Century Time Gems Ltd. was founded by Hans Ulrich Klingenberg, who was born in 1929 into a family intimately linked with the watch-making industry. The company was established in 1966 in Biel, in the heart of the regioin where the craft of Swiss watch-making originated. From a very young age, Hans Ulrich Klingenberg harboured a vision of a truly exceptional watch, thus laying the foundations for the present-day CENTURY sapphire watch collection.

He dreamed of creating a timepiece which united eternal beauty with a technically perfect construction in total harmony.

After many years of intensive research and developement, Hans Ulrich Klingenberg found the solution which allowed him to fulfil is vision. He invented a unique construction system for producing scratch-resistant sapphire cases and combilened this with the exclusive sealing system that he had developed several years earlier.These two innovative construction system were patented worldwide and are still used to this day in the manufacture of all CENTURY time gems.

Nowadays, the indepentendt family firm is headed by the founder's son, Philip W.A. Klingenberg, who actively promotes the further development of the CENTURY brand and company.