The 25 Greatest Independent Watchmakers in the World
The phrase “independent watchmaker” has two fundamentally different meanings. One refers to a large industrial brand like Rolex that operates independently from a corporate group. These manufacturing firms are sometimes—and perhaps more accurately—referred to as an “independent watch brand” or “independent watch company.” Another meaning of “independent watchmaker” is a very small maison, atelier, or individual that practices small-scale, high-end watchmaking.
“Independent watchmaking is really when you distill this whole industry down to a single person working at a bench as a craft,” Logan Baker, Senior Editorial Manager of Phillips, tells Robb Report. “It’s someone that’s building a product for a person. And that’s what the best independent watchmakers do. They’re putting their heart and soul into what they view is the most ideal, the most perfect mechanism and that can take its form through more creative designs, or pioneering mechanics. It just really depends on where that watchmaker wants to take their product.”
It is these small, high-end independent watchmakers we are celebrating here, the masters of the craft, design, tools and technology that drive today’s high horology. From well-known masters like Philippe Dufour, F. P. Journe, and Kari Voutilainen to up-and-coming makers such as Japan’s Naoya Hida and Hajime Asaoka, China’s Qin Gan, and watchmaking duo Petermann Bédat, we take you into the micro-worlds of the 25 best independents working around the world today.
Some firms are larger than others, of course. There’s the single person working alone like Asaoka, and then there’s a firm like Moritz Grossman employing roughly 30 watchmakers in Germany. But none of these watchmakers produce very many watches each year—some vanishingly few, none more than a few hundred—and all are working at the highest level.
Regardless of their size (and perhaps because they are small), when aficionados speak of independent watchmakers, it is often with a reverent, even awe-struck, tone. Collectors almost universally agree that a small atelier creating exceptionally well-crafted watches simultaneously honors horological tradition while pushing watchmaking into the future. Some collectors regard independents as preservationists protecting traditional watchmaking from extinction, while others consider them mavericks pushing horology toward unseen horizons. They have also come to revere independents as a more unique alternative to larger and more traditionally esteemed high-end brands.
However, these two impulses—one toward the past, one toward the future—are almost always intertwined. As a result, independent watchmaking can take any number of mechanical and aesthetic directions, resulting in wildly different watches. For centuries, mechanical watchmaking sat at the bleeding-edge of human technology. In our AI-driven world, our nostalgia can cause us to forget that what seems quaint today was the futuristic wonder of yesteryear. So, we’d be mistaken to arbitrarily reject makers using digitally driven multi-axis CNC machines, 3D printers, and CAD software as integral to their high horology. These tools have become as much a part of the independent watchmaker’s workflow as the foot-driven polishing wheels of the 18th-century or the electronic guilloche machines of the 19th. But the handcraft is always involved, and it’s what you see in the end.
While these watches are invariably quite expensive, Baker points out that, “There is no real considerations of commercial business.” In other words, no one heads into independent watchmaking to get rich, which may seem to contradict the amount of money one can imagine some of these folks have earned over the years. The path to this kind of success often comes after years of financial struggle—not unlike that of a painter or sculptor. Some well-connected and informed watch collectors seek out the unknowns before they blow up, just as art collectors scour the small galleries for works from rising talents. Whether that impulse is driven by a profiteering motive, a love of discovery, or the dream of owning something special before it’s too expensive isn’t a question we can answer, but we can assure you our list will whet many appetites. Indeed, this list contains some living legends, and others who may very well follow in their footsteps to become legends of 21st century watchmaking.
Below are the 25 best independent watchmakers working today.
Armin Strom
Born and raised in Burgdorf, Switzerland, watchmaker Armin Strom opened a workshop and retail location there in 1967. He quickly established himself as a master at skeletonization — the removal of material from components such as bridges and dials in order to expose the timepiece’s inner workings — which he would hire out to brands as that technique gained in popularity. In 1984, he presented his wares at Baselworld for the first time; in 1990, he won a Guinness World Record for producing the world’s then-thinnest skeletonized watch.
In 2006, with Strom nearing retirement, he decided to sell his business to two young men who had frequented his workshop as boys, Serge Michel and Claude Greisler. Armin Strom AG was thus incorporated in his honor, with the boys realizing their childhood dream of owning and operating a watch company. Michel, a passionate watch lover and Greisler, a dedicated watchmaker with eight years of schooling, were committed to shepherding the Armin Strom name into the future with reverence and care.
In 2009, the Armin Strom brand opened its first dedicated manufacture in Biel/Bienne, which afforded it the ability to design and develop timepieces in-house. That same year, the company debuted the ARM09, its first in-house movement, within the One Week Collection at Baselworld. This highly skeletonized watch bridged the gap between Armin Strom’s personal creations and the fresh, highly contemporary marque that would continue on using his techniques. In 2014, Armin Strom debuted the Skeleton Pure, realizing a dream of creating a skeletonized watch entirely in-house. With its PVD-coated bridges and dual barrels, this compelling timepiece won a Red Dot design award in 2015.
The following year saw the company release its Mirrored Force Resonance — powered by the in-house cal. ARF15, this dual-regulator timepiece was designed to vastly improve chronometric precision by means of a Resonance Clutch Spring, which connects two escapements visible via the dial. In 2018, the brand birthed the Dual Time Resonance, the inaugural watch in its Masterpiece collection. Using the principle of resonance to display side-by-side time displays, this traveler’s watch brings together the brand’s various disciplines — skeletonization, resonance, decoration, etc. — together in a single timepiece.
In celebration of the modern brand’s 10th anniversary in 2019, it released its second Masterpiece offering, the Minute Repeater Resonance. Offering a repeating complication coupled to a movement regulated via resonance, this world-first timepiece validated the company’s experiments in dual-oscillator design. A year later, Armin Strom debuted the System 78 Collection with the Gravity Equal Force, an automatic watch meant to offer a more affordable entry point into the brand’s distinct take on haute horlogerie.
Today, Armin Strom offers 10 distinct models within three collections, which are powered by 24 different calibers. In harnessing the savoir faire of its founder, the company is paving the way for contemporary high-end watchmaking of the highest order.
Arnold & Son
In 1995, Arnold & Son was re-established in Switzerland, and then in 2010, the brand evolved into an integrated manufacture, with all calibers being designed, manufactured, and assembled in house. Yet, the Maison’s history stretches back much further, over two centuries to be exact.
“In 1764, John Arnold (who was only 28 at the time) was given the opportunity to present his miniature repeater ring watch at the birthday celebrations of King George III,” Pascal Béchu, General Manager of Arnold & Son, told Robb Report. “To thank him, the King introduced him into high society and awarded him 315 sterling pounds to support him in his work. With this royal favor, John Arnold’s career and reputation took off in earnest, and affluent clientele and European aristocrats flocked to his London workshop.
