product that will last for a very long time and you can repair it if the light goes. It's a light bulb, you know lights. They break your lamps at home Sometimes. You have to, kind of, you know, change them. Sure.

Lisen Båge: 43:10

It can happen and we've had some clients that, oh, my three-year-old dropped mine on the stone floor, the glass broke. Can I change it? And yes, of course we can do. It's the glass broke, can I change it? And yes, of course we can. We can do, because the craftsmanship is we. We own our, our workshop, where we can do everything, and I think that's um, I'm very proud of that. Uh, on how, how it's all coming together, I.

Blake Rea: 43:39

The question is a deeper rooted question than maybe you know one would expect. But let me tell you from my American perspective. Because when you think about Sweden oh my god, I'm going to sound so terrible for saying this, but we think about H&M, we think about H&M, we think about fast fashion and cheap furniture Ikea, but well-designed we're like, oh yeah. We're like, oh, the Ikea furniture is so trendy, it's so cool, it's such a unique design, but it's cheap and it falls apart. It's such a unique design, but it's cheap and it falls apart. And uh, obviously I've been to stockholm and what is so different and weird is none of those things are embedded in the swedish, like ethos, if that's the right word for it like it's the exact opposite of what sweden should be known for, which is like artisanal, like handcrafted, high quality.

Blake Rea: 44:52

uh, and I remember when, when I was in, when I was in stockholm and um, and, and you know I'd walk up and down, like I said, the Gommelstern, like every day, and you know it was colder than I expected. You know I live in Las Vegas.

Lisen Båge: 45:11

So you don't want to come today. It's like minus five and blowing.

Blake Rea: 45:15

No, thank you. But I walked into H&M and, and you know, whenever you know you're like, oh cool, like I'm gonna go with some clothes, like you think, like H&M, and in this case like Zara or like things like that, that are very fast fashion, um, and they're very cheap. And when I went into the H&M store, um, like, uh, you know there was nobody in there, right, and I mean it's huge stores but you know they're not popular. And then I met, um, like one of my I I met somebody there, like I I was staying at a hostel and, uh, he was like a student and he was like a swedish student and he was like he lived in outside of stockholm and he would come stay at a hostel like in stockholm, like during the week when he was going to school, and then he would like go back home outside of stockholm. And then he had said something to me. He was like dude, like nobody, nobody, like shops there, like you know, like let me show you some real like, real, like swedish clothing stores. Yeah.

Blake Rea: 46:20

He like, he like took me around and um, and I mean I'll never forget it, cause, uh, cause, not only was it like super high quality, but I mean the price was, was, was great. You know, like everything I can't he? He actually worked at one of those clothing stores. Um so the only reason why I'm going on this crazy tangent is because you know people have this, this american mentality that you know swedish is exporting.

Blake Rea: 46:52

You know the garbage to us and hanging on, you know hanging on, because maybe it's just me, maybe it's just me, but you're's just me.

Lisen Båge: 47:01

But you're right, we have one of our big export success companies are those two that you were mentioning. They are very big and very successful, but I think both of those are like all companies. Nowadays, they have to think about sustainability and try to market themselves as more sustainability friendly. But I think that Swedes are, I mean in general, in terms of shopping. I think a lot of Swedes are very good at online shopping, so there's not so many people. It's very empty. If you go into shops, yeah, it's very. I don't know if it's the same situation in america, but, um, nope, no, no, I think we are, I think we're very digitalized here, uh and uh, that's. It's kind of sad in a way, because it's nice when people come together. It's, um, you know, you meet people and you interact and you can feel um a lot. But I think also, a lot of companies have very big problems with return, return rates. When you buy online and you don't, you know, doesn't, you cannot feel and feel and see it properly doesn't?

Blake Rea: 48:25

you cannot feel and feel and see it properly. It's um, have you heard about so? So at least amazon, right? So so, yes, we, we are very, uh, prone to online shopping. Yeah, um, but because of the way that the distribution is set up for Amazon and it might be the same in Sweden, I could be wrong, but I can order something right now and in two hours it can be at my door. No matter what it is.

Lisen Båge: 48:53

That's amazing.

Blake Rea: 48:54

That's so fast, yeah, yeah, I mean, it'll be at my door, even if it's one thing I remember when I was sick over the weekend, I didn't have the energy to go, to go out and um and and get medicine. So I ordered some, some medicine to my door and I was there in an hour. You know, I just ordered, I just ordered the one, the one bottle of medicine, and it was there, like and uh, it was free, it was free to get delivered and it's like you would. You know, this is a 20, you know like, bottle of medicine, like, and it was there. You know, like it probably cost more to drive it over than um isn't that a little scary?

