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Swiss Made certainly is a stamp of horological approval, but so is Danish Design. A combination of these is now worn on the wrist of Danish Crown Prince Frederik.

The Danish Crown Prince Frederik is not only a very nice fellow. He is also former elite soldier in the Danish special forces and has joined the Greenland Sirius patrol on several occasions proving his physical strength as well as sincere interest in the country he will rule one day.

His Royal Highness is however also a keen watch buff and his current collection of watches is an obvious indication of this. His current collection includes his first Rolex DateJust; a Rolex Submariner in gold and steel with a blue dial; the anniversary Rolex Submariner with a green bezel; a special Rolex Daytona with custom black PVD-treatment, a Rosendahl Le Mans (presented to him by 8-times Le Mans winner, Tom Kristensen) and a Breitling Emergency, which he wore during his Sirius expeditions to Greenland. He still owns and wears a special watch that today is known as “The Pingo”. It is a Citizen diver’s watch that he wore during the tough special forces training. This is the unofficial watch of these forces and since the nickname of the Crown Prince was Pingo, and this is known to the public, the watch model was soon named after him. Hence the Citizen Pingo.

First watch with a crown
“I received my first Rolex when I was 18 years old”, the Crown Prince told 00/24WatchWorld when we met with him and the owners behind the successful Danish watch brand, Linde Werdelin. Designer Morten Linde nodded in agreement, as his first real watch also was a Rolex and it was also presented to him when he turned 18.

Rolex watches, however, were not the reason the royal visit at authorised Linde Werdelin dealer, Franz Jaeger & Me in central Copenhagen. The Crown Prince had on several occasions visited the popular watch dealer and shown a keen interest in the innovative watches from the successful Danish duo. In particular, the spectacular SpidoLite had his full attention, with its Svend Andersen modified automatic movement.

The Danish trio
Once this watch was ready for delivery (only 22 titanium versions of the SpidoLite SA are being produced) both Morten Linde and Jorn Werdelin arrived to present the watch to the Danish Crown Prince.

A Danish watch fit for a Danish king-to-be with a movement from a Danish haute horlogerie watch maker based in Geneva. It almost sounds like a fairytale from another great Andersen, Hans Christian. It is, however, a wonderful truth.

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