”From that moment forward, John Arnold became widely revered as one of the most influential watchmakers, bridging the gap between the traditional clock and the modern watch and ultimately patenting numerous inventions that define watchmaking as we understand it today. Arnold’s contributions to maritime navigation and chronometric precision were not only crucial at the time but also continue to inform the brand’s approach to watchmaking. Each of Arnold & Son’s watches is defined by three pillars: astronomy, chronometry, and world time. “Our Astronomy pillar presents high precision moonphase complications like our renowned Luna Magna, which displays the world’s largest three-dimensional rotating moonphase complication,” explains Béchu. “The Chronometry pillar, which includes our new naval-inspired Longitude Titanium series, pays homage to John Arnold’s marine chronometers and quest for precision,” he continues. “Lastly, our World Time pillar also pays tribute to the great explorers of the 18th century through our Globetrotter collection, an impressive three-dimensional worldtimer with an arresting hemispheric map dial.”
Hajime Asaoka
Unlike many independent watchmakers who learn their trade as an apprentice to a restoration house or other watchmaker, Hajime Asaoka came to his watchmaking as a designer. Graduating from Tokyo University of the Arts in 1990, Asaoka worked as a product designer, which often led him to designing watches. While he liked the designs, he was often frustrated with the quality. In 2022 he told The New York Times that, “…I was never satisfied with the quality of the watches. Details are so important, and I wanted to make a watch by myself”
Mechanically inclined, he learned how to manufacture his own watch parts, and eventually made his own watches, entirely on his own. He uses many modern, computerized machines to achieve this, but performs finishing by hand, as well as specific components that require the smallest tolerances be met. By 2009, he released a tourbillon, no small accomplishment for any watchmaker, but this was the first tourbillon produced entirely in Japan. Since then, his watches have gone up in acclaim and value, with one example fetching nearly $189,000 at auction in the Spring of 2024.
Asaoka’s reputation has been confirmed with multiple public recognitions. Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare honored him as a Contemporary Master Craftsman And Switzerland’s Academy of Independent Creators in Watchmaking recognized him as well.
Like so many other independent makers, Asaoka’s time-only watches stand as the boldest testament to his aesthetic and skill. The Tsunami remains one of the most sought-after timepieces among high-end collectors, and Asaoka only produces five of them each year, which is understandable given that he makes every component from scratch.
Simon Brette
It wasn’t all that long ago that Simon Brette was a young watchmaker working at MB&F designing some of the company’s more complicated and wildly avant-garde pieces such as the LMX, the HM9 Sapphire Vision, and the HM10 Bulldog. By 2021, he ventured out on his own to do freelance work for watch brands big and small, but not long after he found it was an inevitable calling to work on his own business. His debut timepiece, the Chronomètre Artisans Subscription, was an instant hit and it’s not hard to see why. At first glance, its case design is relatively traditional, a far cry from the bulldog-shaped horological wonders at MB&F. But upon closer inspection, its asymmetrical layout, exaggerated Breguet-style hands, and absolutely riveting 3D-engraved mosaic dial called “dragon scales,” looks unlike anything on the market and when you see one in the wild it surely stands out as it did when we spotted one on the wrist of a well-known collector at this year’s Rolliefest. That piece, limited to just 12, sold out and the waiting list for the production series is said to stretch into 2028.
One thing he did take with him from his former employer Max Büsser, is a penchant for promoting the artisans who help him create his coveted watches (something bigger brands like to keep secret). He lists them on his site and even creates pamphlets to hand out to share with others the faces behind the brand. They include his master engraver behind the dragon scales creation, Yasmina Anti; Damien Genillard, a second-generation finisher; and Barbara Coyon, an expert watch decorator, to name a few.
His sophomore debut created more work for this crew of creatives and was a riff on the Subscription piece that propelled him into the spotlight. It came in titanium on a green leather strap in a run of less than 99 pieces (a figure quoted on Brette’s website) and, naturally, sold out. Another edition in rose gold debuted in 2024. Get in line.
Philippe Dufour
Born in the Vallée de Joux in 1948, Philippe Dufour is among the world’s most celebrated independent watchmakers. A self-admitted poor student — particularly at mathematics, which are distinctly important to watchmaking — Dufour was sent by his parents to trade school, where he studied horology for four years, excelling at his newfound vocation. Upon graduation, Dufour took a job working for Jaeger-LeCoultre in 1967. Stints at Favre-Leuba, Gérald Genta, and Audemars Piguet followed, with much of the work done in after-sales departments. Returning to Switzerland from stints abroad, he opened a movement workshop for the Comor Watch Company; following a disagreement with the owner, Dufour purchased the workshop and set about beginning his journey as an independent watchmaker.
Initially, he focused on restoring complicated pocket watches from Swiss, English, or German marques, seeking out clients via the Galerie d’Horlogerie Ancienne auction house in Geneva, which would later become Antiquorum. However, Dufour devoted all his spare time to a passion project — namely, the creation of a Grande Sonnerie pocket watch, one that chimes the hours and quarters upon activation. After approaching numerous parties seeking funding, Audemars Piguet commissioned a run of five pieces. However, Dufour was unhappy with their working relationship, and once again struck out on his own. This time, he set his sights even higher: He would design a Grande Sonnerie wristwatch — the first of its kind in the world.
After securing funding from an Italian partner, Dufour presented his completed watch at Baselworld in 1992. Support came not from Europe but from the Asian market, where collectors gobbled up Dufour’s Grande Sonnerie wrist and pocket watches and ordered more. With that market’s deep appreciation for craftsmanship — especially of the entirely handmade variety practiced by Dufour — the relationships only grew stronger over time. In the 1990s, Dufour began studying “school watches” made with dual balance wheels connected by a differential, a design that improves chronometric efficiency. In adapting this system into wristwatch form, the Duality was born, Dufour’s second independent creation.
However, it was the time-only Simplicity — a watch requested by Japanese collectors and delivered in 2000 — that sealed Dufour’s reputation as one of the world’s greatest living watchmakers. This simple creation, inspired by mid-20th century horology and produced in roughly 200 pieces, demonstrates the astonishing range of a man who can shrink a sophisticated striking mechanism down into wristwatch form, or deliver a shockingly simple (yet beautifully decorated) dress watch of the highest order of workmanship. Today, Dufour’s creations sell at auction for hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars; meanwhile, his daughter, Danièla, is also a watchmaker, and is proudly following in her father’s footsteps.
Laurent Ferrier
Few people epitomize the “gentleman driver” better than Laurent Ferrier, a classically trained watchmaker who was a successful race car driver long before he decided to leave his creative director position at Patek Philippe to found his eponymous brand in 2009, at the age of 63 (after nearly four decades with the venerable watchmaker).