Lisen Båge: 49:32

I think that people are that. You are um. You, I mean you are happy to. I think instant delivery is fantastic. It's like we can also deliver food here. I mean, you order online and you get food and medicine was supposed to be like that, but I think it's now. It's overnight as well, now.

Blake Rea: 49:57

It's even worse because of the mentality that we have and so like here, right? So my wife, uh, my wife is from europe and and she kind of has that like let me go in and try stuff on and uh, and let me see if it fits. And this and I'm like like let me show you how we in America shop. Like I'll go on Amazon and I'll order like three different sizes and it'll all come at one time.

Blake Rea: 50:30

And then I'll be like OK, well, you can try on the extra small, the small or the medium or whatever, and then we'll just take the other two back and then so, yeah, yeah, returns are insane here, um, and I mean, you have places that that just process just the returns for amazon, and then, because the returns are such a big problem here, waste is is insane, is insanely bad here, and it's it's cheaper for amazon to throw the products away than it is for them to actually return it to the manufacturer. So what, what amazon started doing. I don't know if this is amazon's doing or third parties doing, but what they do is they go in and they, they approach amazon and they say, hey, I want to buy all of your returns. And then what they do is, uh, they essentially get pallets of amazon returns and then, and you can go online and look and see, but then youtubers or content creators are going online and buying amazon return pallets yeah and then opening them and seeing what's inside and it's, it's.

Blake Rea: 51:45

It's like you could buy apple return palettes or you could buy. There's a place here up the street, um, where you can go and it's just big boxes of amazon returns and this box is three dollars, this box is two dollars, this box is five dollars and inside, you know the $5.

Lisen Båge: 52:00

You don't know.

Blake Rea: 52:01

You're getting like.

Lisen Båge: 52:02

You don't know what's inside, or just buy something for $5.

Blake Rea: 52:05

Yes, it's a huge box of stuff. I mean you can pick through it and like I mean it's just the most random things, and it's like label makers or it's like headphones, or it's like I mean little cameras or like little like watch straps. I mean like, uh, I mean little cameras or like little like watch strap. I mean it's just the most random stuff.

Blake Rea: 52:26

and and they have promotions too, where it's like you go on on sunday and everything is 99 cents and there is like, no matter what it is, it doesn't matter, even if it's like 100 product, it's 99 cents, you know? Um. So waste is so insane here and we've we've built that culture right, because people expect something immediately. Right, like I remember when I still I still do this I still enjoy to order something online and waiting weeks for it to come. Like I enjoy that. That, that that process of waiting, um, but also do you enjoy?

Lisen Båge: 53:02

it?

Blake Rea: 53:02

you do enjoy it, I do, I do sometimes. Sometimes, um, but the, the american side of my brain is like oh, I want this and I want it now. Like give it to me, like in 20 minutes.

Lisen Båge: 53:13

You know it's like so I have these but it's also the kind of I think it's um. Of course, we all want it, it instantly, and if you decided, yes, I want this dress, or whatever you're like I can't wait.

Lisen Båge: 53:26

But actually it's the longing and also once you have finally chosen it and the longing, it's kind of that kind of feeling. It's kind of nice, because if it's a little longer then you get even happier when it arrives. If you order it and it comes, you kind of miss that kind of like longing feeling in between.

Blake Rea: 53:49

I would agree. It's something that, because of the I don't know if it's the the way that culture shifted here, um, I mean, and I don't, I don't understand some of it. You know, like, I understand a lot of it Cause, like, let's just say, I'm traveling, or I'm working on a project, or I'm you know, I'm, I'm a filmmaker, so I always have to get new equipment in, or, you know, new lenses, or or new mics, and that's the type of stuff that, like, I need, you know immediately yes um but then you know the sentimental things I wait for, you know, yeah, um, but yeah, and it's just an example, like you know, um, I had one of my mics got damaged and I I sent it off to be repaired, versus I could have just went back to the store and returned it and got a brand new one, um, immediately.

Blake Rea: 54:48

But you know, there's this weird kind of I don't know how to describe it, but in some instances I do, in some instances I don't, but the cultural change, I've noticed it and it's been weird. It's been weird, for sure.

