Monochrome’s Tour de Suisse continues with more visits and meeting with the finest independent watchmakers. Kari Voutilainen, De Bethune, MB&F, Hautlence, URWERK, Ladoire and MCT Watches. And interesting mix of classical watchmaking and steampunk design.

In the following weeks I’ll write much more about these visits, so stay tuned.

Visiting Kari Voutilainen was on my wishlist for a long time. To me his watches are the most perfect classic handmade watches I have seen and his Observatoire is in my opinion the perfect dress watch. Simple yet intriguing. We where shown around in the beautiful house where the workshop and ateliers are as well. There will be news but we just have to wait a bit longer… but it’s well worth waiting for!

After the visit to Kari Voutilainen we drove up into the mountains to visit De Bethune. Maybe this brand is the perfect switch over from the classic design of Voutilainen’s watches to everything we will see the rest of the week. De Bethune started with rather classical designed watches, yet with something special. And that something special has grown to become an integral part of De Bethune’s design and watchmaking art. This for instance is one the De Bethune DB12 RT that’s for sale at a local watch store. Classic with a twist?

The next morning we were meeting with Max Busser of MB&F. MB&F as a young brand has made a progression that is almost impossible in watchmaking. Four entire collections and some special editions with more design change than just a different color of the dial. This very impressive achievement is because of Max Busser’s vision and drive. Of course he couldn’t do all of this alone so he had a little help from his friends (somehow this sentence makes me think of the Beatles). On the photo below I’m wearing the HM4 Thunderbolt… doesn’t it look great!

The tour continued to Neuchâtel to meet with Guillaume Tetu of Hautlence. Hautlence recently launched their HL2.0 which is a magnificent timepiece with equally magnificent looks and technique. Hautlence makes beautiful and extraordinary watches for a longer time already. I can still remember seeing the HL series with tv screen case for the first time, because it was so different from everything else I had seen until than. Here already a wristshot of the HL2.0… later more about this extraordinary timepiece!

I must say my head was spinning after seeing so many beautiful watches and this was not the end of the tour… The next morning we met with Yacine of URWERK to see the recently released CC1 in black.

Than we met with Lionel Ladoire and Richard Piras of Ladoire. Ladoire is a relatively new brand based in Geneva. The Ladoire Roller Guardian Time (RGT) is a bold statement of how traditional watchmaking and funky modern design can be mixed. Just look how the Ladoire RGT Black & Black look on Lionel’s wrist, showing the beautiful RGT buckle V.1 on the other wrist.

And last but definitely not least, we met with MCT Watches. Denis Giguet, founder of MCT Watches talked about the Sequential One, the new All Black and new timepieces that will be released. Again a relatively new watch brand and again a brand with an innovative drive that is just spectacular.

My sincerest thanks to Ian Skellern for organizing the meetings and letting me use some of his photos!

The first independent watchmakers I visited where Thomas Prescher, Peter Speake-Marin and Greubel Forsey. I think you don’t have to be an admirer of independent haute horlogerie to appreciate their watches. Any watch aficionado will probably enjoy the amazing timepieces and horological art these watchmakers created.

Thomas Prescher’s atelier is in Twann, a small village down the road of Biel-Bienne toward Neuchatel, next to Lake Biel-Bienne. This is where he creates the incredible triple axis tourbillon, a masterpiece no other watchmaker has successfully produced to this day. The Triple Axis Tourbillon was initially presented together with a Single Axis and Double Axis Tourbillon, as the Trilogy. In following reports I’ll tell more about Prescher‘s Trilogy, Tempus Vivendi, Scultura Una and maybe some news…?

At Baselworld 2009 Peter Speake-Marin launched caliber SM2, which he designed with sturdiness, reliability and ease of maintenance in mind. Being a (very good) watchmaker, he knows the importance of these principles and now integrated them with some typical British watchmaking elements.

It’s no secret anymore that Speake-Marin will launch another new, entirely self developed, movement pretty soon. Although caliber SM2 was designed to be the basis for several future movements, quite a bit of significant changes had to be made for the new caliber. It won’t be long and for now all i can say is that I am very exited about Speake-Marin’s new movement and everything that will surround it.

Now it won’t be fair to compare anything I have seen (and probably will see) to the following manufacture I visited. Every watch Greubel Forsey create is incredibly impressive. It really is another league and I think it’s best described as a league of their own. I know this sounds like big words, but if you are every in the position to see and touch one of the Greubel Forsey timepieces i’m sure you’ll feel the same.