In 2022, upon the release of a driving timepiece, the Sport Auto, that Ferrier created to pay tribute to his racing days, he recounted an anecdote about an especially grueling 24 Hours of Le Mans race in 1979, in which his team, including business partner Fran?ois Servanin, came in third, just behind Paul Newman.
“The story continues in the paddocks where, in a state of elation, I offered a [Patek Philippe] Nautilus to Fran?ois, as a token of gratitude after this shared performance,” Ferrier wrote in a press release.
The fact that he was also part of the team that worked on the Gerald Genta-designed Nautilus, one of the most iconic sport watches of all time, lends the anecdote an extra dimension. And yet for all his bona fides as a sports star, Ferrier is best known as a maker of watches that are, as Asher Rapkin, co-founder of Collective Horology, tells Robb Report, “elegance personified.”
Take the brand’s freshman effort, the Classic Tourbillon Double Hairspring, which won the award for best men’s watch at the GPHG in 2010. Or its Classic Micro-Rotor collection, introduced in 2012. Or its newest watch, the Classic Moon, an annual calendar featuring the brand’s first moonphase (“Absolutely killer,” Rapkin says). Even the sport models in Ferrier’s lineup embody his classic design sensibility, says Steven Rostovsky, a Los Angeles dealer who specializes in independent watchmakers. “There are very few sport watches that are gentleman sport watches, and his are that: simple, clean and timeless.”
Greubel Forsey
When English watchmaker, Stephen Forsey, and French watchmaker, Robert Greubel, walked into Baselworld—at the time, the largest watch fair on the planet—with their Double Tourbillon 30°, it caused a sensation. The crux of the piece was a tourbillon with a cage rotating in four minutes and an interior cage (containing the balance spring and spring assembly inclined at an angle of 30° in relation to the first cage) making a full rotation every 60 seconds. The highlights of the watch—the tourbillon engineering, chronometric performance, and high-end finishing—would all become hallmarks of the brand.
Greubel Forsey’s pieces are known not only for these signature elements, but also an unusual blend of horological fireworks in, typically, sizeable cases to properly show them off (although in line with current trends, sizing has come down on its more recent models). Nevertheless, the duo’s commitment to traditional watchmaking shines through in its meticulous execution and steadfast approach to doing as much of the process by hand or on old-school machinery as possible.
This juxtaposition between old and new extends to Greubel Forsey’s manufacturing facilities in Switzerland’s La-Chaux-du-Fond. The site was built around a run-down 17th-century farmhouse, which was purchased by the company in 2007 and opened in 2009. Outside, the structure now appears to be an angled glass building emerging from the rural knoll on which it is perched—an obvious nod to its inclined tourbillons. Upon entering the facility, however, you can still see the remnants of the old farmhouse which cleverly ties together the old world of watchmaking with the new. Some days, you might even spot sheep grazing atop the glass structure’s grassy roof. It is, without a doubt, one of the most interesting manufactures in the region.
The company has recently undergone a leadership transition with plans to create more watches with fewer collections at lower price points. The latter is relative, of course, as Greubel Forsey’s timepieces largely cost around almost $700,000 and now are moving into the under $420,000 range. With its CEO, Antonio Calce at the helm since 2021, Stephen Forsey and Robert Greubel have stepped out of the spotlight to focus on what they do best…watchmaking, while Calce aims to expand the grounds of the manufacture and take the company to the next level. Again, it’s all relative at this watchmaking house, which was only making 100 watches per year for two decades until Calce took it to 200. His goal is to eventually get that number to 500, but with that figure spread around global markets, spotting one in the wild will still be a phenomenon.
Qin Gan
If China is known for watchmaking, it is typically for drab, poorly made Mao-era mechanical watches or today’s automated factories churning out countless millions of components used in watches around the world. And then there’s Qin Gan of Chongqing, who grew up in a watch repair shop his father owned. Qin’s watchmaking skills were forged in the world of repair and restoration, as were those of so many European apprentices throughout history. There is no better school of high-level watchmaking than being taught to build replacement parts from the ground-up.
Qin began to turn his skills into making his own watches, and first tackled the highest complications, including a flyback chronograph, tourbillons, and chiming repeater complications. Like many others on our list, Qin realized that complications are not as popular as he might have hoped, and that a simple time-only watch puts the craft on full display. Like a popstar singing with just an acoustic guitar—stripping away everything but the core elements of their craft—a watchmaker producing a time-only watch stands naked, exposed and vulnerable.
Qin was clearly ready for that test, and he brought out the Pastorale 1, a time-only watch in stainless steel costing $9000 that caught the attention of serious watch collectors around the world. In 2021, he revised the watch a bit, set it in a gold case, spent far longer finishing the movement, and brought it to market for $46,000. The movement was roughly based on the Longines caliber 30L (a revered vintage caliber), and Qin finished the machined movement components by hand and presented it as caliber 1810. His bevels looked familiar to some collectors, which raised heckled and praise in equal measure, but none could argue that the quality was exceptional. To achieve that level of finishing, Qin produces roughly just 15 Pastorale watches each year.
Romain Gauthier
Unlike many of his peers, Romain Gauthier did not study watchmaking, nor did he necessarily intend to be a watchmaker. Despite growing up in the Vallée de Joux — the historical home of Swiss horology — he studied precision mechanics in university and subsequently worked as a machine programmer and operator making horological components. However, only a year passed before Gauthier began considering how to craft his very own mechanical movement. Pursuing an M.B.A. in his spare time, he visited watchmaker Philippe Dufour in 2002; meeting the legendary horologist inspired him to finally begin work on his first caliber. His boss, taken in by Gauthier’s talent and drive, allowed him to use the company tools during nights and weekends in pursuit of his dream.
Finally, in 2005, Gauthier struck out on his own, establishing his eponymous brand in Le Sentier and hiring his first employee, a watchmaker. The result of the duo’s efforts was Roman Gauthier’s debut movement, the Calibre HM 2206; in 2007, Gauthier cased this movement in the Prestige HM watch, debuting it at Baselworld and establishing his Heritage Collection. As interest in the brand grew, Gauthier expanded his team and purchased a CNC machine in 2008 in order to develop components for his in-house movements. In 2010, the company debuted the Prestige HMS with a partially openworked dial and a subsidiary seconds display, following it up a year later with the Prestige HMS Natural Titanium within the new Freedom collection.