Lisen Båge: 55:15

But I think this kind of weight. And we recently launched a little puzzle. It's a wooden jigsaw puzzle and it's like handmade and it's an illustration. It's called Beautiful Everyday Mornings, but it's like a puzzle that has nothing to do with our alarm clocks, but it's kind of also a thing of very high quality.

Lisen Båge: 55:42

But it's also a thing when you do a jigsaw puzzle, it's kind of like you cannot sit and do different things. You have to concentrate and you can sit and chat to one another and you know where's that blue, please, or whatever it's. It's a nice kind of being together and staying present. Um, you cannot. Uh, you know you have to be present and you have to be there when you do it. And it's also kind of like you know you can do that, you can do the puzzle and then it will stay there. It won't get the stuff. I mean it won't be destroyed if you leave it and you go for a walk or you make your dinner or you go for work or whatever. You come back and it's still there and you can continue.

Lisen Båge: 56:23

Yeah, you go for work or whatever it's. You come back and it's still there and you can continue. Yeah, it's, um, it's another little thing it has. It's just a little bonus, it's just very limited, but it's. It's in the same kind of quality, uh, that borg and sarna wants to bring into our lives.

Blake Rea: 56:41

Yeah, it seems like you're very focused not only just on building quality products but also connecting your health and your mentality, or maybe health and soul. And then I mean puzzle. Right, a puzzle is a great example, and I didn't know that you had created a product like that. But that's the type of product that you, you work on with your family. So you know it's something that can connect your family Right. You know cause we get lost in in in the world we live in. You know I mean I'm doing this, I've got a million things going on, my wife is doing that. You know we're all crazy, running around like morons in this world in a weird way, but it is nice to have something that kind of brings us together and grounds us. So it seems like you know your brand is more about that than anything else. You know, like being grounded and being rooted, um, in a weird way I get that feeling it could be wrong, but just my outside perspective yeah yeah, you're probably right, you are, um, I hope it's not in a too weird way.

Lisen Båge: 57:55

I mean it's um, I think, um, I think in the world that we live in now, I think it's. I mean, there's so many nasty things going on in the world and it's nice for us all to rest our, our brains and our just, you know, be here and now, sleep when you want to sleep, or work when you work, or you know, just stay a little present and present in the moment. So I think that the kind of word that I want to kind of get the feeling, when you haven't said it is kind of the jewel on your nightside table, it's kind of like my, I want it to be the jewel on your nightside table. Wow, you get a little, makes you a little happy, you're a little buddy.

Blake Rea: 58:59

We, you know, uh, our, our podcast is not only about the creative side of things, but you know, we love the entrepreneurial side of uh of the business, and then it's all wrapped in horology. So I have to ask what has been the biggest challenge that you've faced?

Lisen Båge: 59:26

you know, launching an alarm clock uh a luxury product, a luxury analog product, let alone in a very modern digital world so my the biggest challenge is actually to to put the word I mean we had, I had an idea exactly on how, how I wanted it to look, but to kind of actually bring it to life took a very long time. And to find the right movement, to find the right parts to make the design and functionality work together, that was the biggest challenge. And then it takes a long time to bring you know, to actually to be someone out there in the world, to get people to get to know Borge and Sanne. That's also a long. It takes a.

Lisen Båge: 1:00:25

I think now we've been on four years and um, uh, it's we. We have black, you know black numbers. We're making a small little um, uh. Last two years has been good, uh, but making a small little um. Last two years it's been good uh, but the first two years were tough, tougher. So I'm happy that I have a big, good family supporting me um, behind the scenes, otherwise my, my kids wouldn't get any food on the table. Yeah, yeah that's important.

Lisen Båge: 1:00:58

Yes, that is important. So I think those two things are very you know to can actually build an alarm clock is really tough. And I know I spoke to one of Sweden's biggest company I mean it's known for it's called Svenstern and that is, they make furniture and interior objects of very high quality and very typical Swedish design have you been there?

Blake Rea: 1:01:28

I don't think so I may have. I may have, maybe not. I will send you the link.

Lisen Båge: 1:01:37

It's a big inspiration and they have beautiful things and is very swedish, high quality, everything that they do. And of course, you can buy borgens on our alarm clocks there, but they they usually don't bring in other brands into their store, they make their own. They have josef frank, big designer, and esther derrickson who made all the patterns for everything that they do and make Very modern, very cool and very, very nice, and they tried to bring an alarm clock into life, but that's one of the few products that they couldn't succeed in. It's actually quite hard. Wow.

