"Tag Nando's now": Pretoria Watchmaker Turns Nando's Sauce Bottle Cap into a Masterpiece

• A Pretoria-based watchmaker found that a Nando's peri-peri bottle cap was the exact same size as a watch dial
• The craftsman behind @svarts_watches transformed the bottle cap into a fully working timepiece with leather straps
• South Africans were blown away by the build and started tagging Nando's, calling for the brand to reward him

A Pretoria watchmaker pulled off something unexpected on 6 April 2026. After noticing that the cap of an empty Nando's peri-peri bottle was the exact same diameter as a watch dial, he decided to build an entire timepiece around it.

The man behind @svarts_watches documents his watchmaking process online and is known in South Africa for crafting his own timepieces. In this particular build, he trimmed down the bottle cap, sanded the edges smooth and fitted it before completing the face. He then sealed everything into a case and finished the watch with brown leather straps.

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The result was a clean, wearable timepiece, and the black dial made the watch look far more polished than its origin suggested.

A brand with deep South African roots

The choice of a Nando's bottle was no accident as a conversation starter. The restaurant chain was founded in Johannesburg's Rosettenville suburb in 1987, when friends Fernando Duarte and Robert Brozin bought a small Portuguese-Mozambican eatery called Chickenland for around R80,000. They renamed it after Duarte's firstborn son and built it into a global brand, now operating over 1,000 restaurants worldwide.

Nando's is also known for owning the world's largest collection of African contemporary art, with more than 28,000 pieces. The brand has always leaned into local creativity and bold South African identity, which made this build land differently with local viewers.

At the end of the video, the watchmaker signed off with a simple request:

"Tag Nando's in now, maybe I get a free piece of chicken."

Watch the Nando's bottle cap watch being built.

Mzansi tags Nando's and calls for a reward

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South Africans in the comments section on the young man's Instagram page were quick to celebrate the craftwork and rally behind the maker:

@ray17mundo said:

"@nandosrsa this deserves a whole flame-grilled chicken or boujiee bowl 🥣"

@johanvandersandt8 wrote:

"This looks dope! Who knew a cap could be used as a dial haha!"

@jbp_themuffinman shared:

"I love the concentration you got going; we need more watches on wrists in South Africa, and the prices are not bad at all, guys. For the same price as Fossil, you can get one of these"

@kgothatso62648 tagged:

"@nandosrsa come look at this craft 👌"

More on Nando's and SA creativity

• Briefly News recently reported on Nando's cheeky dig at KFC ahead of a major Bafana Bafana match, in one of the best brand roasts of the tournament so far.
• A man couldn't stop laughing after his friend pulled off a cheeky move to steal his Nando's drumstick right from under his nose.
• Meanwhile, a video showing exactly how Nando's packaging comes together left South Africans stunned, with many admitting they had no idea the job even existed.

Source: Briefly News