Progress came quickly for the small maison: In 2013, the industry was introduced to the Logical One, which uses the brand’s constant-force movement with push-button winding. Winning the Best Men’s Complication Watch prize at the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève in 2013, it gave Gauthier and his team much deserved visibility within the greater watch industry. The brand quickly followed up this success in 2014 with several unique pieces within the Exception Collection, including the impressive, beautifully gem-set Logical One Secret Diamonds. A milestone year, 2014 also saw the establishment of the brand’s new manufacture in Le Sentier. In 2015, Gauthier launched several more models including several limited editions, while 2016 saw the brand recognized by the Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie as a “fine watchmaking” company, further cementing its status.
Gaulthier’s plaudits only increased from there: After debuting the brand’s first automatic watch, the Insight Micro-Rotor, in 2017, it was invited to join the SIHH trade show in Geneva (now Watches & Wonders) where it launched the Insight Micro-Rotor Lady, its first ladies’ timepiece featuring a mother-of-pearl dial and a micro-rotor movement. In 2022, Romain Gaulthier debuted its first metal bracelet — a handsome multi-link creation in Grade 5 titanium — on its C caliber.
Today, the brand continues to make strides in high-end independent watchmaking, developing new in-house calibers and iterating upon its popular models. By investing heavily in the ability to create components in-house, this small maison has been able to achieve an outsize impact in the field of haute horlogerie within a relatively short time, and impress die-hard watch nerds in the process.
Gr?nefeld
The first thing a visitor to Gr?nefeld’s website sees is a banner across the homepage announcing that the brand is oversubscribed. “Sorry, we can’t take new orders until further notice. We are now processing the overwhelming amount of reservations we’ve received after the launch of our 1969 DeltaWorks and 1941 Gr?nograaf. Thank you for your patience and understanding.”
Bart and Tim Gr?nefeld, aka “The Horological Brothers,” founded their brand in 2008, in Oldenzaal, the Netherlands, but it took until 2016, and the release of their third model, the 1941 Remontoire, a GPHG-award-winning wristwatch with a constant force mechanism, to attract the kind of attention that’s kept their workshop buzzing.
“The interesting feature of the Remontoire is on the dial side — every eight seconds it turns,” says Kathleen McGivney, chief executive of the collectors organization RedBar Group and an ardent Gr?nefeld fan. “You get to see a little bit of the mechanics on the dial side and that’s very appealing to watch nerds like me.”
McGivney also cites the brothers’ sought-after Gr?nograaf as a quintessential example of their superior finishing, which she extolled in a love letter to the Remontoire on the RedBar site.
Rapkin couldn’t agree more. “The brothers have been around the block doing finishing work for everyone you could possibly imagine,” he says. “When you picture in your mind an haute horlogerie timepiece that’s been finished to the nth degree, it’s not improbable that it has been finished by Bart and Tim Gr?nefeld. “Yet their gravitational pull is very much tied to them as people,” Rapkin adds. “They’re two guys who are obsessive about their finishing, but they like to drink beer, and cycle, and they’re extremely warm and accessible.”
Moritz Grossman
In the town of Glashütte, Germany, there are many exceptional watchmakers, but it is Moritz Grossman that stands out—arguably along with A. Lange & S?hne—as the kind of obsessive, high-end independent house that drives the world’s most passionate collectors into fever. Moritz Grossman was a watchmaker during the 19th century, a small workshop that fizzled out due to the often challenging cultural and political forces at play in Eastern Germany. But the history of the brand is classic watchmaking of the oldest kind. Grossman wrote The Construction of a Simple but Mechanically Perfected Watch,” in 1860, a book with a philosophy that still informs what the brand does today.
We asked watch collector and world renown photographer, Atom Moore, about his impressions of the brand. Moore collaborated with Moritz Grossman on a watch recently, and he told Robb Report that, “Moritz Gorssman, to me, is the epitome of an eclectic German independent watch brand. They bring forward technical elements and new movement architecture that might only incrementally improve the accuracy or aesthetic but with great time spent to achieve it. They, in my eyes, remain humble about these accomplishments while continuously producing extremely high quality watches. They also make the best modern watch hands that, by themselves,, identify a watch as a Moritz Grossman at a glance.”
It wasn’t until 2008 that Chistine Hutter, a watchmaker by training, secured the rights to the Grossman name and kicked off what has turned out to be one of the most successful independent revivals in modern history. Last year, Hutter told Robb Report that, “We are a German brand, so we are different from the Swiss brands. I think we keep all German standards or Glashütte standards. And we are perhaps different—if you look at the style of our movements and the finishing, we do everything in a very classic and traditional way. Not everybody’s doing it.”
Part of that classicism is the pocket-watch influence of the movements, which are neither thin nor full of visual access. Instead, heavy thick three-quarter plates are used, which add stability to the movement, but also require a great deal of labor to assemble. Hutter explained to Robb Report that, “We look for the functionality and stability of the movement. We do not have a lot of watches that come back for [premature] servicing.”
So detailed is the finishing, that the maison is among the very few that polishes between the teeth on the gears. Philippe Dufour, who is similarly detail-obsessed, told Hutter, “Christine, you know, nobody else is doing this kind of finishing.”
Over the years, the brand has embarked on some incredible partnerships that have brought fresh perspective to the brand, most recently a watch with a bold pink guilloché dial for the Princess Grace Foundation or back in 2018, a unique online advent calendar-style auction of 24 one-of-a-kind timepieces in conjunction with Christies.
Naoya Hida
This small Japanese company consists of just three core members: CAD-designer and watch assembler Kosuke Fujita, dial-engraver Keisuke Kano, and founder/CEO Naoya Hida. Hida is no stranger to independent watchmaking, and has worked in the watch industry since 1990. He’s served as a Japanese representative for the renowned independent maker F. P. Journe, and also for Ralph Lauren watches (the latter making high-end luxury timepieces not to be confused with affordable Polo watches). It is Hida’s vision which drives the firm, which unabashedly synthesizes handcraft and high-tech, computer-aided machine work.
At this point, the firm has produced five different watch “types,” to use their nomenclature. Hida-san spoke to Robb Report, saying that, At the moment I have ideas up to NH TYPE 38, but I can’t imagine when it will happen. We don’t want to be a big watch company. We want to be a company that produces a limited number of watches for watch lovers around the world, albeit in many variations. This year we will produce 100 watches. Next year we may produce a few more. At the moment, it is not yet clear how many watches we would ideally produce per year. But as I have said many times, we want to remain a small watch company.”
Remaining small may be a matter of what’s possible, given Naoya Hida’s techniques. The hand-craft is front and center in the gorgeously engraved dials. At first glance, these dials look like traditional watch dials, largely because the designs are derived from what many—including Hida—consider the golden age of wristwatches: The 1930s thru the 1960s (at which point electronic watches and 1970s styles disrupted the mechanical watch industry). Upon closer inspection, however, these dials reveal themselves to be unlike anything else in modern watchmaking. Deeply engraved into the metal dials are numerals that manage a level of detail that boggles the mind. Take that under a loupe magnifier, and the mind will be completely blown.