Blake Rea: 1:02:20

What advice would you give to entrepreneurs who are, you know, not necessarily bringing an alarm clock to market, but you know, any product yeah, who are trying to to start something, maybe a luxury product, um, you know, take, take some of the values that you have being, you know, artisanal, high quality, um, and are just faced with a bunch of challenges. You know what advice would you, would you say to them?

Lisen Båge: 1:02:49

uh, I've been very, I think, um, you know, go it will take time, so have time, a time frame in your body. But, leah, talk to people and talk to people to others that are doing the same like you do. I have a friend who our acquaintance from start and she did Eldvarm and she has been a big inspiration for me. So find your inspiration. They make you know fire things for fireplace. So find your um, find your inspiration in the people, from people around you or just any star that you um, that you like.

Lisen Båge: 1:03:37

So for me, eldvarm, lou Louis Varger has been a very big inspiration for me, but also Tyler Brulé has been a big inspiration for me too. He is international, he knows quality and originality when he sees it and he is a very big fan of design. And I think, go for quality and also, of course, it has to be functional. You have to make it work. And maybe you know, if you continue on one path and you're like trying to make it work, but there is always a way, there is always a way. So you have to be stubborn, uh, and but maybe it won't go the same path that you were thinking.

Blake Rea: 1:04:27

Maybe you have to go the path you know, take a little turn and then you will get there yeah, I come from a family of serial entrepreneurs and I did a podcast of entrepreneurship and I don't remember where I heard this, but if it was my dad or my mom or my.

Blake Rea: 1:04:46

I mean everybody in my family has their own business Like. But you know, being an entrepreneur is like making a walkway through a forest. You know, like you're paving the way or creating a trail for other people to follow, and as you're walking through the forest, you know like you're paving the way or creating a trail for other people to follow um, and as you're walking through the forest, you know you're getting hit in the head with branches and all that absolutely that's.

Blake Rea: 1:05:11

That's what I think. It was my, my father that that told me something like that, if I'm not mistaken. Um, but every time somebody asks me about that, I'm like, you know, like, if you, if you just stop walking, like you know, you're still going to be stuck in in the middle of the forest, you know. So you got to keep walking you just keep on walking.

Lisen Båge: 1:05:33

that's great yeah, absolutely. But I must say, one of my biggest inspiration and biggest supporters is, of course, my husband, and he has. He's a fantastic entrepreneur as well, but he is. He has one little one thing that he says sometimes, because I worry a lot and it's like 98% of worrying is just waste of time, so stop worrying and just go.

Blake Rea: 1:06:04

That is great advice.

Lisen Båge: 1:06:06

And I think that's a very good advice. Actually, it is true.

Blake Rea: 1:06:11

Where do you see Borga and Sonar in the next five, ten years, decades? Are you working on new designs, new collaborations? Do you guys have some tricks up your sleeve?

Lisen Båge: 1:06:28

yes, I think we have a few more products uh up our sleeve. Um, we have absolutely a new, some new collaborations um going on international um collaborations uh with maybe some an artist, maybe. Um, we have uh clocks everywhere in the world and for all types of um of uh of you know, there could be a wall clock, could be um other type of products that improves your life quality at home, but there's always very, very high with nice quality and nice design. I hope, of course, that today we have a new workshop that we're going to move to, which I'm so happy and pleased about, new workshop that we're going to move to, which I'm so happy and pleased about. And, of course, I hope to open up a workshop in in the us uh eventually and to expand my business, because we are very big in the us. Actually it's one of our biggest markets. I hope, I hope mr trump don't put up too many big um wars. I would say and yeah, tariffs, yeah, terrorists and stuff that.

Blake Rea: 1:07:42

Let's see, that's a whole another podcast episode.

Lisen Båge: 1:07:46

Yeah, yeah, yeah no, we'll see for now.

Blake Rea: 1:07:49

For now, we are dealing what we have today right, yeah my, my my, my, we've got this stream that we do, and yesterday the topic of discussion was like Swiss watches, watch exports, imports, what are the tariffs going to do? And I'm like I don't even want to talk about that.

Lisen Båge: 1:08:10

It's just not a topic I prefer to talk about. We say 98% of worrying is just a waste of time, like your husband said.

