The A-Z of independent watchmakers

Alain Silberstein

The distinctiveness of some watches comes from not being the work of a watch designer — those by architect Alain Silberstein being a case in point. Their internal mechanics are A-grade, but in external appearance they diverge radically from traditional watchmaking, with a bold aesthetic combining bright colours with disrupted forms.

Silberstein, who says the watch dial should be a work of art that, first and foremost, sparks emotion, initially began designing timepieces in 1987, and a series of collaborations with watchmakers including Louis Erard and MB&F followed.

Armin Strom

From its HQ in Biel, Switzerland, Armin Strom produces complicated watches that have been described as ‘micro-mechanical breakthroughs’. It blends innovation and classical details, with a focus on in-house production, self-developed movements, hand-finishing and limited editions. There are currently three collections: System 78, Resonance and Masterpieces.

The company’s origins go back to the 1960s, but it relaunched in its current form in 2009, under entrepreneur Serge Michel and master watchmaker Claude Greisler. It has since grown to employ 36 watchmakers, who produce 17 exclusive calibres, including patented mechanisms such as the Resonance Clutch Spring. There is a team of 16 decorators, specialising in 11 techniques ranging from engraving to polishing. Every surface, whether visible or not, receives the same level of attention, meaning that the finishing of a single watch can take several hundred hours.

Atælier Haute Complication

In 1994, while working as an architect and 3D model maker, Vladimir Victor Négault was approached by François-Paul Journe to help make a model of a Cartier bracelet. A decade later, Journe invited Négault to join his fledgling business, F.P. Journe, where his work included making animated films that demonstrated how the watchmaker’s movements and complications functioned.

Négault spent 14 years in Journe’s research and development department, while also studying watchmaking. In 2018, he launched his own company, Atælier Haute Complication. Both his aesthetics and business model are clearly indebted to Journe: his first model, the Dual Time watch, was produced in a 19-piece subscribers’ edition in stainless steel, echoing Journe’s launch. It sold out in six days, and was followed by a 99-piece series.

Among Négault’s innovations are a perpetual weekly ‘Business’ Calendar and a ringing ‘Pendule de Paris’ Chronometer that reimagines traditional chime complications — both world firsts.

Atelier Akrivia

In 2012, the brilliant young watchmaker Rexhep Rexhepi fulfilled his childhood dream of founding his own watchmaking atelier, Akrivia — a name that means ‘precision’ in Greek.

The idea was to express his own vision of haute horology by combining traditional artisanal methods with contemporary style. In 2014, Akrivia’s first watch, the Tourbillon Chronographe Monopoussoir, was revealed at the Baselworld trade show, and in 2018 its Chronomètre Contemporain won the men’s category prize at the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG).

In 2019, Akrivia teamed up with the celebrated casemaker Jean-Pierre Hagmann, and today the small team produces fewer than 30 watches a year.

Bovet

Bovet’s remit is artful design. The company established by Edouard Bovet in 1822 is a pioneer in highly decorative and skeletonised dials that reveal extremely complex movements. Take its hand-wound Récital 27, for example: it has three displays showing three time zones, together with a domed double moon-phase indicator for both the northern and southern hemispheres. For sheer beauty, however, it’s hard to beat the Château de Môtiers 40 ‘Papillon’, which has a mother-of-pearl dial featuring a hand-painted butterfly.

Christophe Claret

In the 1980s, digital watches started to include basic video games among their functions. Christophe Claret has taken this idea into the world of mechanical watches with his gaming models, on which you can play blackjack, roulette or even Texas hold ’em poker. Claret set up his watchmaking atelier in the late 1980s after training under Roger Dubuis. A single order for 20 San Marco Jacquemart minute repeaters from Rolf Schnyder, the late owner of Ulysse Nardin, launched his business.

Today the company combines mechanical precision with exceptionally complex architecture to produce some of most audacious and visually arresting creations in contemporary watchmaking.

De Bethune

From headquarters in L’Auberson, in the Swiss canton of Vaud, De Bethune’s team — including micro-mechanical engineers, developers, polishers and decorators — produces around 350 watches each year. The company was founded in 2002, with technical innovation as one of its pillars: tourbillons, perpetual calendars, chronometers, deadbeat seconds, bridges, wheels and balance springs are all individually designed and crafted in-house.