Mark Cho, founder of classic menswear firms Drakes and The Armoury, has been a big proponent of Hida-san’s work from the get-go. Cho told Robb Report that, “What first drew me to the brand was the classic aesthetic but what really kept me hooked was the extremely thoughtful and refined design. So much attention has been lavished on subtle details, such as the dial’s hand engraved indices and different levels of depth, or the way the crystal might distribute light onto the dial, or the crisp definition of the bezel and case. But perhaps most importantly, due to the clear intent of Hida-san alone as the designer of the watches, all the elements of the watch’s design coexist with astonishingly rare coherence and the sum is greater than its parts. In this age of over-design and spec-sheet competition, it’s a welcome breath of fresh air. The more you study a Naoya Hida watch, the more you will discover and enjoy.”
Indeed, Hida’s watches need to be seen in person to be fully understood and appreciated, and as with most timepieces that exude private luxury, the closer you get the more astounding and luxurious the experience. They are designed according to the golden era of European watchmaking, which was decidedly understated—this an adaptation of modernist philosophies that drove the Bauhaus school in Germany, the De Stijl group in Holland, as well as Constructivism, Cubism, Futurism and so on. How that all translates into Japanese watchmaking is a complex story of ongoing cultural exchange, but this shared appreciation of understatement is executed here with the highest handcraft, straight out of Tiffany, where engraver Keisuke Kano had worked since 2007 before joining Naoya Hida.
The movements are built from third-party platforms, but are significantly reconfigured, modified, upgraded and finished to high standards. For example, the caliber 252SS is a rectangular hand-wound movement build on the Perseux 7001 platform, but the plates are new, such that what’s really being used are the escapement and gear train. This practice is common among even the highest-end watchmaking houses, and it goes back to the likes of Cartier in the 1920s and Vacheron Constantin in the 1930s adapting Jaeger-LeCoultre base (or, ebauche) movements. Anyone who sneezes at the practice is only demonstrating an allergy born of ignorance. Again, get out the loupe magnifier and enjoy the exceptional anglage (beveling on the plates) and engraving, but to have your mind fully enhanced, travel the deep cuts that make up the numerals on the dial and wonder at the handcraft involved.
F. P. Journe
Few modern independent watchmakers have been as hot as F.P. Journe in recent years. In 2021, during the height of pandemic watch mania, Journe’s popularity reached a fever pitch. On November 6 of that year, the charity auction Only Watch set a record for Journe with the CHF 4,500,000 sale (approximately $4, 929,390 at exchange rates at the time) of the F.P. Journe x Francis Ford Coppola FFC Blue, which became the maker’s most expensive watch ever sold—a record that stands to date—and, at the time, it was also the record for any independent watchmaker. A day later, Phillips sold a Chronomètre à Résonance Souscription for CHF 3,902,000 (approximately $4,276,709 at exchange rates at the time)—the most expensive F.P. Journe watch ever sold on the secondary market, and was part of a set of historically significant timepieces by the maker—all of which were first series—that raked in over $10 million in total on the auction block. The tone was set and since then, getting your hands on a Journe timepiece has become increasingly difficult. The watchmaker has been consistently sold out of timepieces with waiting lists long enough to require financial planning well into the future should you put your name down.
Master watchmaker, Fran?ois-Paul Journe, however, has been honing his craft for decades. Before he founded his namesake brand 25 years ago in 1999, his journey into watchmaking started under the tutelage of his uncle Michel, who restored clocks by ancient watchmaking prodigies like Antide Janvier and Abraham-Louis Breguet. (Many of the truly gifted independent makers perfected their craft by restoring old, and often historic, pieces.) Both Janvier and Breguet inspired Journe when he began his company. In fact, it was while he was fixing a double regulator by Breguet in 1982 when he first started toying with the idea of putting a similar system in a wristwatch. But it wasn’t until 1994—a time when he was making custom timepieces—that he would revive the idea and begin work on what would become his most recognized piece, the Chronomètre à Résonance. The first model debuted in 2000 and was the first wristwatch to achieve natural chronometric resonance through dual movements that synchronize themselves for greater accuracy. To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Chronomètre à Résonance, Journe updated the movement to add two constant-force mechanisms for even more improved accuracy.
Journe’s legacy, however, includes many masterful models beyond the Résonance such as the Chronometre Bleu, Tourbillon Souverain, Répétition Souveraine, Octa Automatique Lune, and the incredible Astronomic Souverain, to name just a handful of his hits. Some of the signature characteristics of F.P. Journe watches include a distinctive dial layout that somehow maintains a traditional and sophisticated tone; the use of materials like tantalum, platinum, and even jade; striking salmon dials; and 18-karat rose gold movements. Of all the independent watchmakers, Journe’s production (while still tiny in comparison to bigger brands), is among the largest making roughly 800 to 900 watches per year.
Krayon
Rémi Maillat is more than your average watchmaker—he’s a watch design engineer, materializing mathematical calculations into surprisingly simple watchmaking creations. Maillat founded Krayon back in 2013 with the goal of creating unique complications, like ones that can tell sunrise and sunset from anywhere in the world.
“The most significant moment for me since establishing Krayon was when our first movement for the Everywhere collection ran in my hands,” Maillat told Robb Report. “Everywhere is a watch that can calculate sunrise and sunset times anywhere in the world, a function that has historically been considered difficult to achieve by watchmakers,” he explains. “When we decided to tackle this challenge, it took a lot of courage because we didn’t know if it was physically possible. We didn’t know if we would eventually understand why it hadn’t been done before and if there was a reason for it. We spent 18 months modeling, another 9 months drawing the blueprints, and then ordering nearly 600 parts. The moment the prototype was running in my hands, I felt that the five years of hard work were worth it. It was like reaching the summit of Kilimanjaro and seeing the sunrise over the savannah.”
These efforts went on to land Krayon its first GPHG win in 2018 with the Innovation Prize for the Everywhere. The brand notched a second win a few years later in 2022 in the Calendar & Astronomy category for its second watch, the Anywhere. Despite the technical complexity of Krayon’s creations, the brand doesn’t sacrifice aesthetics. Over the years, its Everywhere and Anywhere collections have incorporated métiers d’art techniques, making them just as beautiful as they are capable. Still, one of the most significant watches for the brand has been a piece unique developed for Jean Todt, the former president of the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile. “This watch perfectly summarizes the brand’s DNA,” asserts Maillat. “It merges a very complex movement with a métiers d’art dial, where we got inspiration by a Van Gogh painting. It also matches perfectly with the values we share at Krayon, celebrating a man that has marked an entire generation of F1 fans and who is at the same time an incredible watch connoisseur.”