Blake Rea: 1:08:20

No point If you could do, and maybe this has already happened. Uh based on your your previous answer. But if you could design a clock, uh, like with a dream, like if you could do a dream collaboration, you know what would that, what would that look like or who would that be with?

Lisen Båge: 1:08:44

oh that's a very tricky one. I'd love to do something of a completely different. Could be like a completely different, could be like a mizone or something like a another totally different brand, but would do, we could do something fun together. Um, they uh, also a family-owned company which I think are doing they. They have their distinguished roots and you could immediately see what a Mezzone is. I think that's a very something to. I admire that, so that would be very cool. Also, there is a French designer that I think is doing very cool design and she is called gosh. Now, I forgot the name she is called. Oh, she's done restaurants and stuff and she makes furniture, and I can write you the name in a little while.

Lisen Båge: 1:10:00

Yeah, it'll come to me that's the way it always happens yes, I lost it, but, um, they're very cool, cool, cool, um, but maybe we could also do a little pillow mist or, you know, scent would be, but we're thinking of different products. But I think, in terms of branding, it's very important to know what you want, to, that the things that come out from Borgen Sand should still rhyme with what we stand for.

Blake Rea: 1:10:31

Very important to keep your core values.

Lisen Båge: 1:10:34

Yeah, to keep the core values very.

Blake Rea: 1:10:38

And make sure there's consistency among the products and and make sure you know, uh, the way, the way that I think about you, know a brand and a company, a product is like every product needs to, kind of, and you look at apple as like a case study, like every product is an expansion on the previous product or has utility that intertwines with the previous product. So you know maybe it's just me, but, but keeping that kind of mythos that that strategy is very challenging, you know to say, hey, this is an expansion on our current alarm clocks or this has the same application or utility or whatever you know and and so, yeah, it just becomes challenging.

Blake Rea: 1:11:30

And I've seen like like so have you seen you've probably seen the mechanical wristwatches that have like like minute repeaters and alarms and stuff like that? Have you seen you've probably seen the mechanical wristwatches that have like like mini repeaters and alarms and stuff like that? Have you seen those before?

Lisen Båge: 1:11:44

What do you mean? Mini repeaters? You mean not the ones that are both mechanical and digital.

Blake Rea: 1:11:52

No, no, no, so they're. So, they're mechanical, but they have an alarm function built into a wristwatch.

Lisen Båge: 1:11:57

Oh, yes, yes, yes, I've seen those, yes alarm function built into a wristwatch.

Blake Rea: 1:11:59

Oh, yes, yes, yes, I've seen those, yes, so like, for example uh, uh, jj lukut has, uh, what they call the memo box, and essentially it's an alarm complication that you set the alarm on it. It's just got a little little bell that rings yes like um, but I can't remember if it was, also has one yeah, a lot of brands have like a minute repeater. It's a very, very, very uh like high-end complication, um, but I can't remember if it was jlc or patek but, they came out with uh like, you know, like a little, uh like, like like phonograph or something or whatever.

Blake Rea: 1:12:41

So, so, anyways, the whole concept is you put your watch on it, the minute repeater, and then it amplifies the alarm uh-huh, so it will speak louder, yeah it captures the sound and it makes the sound travel out so like um, you know, something that just came to mind is like, you know, they, they were faced with that, that that whole process of like, hey, people want to use their alarm to wake up, right?

Blake Rea: 1:13:10

yeah so boom, you know a new product was born. Oh uh, kind of cool uh cool what would you say is one item, besides an alarm clock, obviously, that everyone should have in their bedroom?

Lisen Båge: 1:13:29

Besides an alarm clock, I love to have a book to write my notes on, to have a book to put my, to write my notes on. Either could be a diary or just you know, things that I have to do tomorrow, to-do lists or things that I've been experiencing during the day. So I usually have, like one of these, like this is just nothing that we do, but, like you know, one of these no lines, no, nothing, and then I, I, I, I write that is something that I love, um, to have on my nightside, and then I write that is something that I love to have on my nightside table. Also, if you have something that you worry about, when you put it in writing, it's kind of easy. I get it off my chest, plus it's there. So I remind myself tomorrow I won't forget it. So that's something too.

Blake Rea: 1:14:23

All right, yeah, my it's. It's so weird how I started to think about all these things. I used to do like I used to, I used to journal, I used to write um and I have a million pens here, but I think the only time I I use a pen and now it's such a shame to say, but it's what I'm signing the back of checks to- mobile.