The business has developed no fewer than 31 calibres and filed multiple patents, including a pioneering spherical moon-phase display specially optimised for wristwatches. De Bethune is known for its blue components, made by oxidising titanium at 700°C, as well as its matching photo-luminescent dials.

Thanks to this stream of innovation, De Bethune has received more than 20 awards, including the prestigious Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève in 2021 for best watch of the year in the tourbillon category.

Its most radical range is the Dream Watch collection, unveiled in 2008. It is currently produced in five models using space-age materials, including palladium, silicone and meteorite. The latest version, the Dream Watch 5 — a manually wound jump-hour with a rotating moon-phase display — is housed in a titanium shell more akin to a gadget from Star Trek than a traditional watch case.

Greubel Forsey

Robert Greubel and Stephen Forsey describe themselves as ‘sculptors of time, choreographers of the passing hours and architects of watch movement — with a screwdriver for a brush, a propelling-pencil for a quill, and steel or gold as our supports.’

They founded their eponymous brand in 2004 to improve the performance of existing complications and invent groundbreaking models such as the Double Tourbillon 30°, the Quadruple Tourbillon and the Tourbillon 24 Secondes. They make fewer than 100 timepieces a year.

In 2006, Greubel Forsey joined forces with Philippe Dufour, Vianney Halter and Kari Voutilainen to found the Time Aeon Foundation, an organisation that works to preserve outstanding craftsmanship in watchmaking. Initiatives include Naissance d’une Montre (‘Birth of a Watch’), whereby a young and talented watchmaker is taught the skills necessary to construct a watch by hand. In 2016, the first prototype, a collaboration between Greubel Forsey, Philippe Dufour and Michel Boulanger, sold for HK$11,296,000 at Christie’s in Hong Kong.

H. Moser & Cie

Swiss-born Heinrich Moser founded his watchmaking business in St Petersburg in 1828, becoming a favourite of the Russian aristocracy. In 1848, he returned to his homeland to forge a career as an industrialist, constructing hydroelectric power stations and railways. After his death in 1874, the watch company was broken up.

In 2002, its name was revived by watch engineer Dr Jürgen Lange and Moser’s great-grandson, Roger Nicholas Balsiger. Three years later, at Baselworld, they debuted its first watch, the Endeavour Perpetual Calendar, which won the award for best complicated watch at the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève.

H. Moser & Cie’s workshop near Schaffhausen, Switzerland, now employs around 100 people, producing some 3,000 watches per year. Despite its roots in traditional horology, it is best known for producing innovative timepieces that combine incredibly complex movements with the company’s signature, strikingly minimalist ‘fumé’ dials.

Hermès

Though better known for its silk scarves and leather goods, Hermès has been selling watches since 1928, nearly a century after its founding in Paris, and since 1978 has produced them in its own workshop in Brügg, Switzerland.

Since 2006, the business has been collaborating with — and sometimes buying stakes in — historic and specialist manufacturers of mechanical movements and fine dials, creating timepieces with credibility that far outweighs that of its fashion-world rivals. One of its most recognisable models is the Arceau L’heure de la lune, which simultaneously displays the moon phases in the northern and southern hemispheres on two subdials that complete one revolution around the dial every 59 days.

Hermès is also recognised for its ingenious use of captivating materials, from mother-of-pearl to hawk’s eye (a type of quartz) and meteorite. The result is a collection of watches that combine ingenious mechanics with whimsical design.

Kari Voutilainen

Born in Finland in 1962, Kari Voutilainen studied at the famous Finnish School of Watchmaking in Espoo, before completing a postgraduate course in the restoration of rare watches at the Watchmakers of Switzerland Training and Education Programme.

In 2002, he opened his own workshop in the Swiss village of Môtiers, before presenting his first watches at Baselworld in 2005. His success was immediate, and his popularity has continued to grow.

Voutilainen’s watches are classic timepieces built on solid technical foundations. He produces every one himself, shaping each detail, and has won several awards, including seven GPHG prizes and, in 2014, the prestigious Gaïa Prize for craftsmanship and creativity. Production numbers are low, with each watch having its own specific characteristics and functions.

Kurono Tokyo

Switzerland dominates watchmaking in the public imagination, but Japan’s history of craftsmanship in the field is similarly esteemed. Watches designed by Hajime Asaoka for his brand Kurono Tokyo are made using traditional techniques and include features such as cylindrical dials, with the face raised at the centre and tapering down towards its edge. He also uses hand-mixed dial colours, from orangy pink to celadon blue. As a self-taught watchmaker, Asaoka displays great technical finesse, and in 2009 he launched Japan’s first high-end tourbillon watch.