Fiona Kruger
First and foremost, Kruger is an artist who ultimately found her way to watches as her medium. While she’s of Scottish descent, she spent some formative years in Mexico, experiencing the famous “Day of the Dead” celebrations, which have gone on to deeply influence her work. Her resume within the watch industry is equally as impressive as her background in fine art, working at Audemars Piguet and Hermes as well as the Patek Philippe museum in Geneva.
The first watch under her namesake brand came in 2013 with the Skull Edition and soon after the Black Skull and Celebration Skull. By 2017, Kruger had notched her first GPHG nomination for the Petit Skull (Celebration) Eternity, and since then, she’s gone on to have several other nominations for her creations. Though her watches aren’t expressly made for women, they certainly present a compelling alternative for women seeking a more unconventional design made by a female watchmaker.
For Kruger, a couple moments in particular stand out as being pivotal in her evolving journey as a watchmaker. “The creation of our CHAOS movement was an important moment for me,” Kruger told Robb Report. “I didn’t think I’d ever have the chance to have my own mechanical movement, and this bespoke caliber allowed me to execute my creative vision for the CHAOS collection from caliber to case. I love it—it has all the fine watchmaking language, finishing, and technical elements but with a punk spirit.” In addition, Kruger’s collaborations with brands like TASAKI (a Japanese fine jewelry Maison) and the Swiss clockmaker L’Epee have also resulted in some of her favorite pieces. Kruger’s latest line, Fracture, debuted earlier this year as a limited edition of just seven pieces at the Perpétuel Gallery in Dubai.
Christian Lass
While studying mechanical engineering in university in Copenhagen in 2002, Christian Lass came upon an old copy of “Watchmaking” by George Daniels, the late British master watchmaker’s seminal work on horology. Enrolling in Denmark’s lone watchmaking program, he learned to repair parts and service movements, but found this work unfulfilling. Undeterred, Lass apprenticed with fellow Danish watchmaker S?ren Anderson at his atelier, learning about the restoration of old clocks and watches. Meeting legendary watchmaker Vianney Halter, he later traveled to Switzerland to work for him, spending four years learning how to craft a watch from scratch.
It was while working for Halter that Lass met Philippe Dufour, who alerted him to an opening in Patek Philippe’s museum. Unaware that he would be the museum’s sole watchmaker, he landed the job in 2009 and spent several years restoring watches and studying the past 500 years of horology. Striking out on his own in 2018, Lass established his eponymous brand and workshop in order to realize classically-inspired creations of his own imagining. Much like Philippe Dufour and Rexhep Rexhepi, he focuses on beautifully finished time-only pieces, the first of which is the 30CP.
The 30CP, which debuted in 2021, is a premium piece of haute horlogerie inspired by antique English clocks. The hand-engraved, multi-layered dial with a frosted center and a nameplate is hand-engraved by his wife Hannelore, a master engraver who has worked for Patek Philippe, Van Cleef & Arpels, and Vianney Halter.
The hand-wound movement is no less impressive: The balance spring, inspired by sprouting leaves, is surrounded by engraving, while a special adjustment system inspired by 19th-century Breguet marine chronometers uses a ruby ball and several screws to allow the bridge free movement. This system, which regulates the hairspring’s accuracy, is unique and time-consuming to create: Indeed, building five prototypes consumed a year of Lass’s time, and with a promised run of 50 pieces, he could be seeing little of the sun as he toils away in his workshop for the next decade.
The dial, case, and majority of the 30CP’s movement are fashioned by Lass himself — in fact, it’s only the wheels of the going train that aren’t made in his atelier. Fashioned from German silver, the dial is paired to an 18K gold case in one of three colors, which itself measures 38mm in diameter by 11.5mm tall. With a growing chorus of watch world approval backing his handsome, vintage-inspired creation, Lass is already poised to become a horological darling of haute horlogerie collectors everywhere.
MB&F
When Max Büsser founded his watch brand in 2005, he gave it an unorthodox name that made some early critics sneer: The initials stood for Maximilian Büsser and Friends.
At the time, the concept behind the brand — bringing together a group of friends skilled in the horological arts and putting them to work crafting iconoclastic timepieces — was as unconventional as its name. The inventive approach, which Büsser pioneered while working on Harry Winston’s celebrated Opus series in the early 2000s, foreshadowed the luxury watch industry’s current obsession with collaborations.
Even more inventive than MB&F’s strategy, however, were the timepieces themselves, beginning with the first Horological Machine, introduced in 2007. An oversized three-dimensional wristwatch with a central tourbillon and four mainspring barrels, the daring model was merely a warm-up to the brand’s more eccentric creations, chief among them the twin-engine HM No. 4 Thunderbolt, the dog-in-a-spaceship HM No. 10 Bulldog and the chronograph convention-busting LM Sequential EVO.
“MB&F is, in many ways, the archetype for a successful independent watch brand,” Asher Rapkin, co-founder of Collective Horology, tells Robb Report. “An MB&F creation, whether it’s a toy, a watch, a clock — right now, I’m looking at a rocket ship loupe holder they designed — is instantly recognizable.
“But the thing that Max understands probably better than anybody else in the watch industry is that a watch brand needs gravity,” Rapkin adds. “It has to suck you in. That’s why he calls their collectors and owners ‘The Tribe.’ Max is a master of making you feel you’re a part of something. The watchmaking is impeccable but there are a lot of watches that are impeccable. What makes MB&F so special is that intense magnetic draw.” mbandf.com
Raúl Pagès
A Swiss watchmaker born to Spanish parents, Raúl Pagès cut his teeth restoring timepieces in Parmigiani’s restoration department. Beyond his promising resume as an antique watchmaking specialist with expertise working on some of the most prestigious collections in the world, Pagès is widely regarded as a brilliant mechanical artist for his work on automatons.
“In 2012, he created a handmade tortoise that basically walked on a table,” William Massena, founder of Massena Lab, told Robb Report in 2022, when he introduced a collaborative Bauhaus-inspired watch, the Magraph, that featured a proprietary movement designed and developed in Switzerland by Pagès.
“I approached him around 2019,” Massena said. “He liked the idea of creating something for watch collectors who could not afford the expensive stuff. He makes four watches a year and they’re $80,000.”
Pagès — whose first timepiece, the Soberly Onyx, was a limited edition of 10 watches that debuted in 2016 — introduced his second watch, the Régulateur à détente (aka the RP1), six years later. The piece, Pagès’ first to feature an-house movement, was equipped with a détente escapement inspired by pocket watches he restored while at Parmigiani.
