Youth in Orbit is where curiosity becomes capability, creativity becomes ownership, and young people learn that they belong in rooms they may have never imagined entering.

Founded in Buffalo by Maison d’Aphelion CEO George Alexander, Youth in Orbit is a youth horology, design, entrepreneurship, and leadership initiative created to introduce young people to the world of watches while equipping them with the knowledge, skills, experiences, and confidence to build something of their own.

Students begin by learning.

They explore the history of timekeeping, discover the world’s great watchmaking traditions, develop technical watch literacy, and learn to understand the objects on their wrists not simply as products, but as intersections of engineering, craftsmanship, culture, art, and human ingenuity.

Then, they create.

Students study the principles of watch design, develop cases and dials, explore materials and color, critique one another’s work, and learn the discipline of iteration. Eventually, individual ideas become a shared vision as each cohort works together to design a real watch.

But Youth in Orbit does not stop at design.

Students learn how businesses are built. They develop brands, study marketing and storytelling, understand pricing and finance, explore manufacturing and supply chains, practice professional communication, and learn to present their ideas with confidence.

Then they lead.

Each cohort assumes meaningful responsibility for bringing its watch to the world. Students contribute to production planning, financial stewardship, marketing campaigns, customer experience, exhibitions, and the annual Youth in Orbit Watch Expo.

The watch they create is not a classroom exercise.

It is real.

It is produced, presented, marketed, and sold.

Students earn credentials by demonstrating what they can do. They build portfolios documenting what they have created. They meet professionals, visit institutions, encounter new possibilities, and begin developing networks that can continue long after graduation.

Select students may eventually continue their education through the Swiss Experience, an immersive journey into the heart of global watchmaking, where they encounter the heritage, institutions, manufacturers, museums, and people who have shaped horology.

And ultimately, every student is challenged to return.

To bring knowledge home.

To create opportunities for others.

To become mentors, professionals, entrepreneurs, patrons, instructors, and leaders who strengthen the communities that helped shape them.

This is the cycle at the heart of Youth in Orbit:

Learn. Create. Lead. Return.

We believe talent is everywhere, even when opportunity is not.

We believe young people should not have to wait until adulthood to be trusted with meaningful work.

We believe exposure should lead to education, education should lead to capability, capability should lead to ownership, and success should create a responsibility to return.

Youth in Orbit begins in Buffalo.

But our students are being prepared for the world.

Buffalo Rooted. Globally Connected.