Laurent Ferrier

In 1979, Laurent Ferrier and his friend François Servanin competed in the Le Mans 24-hour race. Finishing third — behind legendary film star and racing driver Paul Newman — the duo decided that instead of motorsport, their future should be dedicated to making watches together.

Ferrier, the son and grandson of watchmakers, had already completed his studies at the Ecole d’Horlogerie in Geneva a decade earlier, graduating top of his class aged just 16. This was followed by 37 years — when he was not racing — at Patek Philippe. There, Ferrier was part of the team that developed Gérald Genta’s iconic Nautilus model, eventually rising to become the company’s technical director.

In 2009, Ferrier and Servanin founded their own watchmaking business, Laurent Ferrier, launching the Classic Tourbillon Double Hairspring, which featured a double balance spring, the following year. It won the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève in the men’s watch category.

Today, Ferrier and his son Christian run the company’s creative department, while Servanin serves as president. The company hand-produces a small range of watches whose classic and discreet styling belies their technical ingenuity. One model, for instance, features a tourbillon with two balance springs mounted opposite one another in order to eliminate isochronal errors.

‘In art, a baroque period is always followed by an era of renewed classicism,’ Ferrier once said. ‘That is the type of watchmaking I wanted to reintroduce to the world. Classic watchmaking as I loved it.’

Louis Moinet

Born in 1768, Louis Moinet was appointed professor at the Louvre’s Académie des Beaux-Arts before he turned 30. In 1800, he began studying horology, which became his life’s passion. He was appointed president of the Société Chronométrique de Paris; made timepieces for Napoleon, Thomas Jefferson and King George IV; and worked closely with the great Abraham-Louis Breguet. Among his many technical achievements was the creation of the world’s first chronograph, completed in 1816, and in 1848 he published the celebrated watchmaking encyclopaedia Traite d’horlogerie.

The Louis Moinet marque was brought back to life in 2004 by Jean-Marie Schaller, who had spent time working with independent watchmaker Daniel Roth. Sadly, Schaller passed away in May 2026.

The company’s workshop in Saint-Blaise, Switzerland, produces high-end timepieces that combine innovative technology with rare and unconventional materials. Guided by Moinet’s original philosophy, modern Louis Moinet watches are known for sculptural chronographs and tourbillons, often based on astronomical and celestial themes and made using materials such as extraterrestrial fragments from the Moon and Mars.

Maîtres du Temps

This company was founded by Steven Holtzman in 2005 to market watches by superstars of the craft. Its first piece, Chapter One, designed by Peter Speake, Christophe Claret and Roger Dubuis, was produced in 2008; Speake and Dubuis were joined by Daniel Roth for Chapter Two; and Chapter Three, in 2012, was the work of Andreas Strehler and Kari Voutilainen. All were elegant, spectacularly complicated watches: the Chapter One is a monopusher chronograph with retrograde date, retrograde GMT, rolling bars indicating days of the week and moon phases, and a tourbillon. Chapter Four is awaited with bated breath.

MB&F

In 2005, after decades in conventional watchmaking, Maximilian Büsser launched a totally new artistic concept called MB&F — Maximilian Büsser & Friends. The idea was to assemble groups of independent watchmaking artists to develop radical timepieces.

While continuing to respect traditional watchmaking at the highest level of craftsmanship, MB&F produces futuristic, resolutely unconventional timekeeping devices dubbed ‘Machines’: beautifully finished sci-fi creations in highly sculptural cases, which have won several prizes at the GPHG.

In 2011, MB&F opened the first M.A.D. Gallery in Geneva, followed by others in Dubai and Taipei. The galleries showcase the full range of MB&F Machines as well as a variety of carefully curated ‘Mechanical Art Devices’. Monthly output is very low. To maintain quality, the company offers a free service and one-year guarantee for all watches sold through Christie’s.

Ming

Ming is a collective of six Malaysia-based watch enthusiasts led by the photographer, designer and business strategist Ming Thein. It has designed several distinctive pieces, which are made by expert partners such as Schwarz Etienne. The results can embrace minimalism, as in the 18.02 Abyss dive watch and the OuJ Celestial models, or maximalism, as with the 20.11 Mosaic. What unites them is a retro-futuristic mood, appropriate for a company that consciously rejects the idea that a watch brand must have history to have credibility.