“It’s an escapement I fell in love with,” Pagès told the London dealer A Collected Man in an interview published in 2022, in which he discussed his love of mid-century furniture, the works of Le Corbusier and music, from jazz to hip-hop. “When you see the escape wheel moving, it’s so beautiful. And that’s why I chose to put this escapement in the movement. The RP1 is my way of paying tribute to this era of watchmaking.” In February, Louis Vuitton, in turn, paid tribute to Pagès when it awarded him the inaugural Watch Prize for Independent Creatives, for the RP1, naturally.
Petermann Bédat
When Ga?l Petermann and Florian Bédat launched their eponymous company in 2017, a decade after meeting at watchmaking school in 2007 followed by stints at A. Lange & S?hne and the restoration department of Christie’s Geneva, they could hardly have realized how fast their careers were going to take off. When Robb Report profiled the duo in 2021 as “Ones to Watch” in the Best of the Best issue, they had just one watch under their belt. The $66,000 Ref. 1967 was sold in a limited run of 10 pieces in 18-karat white gold and 10 pieces in 18-karat rose gold at $66,000 each, which sold out in two weeks and created a three year and counting waitlist for future pieces. Many watchmakers toil for decades before achieving success, but the landscape for new watchmakers has notably changed in the last decade and certainly since the pandemic so their path to success was much quicker than their predecessors.
They were anything but one-hit wonders. Their second release came in 2023, five years after their debut model. The platinum Ref. 2941 monopusher split-seconds chronograph with a jumping minute counter was even more impressive with 339 components, an exceptional movement, and beautiful design. It’s shimmering platinum and sapphire dial was manufactured by the respected Comblémine manufacture. Limited to just 10 pieces, the production of this 38.6 by 13.7 mm timepiece is half that of the first and cost CHF 243,000 each (approximately $263,000 according to exchange rates last year). Like their premier Ref. 1967, the 2941 is likewise sold out. Having just entered their 30s last year, you can expect to see this company flourish.
Rexhep Rexhepi
Most call him Rex, but if you want to pronounce this young man’s name it’s reh-chep re-cheh-pee. Having apprenticed at Patek Philippe and F. P. Journe, the pedigree of training and experience for Rexhepi is obviously at the highest level of Swiss watchmaking. Already, Rexhepi is widely regarded as the torch-carrier for traditional Swiss watchmaking, and it would be hard to argue with that designation. Yes, one of his watches fetched $4.3 million at the 2024 edition of the Only Watch auction, but it isn’t prices, scarcity or Rexhepi’s rising horological fame that matter here; It’s the incredible craftsmanship and understated elegance of his watches that set him apart.
As watch industry expert and renowned collector William Massena told Robb Report, “Rex is a very rare breed of watchmaker who is able to demonstrate his genius while remaining one of the most humble people I know. He is Mozart without the hubris. His art is the future of watchmaking.” Massena’s point about Rexhepi’s humility is something you’ll read in almost every portrayal of the man. Because collectors become so close to these lone watchmakers—often becoming life-long friends—the personalities really matter. You want to like the person crafting your cherished investment-grade timepiece, and it seems that everyone likes Rex very much.
Rexhepi got his independent start as the founder of the watchmaking collective knowns as Akriva. Watches like the Chapter 1 tourbillon chronographe monopoussoir are highly complicated works of horological art, and yet it was a much simpler watch with Rexhep Rexhepi on the dial that gave the man his rightful place as arguably the most coveted Swiss indie working today.
That watch was the Chronomètre Contemporain of 2018, a 38 mm watch simple in appearance, but loaded with mind-blowing horological functions. The movement uses a dead-beat seconds located on a six-o’clock sub-dial, a hacking function with zero-reset for the seconds hand, and a lever escapement with solid banking studs which stop the pallet lever head (rather than the more common pins at the tail of the pallet lever). This is stealth complexity. The finishing is of Rexhepi’s bridges—especially the anglage (bevels or chamfers at the edges), which serve as the acid-test of watchmaking—is revered by all.
It’s as if Rexhepi created an horological version of himself with the Chronomètre Contemporain: Like him, the watch is humble in personality, but a true badass. A special version of this watch was created for Only Watch in 2024, which set Rexhepi into the stratosphere. The Chronomètre Antimagnétique looks back to nerdier watches of the 20th century, like the Rolex Milgauss, Patek Philippe Reference 3417 Amagnetic and IWC’s Ingenieur. These were always the more humble kind of tool watches, used by scientists more than adventurers, and Rexhepi’s instincts to keep it mellow-but-amazing have served him very well.
J. N. Shapiro
Made in America—that phrase has had a bit of turmoil over the years when it comes to watchmaking, from Hamilton being sued by the U.S. government for making the claim while producing in Switzerland to Detroit’s Shinola tinkering on the fringes of labeling legality as well. Most American brands don’t get near making the claim, but Josh Shapiro has been able to claim “Made In America” on his watches, and with the pride of a man who is going it alone.
Shapiro got his start working on engine-turning machines, which are most commonly used to engrave dials. With the Infinity Series, Shapiro launched his brand, but it was with the Resurgence collection that he was able to finally claim “Made in America” with full legitimacy. Shapiro’s components for the Resurgence are 99 percent American-made, so it seems he is well within the law which states that “all or virtually all” of the parts need to be American made (quite different from Swiss law, for example, which is far more lenient when it comes to watchmaking).
The Resurgence is available in 18-karat palladium white gold, 18-karat rose gold, tantalum, zirconium and stainless steel, making for quite a wide selection of materials for such a short-run of timepieces. Though Shapiro is quite new to the independent scene, American collectors are especially eager to get their hands on the first watch made on American soils in over 50 years.
Roger Smith
Born in Manchester in 1970 and raised in Bolton, England, Roger Smith — much like Philippe Dufour — was not a promising student. However, also like that famed Vallée de Joux watchmaker, Smith proved a talented craftsman. After disassembling and reassembling an old clock, his father enrolled him in a watchmaking course at the British Horological Institute in Manchester, where he excelled, and where he first met a visiting watchmaker by the name of George Daniels. Taking a weekend job at the local branch of Mappin & Webb, Smith worked on carriage clock repair, and was eventually offered a full-time job at TAG Heuer upon finishing his three-year program at the BHI. Writing to Daniels and asking to become his apprentice, Smith was rebuffed; undeterred, he set about making his own pocket watch.
Setting up shop in father’s garage, Smith got to work, eventually handing in his notice at TAG Heuer to focus full-time on his handmade timepiece. Outfitting his timepiece with a tourbillon, he proudly took it to Daniels at his workshop on the Isle of Man, where he was, once again, swiftly rebuffed. Rather than give up, however, Smith returned to his workshop, determined to impress the older watchmaker. This time, after five years of toil, Smith presented his tourbillon-equipped perpetual calendar pocket watch to Daniels; impressed, Daniels declared him a true watchmaker, and offered him an apprenticeship six months later to work on his Millenium wristwatch project. The symbiotic relationship was a dream come true for Smith, who worked with Daniels until completion of the project around 2001.