Gruebel Forsey‘s design is bold and so everything about the watches. They are not for the faint of heart… The most recent release is the Double Tourbillon 30 degrees Historique. Limited to 11 pieces in red gold and 11 pieces in platinum, they will be the last of in total 186 pieces of the Double Tourbillon 30 Degrees to be produced.

From Saturday 21th of August until Thursday the 26th I’m going to Switzerland visiting many independent watchmakers. And of course you can read all about the meetings and news the watchmakers want to share, here on Monochrome.

Worldwide there are a few dozen of independent watchmakers who really make extraordinary watches, at least in my opinion. This weekend I will visit Thomas Prescher and finally get to see his amazing single axis, double axis and even triple axis tourbillon watches. In the month of August Thomas Prescher welcomes visitors to his atelier in Twann, Switzerland. At his Facebook page he posted this offer, a tour and the possibility to discover yourself how a timepiece is developed, produced, assembled and regulated from scratch. Or from raw pieces of metal to pure horological art. This is an opportunity I couldn’t resist of course!

Ian Skellern, a well known journalist on Haute Horlogerie, was so kind to help me organize this trip and will be joining me for most of the visits. Ian writes for several magazines and websites and is the moderator of several forums at Revolution Online, the former Horomundi forum.

Continue reading “Visiting independent watchmakers” »

Sometimes you see a watch and you immediately ‘fall in love’ with it. This does not happen too often, but what if this happens with two watches from the same brand?

Recently a friend mailed me about a watch that was for sale at a local watch store. He knoww I have a weak spot for mono-poussoir chronographs. The watch was a Roger Dubuis Hommage Mono-poussoir in white gold with a salmon color dial. A salmon color dial is not my usual pick, but this one was so beautiful….

On the wrist the dial just suits the entire watch perfectly and i wouldn’t change anything about it. The engraving of the dial is absolutely stunning. It’s incredibly complex, yet absolutely not ‘loud’. This watch has all the ingredients I like, a mono-poussoir chronograph, an absolutely stunning movement which is superbly finished, classic yet not too convential design, details that will keep me intriguiged and it’s made by an independent watchmaker.

Now I realized this was not the first Roger Dubuis I fell in love with. The other one was an advertisment in a watch magazine I have seen several years ago, when i just started to get into watches. The advertisement showed a man sitting at a table with a newspaper and a cup of coffee. On his wrist was the Roger Dubuis Golden Square Tourbillon with roman numbers. Unfortunately I can’t find any photo of that particular advertisement.

Of course at that time I had no idea what an independent watchmaker was, let alone who Roger Dubuis was. Luckily I found my way to this ‘niche’ in the watch industry. And a niche it is. Most watch aficionados/collectors are not really familiar with the name and fame of independent watchmakers. With the small production number and small advertisement budgets this actually does not come as a surprise. When I visited the watch-store to take a look at the beautiful Hommage Mono-poussoir, I was surprised to see they had two more Roger Dubuis watches!

All three models are from the Hommage collection, which is the first collection be be produced by manufacture Roger Dubuis. The brand Roger Dubuis is named after watchmaker Roger Dubuis who build this brand together with Carlos Dias. Dias, as founder, owner and designer, had a goal to create a manufacture that was completely independent. He succeeded and every single part of the produced watches where produced in-house.

Roger Dubuis was responsible for the technical aspects. Before joining Dias, Dubuis founded his own aterlier in 1980 after developing complications for Patek Philippe. Dias named the manufacture after his friend and business partner Roger Dubuis.  And as a tribute to Dubuis, he named the first line Hommage.

In August 2008, the Richemont Group bought the manufacture Roger Dubuis, but they will continue to manufacture and distribute watches under the ‘Roger Dubuis’ name. Now back on topic… I was totally amazed to see three models of the Roger Dubuis line at my local watch-store. Absolutely rare watches, because Roger Dubuis produced only 28 pieces of every dial/case combination!

Below is the Roger Dubuis Hommage, a time-only model. Check the Roger Dubuis website to see the entire collection; you can view both the original collection and the current collection. This style-icon below is 40mm in diameter and made of rose gold. Inside is the in-house designed and produced calibre RD14. This automatic movement has 48 jewels and 171 parts in total. With a frequency of 4Hz (or 28,800 bph) it runs for 48 hours without being wound.

All movements used in Roger Dubuis watches bear the Poincon de Genève or Geneva Seal  as proof of the superb quality and finish. At the Roger Dubuis website you can view a very nice short movie about the quality and in-house production of the movements.

Also very interesting is the interview with Carlos Dias, The PuristS Pro did with him some years ago.

If you like to know more about the watches above, visit the watch-store’s website.