Philippe Dufour

Operating out of his own workshop in Le Solliat, Switzerland, since 1978, Philippe Dufour is venerated by a dedicated circle of collectors. His exceptional watches include the grande et petite sonnerie minute-repeating wristwatch, the first ever to incorporate such a complex mechanism, which was presented at Baselworld in 1992.

This has since been joined by models such as the Duality, which has two escapements, and the Simplicity. Today, Dufour works with his daughter Danièla, also a master watchmaker. Watches signed by Philippe Dufour rarely appear at auction and are highly sought-after.

Ressence

Benoît Mintiens initially worked as an industrial designer, with a career that spanned everything from cars to furniture. But when a friend asked him to create a wristwatch, he became obsessed with the idea of reinventing the traditional functionality of a timepiece.

The result of his research was a watch with a dial that told the time, from seconds to days of the week, with a series of separate orbiting discs. ‘Putting one piece of information per sub-dial affords simplicity,’ he explained of his creation.

Mintiens called his new venture Ressence — a blend of ‘renaissance’ and ‘essence’ — and unveiled his first watch at Baselworld in 2010. Since then, he has continued to innovate: subsequent models have added shock absorbers and microprocessors, and done away with screws and even the crown. And in a first for watchmaking, some editions include oil in the upper half.

By adding oil to the space between the dial and the crystal, not only are the discs constantly lubricated, but light is also absorbed, which means every display can be read reflection-free from any angle — even underwater. To combat the expansion of oil caused by heat, Mintiens added seven bellows to the watch, allowing it to self-balance its internal pressure.

Rudis Sylva

Jacky Epitaux is the president of Rudis Sylva, an independent watchmaker based in Jura, Switzerland. Its groundbreaking invention was the harmonious oscillator — a movement featuring two mechanically interlinked balances driven by a single escapement. Unlike a regular tourbillon, which usually requires one minute to compensate for the effects of gravity when stable, the harmonious oscillator corrects itself instantaneously.

The mesmerising cogs and wheels that provide this exceptional chronometric stability are often visible underneath a sculptural open-worked dial, framed by hand-finishing of the highest quality. Following the innovation’s unveiling, Rudis Sylva was nominated for the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève in 2007.

Urwerk

Ur was an ancient Sumerian city in which sundials were used for timekeeping; Werk is the German word for creation. Together (in a variation on Uhrwerk, meaning ‘clockwork’) they make Urwerk, a company founded in 1997 by the watchmaker Felix Baumgartner and designer Martin Frei. They presented their first timepieces, the UR-101 and UR-102, at Baselworld the same year.

Baumgartener and Frei are admired for their avant-garde designs inspired by space travel, yet their signature time display of rotating satellites is based on a watch that dates back to 1656. They produce only around 130 to 150 pieces per year and have won a number of awards, notably the 2019 GPHG Audacity prize for the AMC (Atomic Master Clock).

Vianney Halter

Vianney Halter graduated from the Paris watchmaking school in 1981 and devoted the first few years of his professional life to the restoration of antique clocks, pocket watches and wristwatches.

Having set up his own atelier in Sainte-Croix, Switzerland — named Janvier SA in honour of the great French watchmaker Antide Janvier (1751-1835) — he designed and made a number of timepieces for other companies. In 1998, he launched a collection based on his own technical patents and trademarked designs, and joined the Académie Horlogère des Créateurs Indépendants. He has since created around a dozen models and won nine awards, including the prestigious Gaïa Prize in 2016.

Vincent Bérard

Contemporary French watchmaker Vincent Bérard once said that his intention wasn’t to ‘shake the foundations of the industry… but to find the best continuation of its traditions, interpreting them in a modern key using currently available technology’. He had spent 30 years as a watch restorer before launching his eponymous brand in 2003, which was acquired three years later by Timex. The idea was right, but — thanks to the 2008 financial crash — the timing wasn’t, and the brand was put on the back burner. The pieces that were produced during this phase, notably the Four Seasons series, are highly collectable, not least for their strikingly original movements.

Rare Watches Including Watches for ELA is on view 5-8 November 2026 at the Four Seasons Hotel des Bergues, Geneva

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