Nobody knows when Oscar Waldan's 100th birthday requires place. The truth is, this could have passed. Such uncertainty about time is ironic for a man whom some regard if you are an unsung master Americanpatek pillippe watches replicamaker of the 20th century.

He was born in Dobczyce, Poland, and any record of his birth date is among the list of things he lost during internment in two Nazi concentration camps: Buchenwald in Germany and Theresienstadt in present-day Czech Republic.

But Waldan International, the boutique luxury watch company he founded in 1979, is poised to produce a comeback, driven by its new chief executive: his 23-year-old son, Andrew Waldan. Watch industry insiders, who regard Waldan watches as something of any secret, are applauding its return.

The watches, which might be made in Switzerland and cost $8,000 to $36,000, are known for the high group of complications-which are everything a watch does in addition to telling time, like displaying the date or moon phase-and relatively modest price, said Daryn Schnipper, Sotheby's senior vice president and chairman of international watch division. "They're very highly jeweled, they're well finished and they are simply attractive, and their price point is extremely reasonable," she said.

As a general child in Poland, Oscar remembers disassembling and putting back together his father's pockettitoni watches replica. Within the camps, he apprenticed with a watchmaker named Manek, a fellow inmate. Keeping the guards' watches running afforded Oscar favorable treatment and aided in his survival.

After the war, he arrived in New York for the refugee ship in 1946 and got work to provide a designer for Tissot (he must have been a creator on the Tissot Navigator in 1953, he said) and later for the Holzer Watch Company, Tiffany & Company and Van Cleefs & Arpels.

He founded Waldan International in 1979 because, Oscar said, "I wanted to earn something under my own name." The company but not just produced its own line, but also made branded timepieces for clients for instance the Museum of Modern Art.

But about 15 issue, thanks to Oscar's advancing age and unsold inventory, the company stopped making watches. "The hiatus set us right point where we had become completely irrelevant within the market," Andrew said. "That's after i realized we simply had to rebrand, and give the company a new face together with a new presence."

Later this year, Waldan will present its first collection designed through the younger Waldan. Though Waldan watches are theoretically unisex, the designs will have a more masculine presence and incorporate modern materials, like carbon fiber, but retain the vintage Swiss movements that company is known for using.

"Everything I learned was from my father," Andrew said being the two sat from the private dining room connected with a senior living facility in Edgewater, N.J. The younger man was neatly turned out within the preppy cardigan and shirt. Despite his youth, he exudes an aggressive American confidence having well-tailored, European politesse.

"He sat me down after i was 10 and put a pen at my hand, and wanted to discover exactly what artistic talent My partner and i," he said.

Oscar, who wore a crisp gray jacket and baby blue sweater, added from a frail voice: "I taught him to rely on something and fight for it. This is basically the best thing you can actually do." Strapped to his wrist was a favorite gold watch of his own design: a square-shaped quartz model known as the 0511.

Oscar married late in life, and had his only child when he was in his 70s. "When Andrew came along, I took him with me to work," said Teresita Waldan-Moreno, 51, who came towards the United States belonging to the Philippines in 1990, and was married to Oscar for 11 years, during which time she worked on the family business.

"Andrew had his crib and playpen with the office, so he started from two months being during the watch business," added Ms. Waldan-Moreno, who has since remarried and works to provide a marketing executive at Wempe, a longtime Waldan retailer.

Waldan International's return was announced during Art Basel Miami Beach in 2013 which has a flashy party in the Raleigh Hotel. The company received modest publicity for giving watches to celebrities enjoy the tennis star Jimmy Connors and the rapper and actor LL Cool J. It also was an ad incheap cartier watchesMagazine, a trade publication, that caught the eye of this influential Rhode Island watch dealer Ray Grenon, who owns Grenon's of Newport.

"I met Oscar 20 prohibited; he had a name inside business and was type a best-kept secret," Mr. Grenon said. "He just did a heck on the watch for the income, and they're beautifully made. Then he type disappeared, and heard nothing of Waldan for a quality 15 years."

Mr. Grenon said he called after seeing the ad, and was delighted to renew his business relationship with Andrew. "He's great, and he's young, which I appreciate in this business, where generally the average age is deceased," Mr. Genon said, joking. "He still carries a few little points to learn, but he's got his dad there to teach him."

As for Oscar himself, pride in his achievements and son are balanced through enormous weight of his own life experience.

"My past is hanging over me," he said, sitting in the wheelchair as sun streamed through the window. "No matter how successful I became, I still remember the concentration camps. I will never forget."

But he can certainly still make visitors smile that have an unexpected memory. Asked for a recollection of Manek, his tutor of beyond 70 long ago, Mr. Waldan waved his hand. "He has been a very unimaginative person," Mr. Waldan said. "The only thing he knew was watches."