Realizing that wristwatch collecting was eclipsing that of pocket watches, Smith began preparations to build his own. However, the road wasn’t an easy one — wristwatch movement components are, after all, an order of magnitude smaller than those in pocket watches. Taking inspiration from the rectangular A. Lange & S?hne Arkade, he built a run of timepieces, the Series 1, with retrograde calendar movements by customizing a batch of vintage calibers. Continuing to simultaneously work for Daniels, he set up shop in his house on the Isle of Man, working long hours and involving an old friend from TAG Heuer, Andy Jones. By the mid-2000s, Smith was in a position to craft a wristwatch, the Series 2 — complete with in-house movement — from the confines of his own workshop. His journey from apprentice to bona fide master watchmaker was complete.
However, Smith continued to work with his beloved teacher, creating a run of wristwatches honoring the 35th anniversary of Daniels’ co-axial escapement. In 2011, Daniels passed away, bequeathing his workshop in its entirety to Smith — a final gesture of approval for his young apprentice, now grown into one of the world’s greatest watchmakers. Today, Smith — awarded the OBE in 2018 — continues to craft some of the world’s most desirable, handmade watches from his atelier on the Isle of Man, where he lives with his family. Continuing to number his creations by series, he intends to make 10 of them; he is also working with the Manchester Metropolitan University on a nano-coating to replace traditional lubricants, and has co-established the Alliance of British Watch & Clock Makers to promote British watchmaking. With boundless energy and the utmost dedication to his work, there seems little that Roger Smith can’t accomplish.
Speake Marin
Speake Marin’s history first began back in 2002, but a pivotal moment came a decade later in 2012 when the company was acquired by Christelle Rosnoblet, a French entrepreneur with a passion for art and watchmaking who now serves as Speak Marin’s CEO and President. Rosnoblet helped establish a clear direction for the brand under two pillars: the in-house manufacture of its calibers and the stylistic renewal of its designs according to a balance of contemporary trends and the distinctive codes that have defined Speake Marin since its origin. The next significant moment came for the brand in 2014 when it acquired the prestigious watchmaking atelier ‘Le Cercle des Horlogers’ in La Chaux-de-Fonds. “This allowed us to achieve a high degree of independence in the creation, design, and in-house assembly of our movements,” shares Rosnoblet.
For the most part, Speake Marin has been quietly working in the background with little recognition for its accomplishments. Take for instance, the Dual Time Titanium, Double Vertical Tourbillon, and the Minute Repeater with three hammers, placing the small seconds at 1:30, and integrating a micro-rotor in all its watches. Altogether, Speake Marin has developed a total of 11 in-house calibers. “All these developments have been achieved internally over the course of 12 years,” confirms Rosnoblet.
For Speake Marin, modesty is at its core, making it a true “if you know, you know” independent. “For me, the most precious recognition was seeing one of our watches on someone’s wrist in the street while on vacation,” confesses Rosnoblet. “It is in these real-life moments that we truly measure the reach and value of our passion for watchmaking.” Robb Report was lucky enough to encounter one of these real-life moments earlier this year at Watches & Wonders, spotting a stunning and perfectly sized 38mm titanium openwork Piccadilly Tourbillion on the wrist of a collector attending the show.
Urwerk
Designer and artist Martin Frei has described the subversive Swiss watch brand Urwerk, which he and master watchmaker Felix Baumgartner co-founded in 1997, as “a business that deals with the philosophical matter of time.”
And it’s no exaggeration to suggest that every model the duo has introduced since then has honored that notion. To take the latest example, consider Urwerk’s 2024 contribution to the Only Watch auction: the one-of-a-kind SpaceTime Blade, an imposing “time sculpture” featuring Nixie tubes crafted and arranged to form a mesmerizing display of illuminated digits.
Inspired by an antique clock given to Baumgartner by his father — which looks as if it should indicate the time, but actually “indicates the distance that we travel in time around the center of the earth on the equator,” Frei tells Robb Report — the 2024 creation displays the time as well as more esoteric details, such as the number of kilometers traveled in one day (i.e., Earth’s revolution around the Sun).
It’s just one example of the brand’s radical approach to watchmaking, to say nothing of the edgy, futuristic, utterly avant-garde wristwatches that are Urwerk’s calling card, from the UR-103, which debuted in 2003 and featured the brand’s now signature satellite-based time display (inspired by antique clocks, no less), to the UR-220 “Falcon Project” in carbon, “the best watch they’ve made to date,” according to New York-based collector and Urwerk devotee Vasu Kulkarni. “They’re gonzo watchmakers,” Rapkin says. “Think about what it takes to look at the Only Watch roster and say, ‘Cool watches — here’s a f***ing lightsaber.’ It’s almost impossible to not love them.”
Kari Voutilainen
Considered to be one of the greatest watchmakers of his generation, Kari Voutilainen is a bit of an outlier in the Swiss watch industry in that he is Finnish. In fact, he even completed his watchmaking school in Finland. He made his way to Switzerland in 1989, where he studied complicated watchmaking at the renowned WOSTEP watchmaking school. He was quickly thereafter brought into the fold at Parmigiani’s restoration department, Mesure et Art du Temps, where he worked on some of the world’s rarest timepieces and automatons by history’s greatest makers (Michel Parmigiani is in charge of the Sandoz family’s extensive museum-worthy collection of horological marvels).
Softspoken and humble, Voutilainen obviously prefers to be behind the bench rather than in the spotlight, but as his built his namesake company from its founding in 2002, the quiet rumblings about this watchmaker turned into a roar recently—the wait time for a timepiece can be anywhere from 10 to 12 years. (In 2017, it was approximately one year.) During the pandemic, Voutilainen told Robb Report he was spending so much time dealing with clients and orders during the day that he was having to spend all his evenings on his work bench.
As a result, he has expanded by acquiring companies—such as dial makers, case makers, and businesses specializing in guilloche—to keep pace with the demand. Still, that expansion means only about 70 watches per year. Known custom-made components, observatoire chronometers, expert movements with finishing to match and beautiful guilloche techniques, his watches have become a prized possession of seriously savvy collectors. Still, he has told Robb Report that he enjoys working on his custom creations for clients where he can still get heavily involved in the artistry of creating the timepiece (and likely, where the money still merits his time). Getting the chance to do a commission on that level with Voutilainen, who’s production series pieces have a decade-long waitlist, is an exceedingly rare opportunity.
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