Lisen Båge: 1:14:43

Really, you know what I recently started. My new thing is that I started crosswording it before I go to sleep that's fun, though. That's fun, yeah it could be fun because a little bit of brain, uh, brain gymnastics I don't know, I do the simple ones because I'm not so brainy, but they make me feel uh, yeah, yeah, it's better to have those um easy ones that you, uh feel that you are so you, you don't feel too uh, too, they should be easy to solve yeah, so you get a good flow and you feel a bit not so bad after all well, we have taken so much of your time, and I have one final question, and this is probably the hardest one out of all of them, but if you could look back into history and give a Borga and Sonner clock to anyone in history, who would it be and why?

Lisen Båge: 1:15:51

Hmm, oh, one of my most favorite historical people is Winston Churchill. Yes, he made everybody, you know. I mean it was not looking great for them, but he filled everybody with hope and fighting spirit. Maybe he would need an alarm clock to rest a bit in between those. He had a very busy life during the Second World War. He was a very. I think he was one important part of turning the World War II to where we landed today.

Lisen Båge: 1:16:46

I think that's my personal opinion, but it would be fun to make him have one. But yeah, there are many big historical people, but we should have, like a Pablo Picasso, who could paint one of the Borg and Sönder maybe.

Blake Rea: 1:17:05

It's like melting off the table. There you go. That's going to be something for your new office to have somebody melting off the table in.

Lisen Båge: 1:17:15

Picasso form off the table. Yes, I have actually my brother, who is a painter, who's doing all our um. You know, did you see inside your little booklet there's a little drawing in the last page.

Blake Rea: 1:17:27

Yeah, I did.

Lisen Båge: 1:17:28

It was very cool all the illustrations inside yeah, all the illustrations is made by my brother, who is an artist called gustav von arbin. So I have three brothers actually lots of and three sons and a husband lots of boys around me.

Blake Rea: 1:17:42

I, I, when I, when I wrote this question, I, I was thinking in my mind and I don't want to answer, obviously for you, but I was thinking like a full circle moment where you're gonna say, grandma, yes imagine it would make her so proud, my grandma and my grandfather he was also an entrepreneur he would be so proud.

Lisen Båge: 1:18:06

And my grandmother, she would have loved the french kiss, the french kisses for her. It's, um, it's, you know, the french colors of blue and white and red, uh, and that's kind of my. That was one of my first models, um, and it's a little tribute to her she is proud.

Blake Rea: 1:18:27

Yeah, she wouldn't be, she is proud I hope so, definitely I hope so.

Lisen Båge: 1:18:32

Yes, she, she was always on time and very chic and always very considerate of me and my always very happy to talk to her and my grandfather harry, they were yeah good inspiration amazing I want to thank you for spending almost an hour and 20 minutes with us.

Blake Rea: 1:18:59

I think we have an amazing podcast episode. I cannot wait for this to be distributed. Um, obviously I have one of your alarm clocks. I've been showing it throughout the whole course of the youtube video.

Blake Rea: 1:19:15

Um, I am going to be working on a youtube video for this wow um, so expect me to make some content about this, uh, because in my uh, the pictures just don't do it justice. So hopefully I can do it some justice with the video and, uh, and share my experience with what it's been like to to actually be an owner of one of these alarm clocks. Uh, so expect that to happen very soon, uh, in the coming weeks.

Blake Rea: 1:19:49

Uh, and if you've you've listened to this, if you're listening to this podcast, it may already be out by now, but um, expect that and uh, and hopefully we can, you know, can get down to Sweden, to Stockholm, and spend some time with you and, once you've moved into your new facility, and also work on more video content there with you, because we are always looking for ways to get more fresh, unique content. To get more fresh, unique content I might be the only watch content horology content creator to do something about an alarm like a table alarm clock. I'm not sure I haven't seen anybody else do it, but as somebody who loves horology, we can't forget about these things.

Lisen Båge: 1:20:41

So, so I appreciate me, uh, I appreciate you, uh, you gifting me one thank you so much, and thank you so much for having me on the show, and I do look forward to see what you do to make of uh uh what, how you um uh film uh your afternoon delight.

Blake Rea: 1:21:02

Yeah.

Lisen Båge: 1:21:03

A pleasure for me to be um speaking to you and, uh, thank you so much.

Blake Rea: 1:21:08

Thank you so much and we will talk to you very soon and come and visit. I will, I will, I promise, yes, I promise.