Marcus
Bu Helland.
Before the House,
there was the decision.
He was fourteen when he began. No inherited house. No established name. Just a fascination with watches, a willingness to learn, and a decision to start building something of his own.
HELLUTINI / UNDA
A teenager
from Klepp.
Before there was a company, a collection or a name anyone recognised, there was Marcus Bu Helland: a young person in Klepp, a small municipality on Norway's western coast, becoming absorbed in watches.
For Marcus, a watch was never only about the hour on the dial. It was the shape of the case, the relationship between the hands and the indices, the weight of the object on the wrist. A watch could be worn every day and still hold something extraordinary.
He did not begin with formal watchmaking training or a family workshop. He began by studying on his own: learning about watch design and mechanical movements, spending time with drawings, proportions and ideas. The first sketches were a beginning, not a finished formula. In 2024, at fourteen, he started the BÛTÓN watch brand.
No one handed him a heritage to inherit. If the name was ever going to mean something, he would have to build that meaning himself.
BÛTÓN / DESIGN ARCHIVE
Why build
a watch house?
He was drawn to the world of great watchmaking houses: the visual discipline of their dials, the confidence of their proportions, and the way a single design could become recognisable at a glance. Those houses offered a standard to study, not a history he could claim as his own.
The idea he returned to was more personal. Why could a new watch brand not begin here, in Norway — and grow a character of its own?
BÛTÓN became his answer. An independent name, first sketched and developed by a young founder in Klepp, with a long ambition and no pretence of centuries of inherited heritage.
NOT INHERITED. IMAGINED.Learn it.
Draw it.
Begin again.
There is a difference between admiring a finished watch and deciding to create one. Marcus spent his early years with BÛTÓN learning about the choices behind the object: the size of a case, a dial's texture, the way colours sit next to polished metal, and the character a strap can change.
He has spoken publicly about beginning with his own design sketches and teaching himself, rather than taking a conventional path into the industry. His first collection did not appear out of a long-established factory. It grew from research, individual decisions and the willingness to keep refining an idea.
The aim is clear: use the first HELLUTINI references as the opening chapter while building towards an increasingly distinctive BÛTÓN design language.
The ambition was never
to be the next somebody else.
It was to become BÛTÓN.
For Marcus, a lasting name has to begin with an idea worth standing behind. The intention is to develop a recognisable BÛTÓN design language, shaped over time — one chapter, one object and one decision at a time.
The coast.
The light.
The blue.
Jæren is a place of open horizons and rapidly changing skies. Along the North Sea, blue can be pale and almost silver one moment, deep and dense the next. That light and sense of space help explain the colour Marcus chose to become the signature of BÛTÓN.
Blue is more than a colour applied to a brand. It is the thread linking its earliest ideas to the place where they began.
HELLUTINI is the opening collection. UNDA draws on the movement and depth of the sea; UNDA “SOL” brings a warmer contrast, inspired by sun on Norway’s western coast. The watches are early expressions of a visual direction Marcus intends to keep developing.
DISCOVER HELLUTINI
Built to
be known.
Marcus is not an anonymous name printed on a dial. He is the person who began the project, shaped its first designs and put his own reputation behind them.
BÛTÓN is still a young house. That matters. Trust is not borrowed from a hundred-year-old history; it is earned with every conversation, every decision, and every watch that carries the name.
A DIRECT LINE TO THE FOUNDERA story still
being written.
A name begins.
At fourteen, Marcus begins BÛTÓN in Klepp. Watches become more than an interest: there are sketches, ideas and a first independent design direction.
The first headline.
Jærbladet publishes Vebjørn Olsen's profile of the fifteen-year-old founder, focusing on his self-taught path and his watchmaking ambition.
OPEN JÆRBLADET ↗The company.
The brand's journey becomes a formally registered Norwegian company. BÛTÓN AS is registered on 25 February 2025, distinct from the brand's 2024 beginnings.
OFFICIAL COMPANY RECORD ↗The ambition widens.
RA Stavanger covers Marcus at sixteen and his ambition to take a Norwegian watch name to the highest level. He shares the feature publicly himself.
OPEN RA STAVANGER ↗A face behind
the name.
Beyond the dial is the person building the House. Six photographs of Marcus Bu Helland — a closer, more human look at an independent beginning.
In the
headlines.
A young founder with an unusually early start. Two independent local newspapers have documented the beginnings of BÛTÓN and the ambition behind it.
lager sine egne
luksusklokker– Jeg har lært alt selv
Marcus (15) makes
his own luxury watches.
ORIGINAL NORWEGIAN HEADLINE · “Marcus (15) lager sine egne luksusklokker: – Jeg har lært alt selv”
Journalist Vebjørn Olsen documented the fifteen-year-old founder from Klepp. The article describes how Marcus devoted his free time to watches and learned independently.
READ THE ORIGINAL ARTICLE MARCUS SHARES THE STORY ON LINKEDIN ↗
ambition.THE FOUNDER AT SIXTEEN
He wants to reach
the very top.
ORIGINAL NORWEGIAN HEADLINE · “Marcus Bu Helland (16) står bak luksusmerke for klokker: – Jeg vil til topps”
RA Stavanger profiles Marcus at sixteen and his determination to take the BÛTÓN name further. Read the original RA Stavanger article directly at rastavanger.no.
READ THE ORIGINAL ARTICLE MARCUS SHARES THE STORY ON LINKEDIN ↗The reporting is the work of Jærbladet and RA Stavanger. Headlines are shown for identification, not reproduced as newspaper pages. The Jærbladet link opens the original newspaper article (subscription may be required); the RA link opens the original RA Stavanger article (subscription may be required). Any press photos can be added with permission through the theme editor.
A name
you can verify.
Marcus began the BÛTÓN brand in 2024. The legal company, BÛTÓN AS, was incorporated in February 2025. Its public information can be checked directly in Norway’s official business register. This distinction is part of the story, not something to hide.
What started with a teenager's fascination is becoming a visual identity. The first collection is the beginning, not the final word.
EXPLORE THE TIMEPIECES“Vi er bare
i starten.”
“We are only at the beginning.” · ENGLISH TRANSLATIONWhen Marcus shared the RA Stavanger feature, he chose to talk about the beginning, not the destination. The first years of BÛTÓN have been about moving from private fascination to sketches, watches, public scrutiny and an officially registered company.
His ambition remains larger than a single model. But the most important promise is a smaller one: that there is a real person whose name, history and direct contact details stand behind the collection.
READ MARCUS’S ORIGINAL PUBLIC POST ↗A real name.
A direct answer.
If you are considering a BÛTÓN, you can reach the person who started it. Ask him about a reference, his design ideas, or the direction of the house. His personal email is part of the public record, not hidden behind a fictional concierge.