Europa Star

With his “new luxury” concept, the Breitling boss wants to take the brand into a price segment beyond the symbolic CHF 10,000 mark. The recent launch of the Super Chronomat reflects this strategy. Georges Kern is also a strong advocate of “hyper-presence”, in order to be among the winners of the increasing polarisation among watch brands. Interview.

A recent spate of watch thefts in Paris has been reported in the French media. As money becomes more dematerialised, expensive timepieces are increasingly becoming targets for criminals. French entrepreneur Sébastien Buonomo, founder of the company Orkos, has patented a new watch lock technology to combat theft by trickery, as well as accidental loss.

A more endearing man than Vianney Halter would be hard to find. The man – or kid, you might be tempted to say, since he has never succeeded in shaking off his childhood spirit, and so much the better! – is a real loose cannon in the watchmaking industry. He first rocked the boat of tradition early in his career with a peculiarly offbeat, but authentically executed, approach to watches. Freer than most, Vianney’s inspirations are different every time, drawn from his many and varied interests ranging from astronomy and science fiction right through to clocks for buildings, comic books and Bréguet’s most erudite research, in the case, for example, of his latest Résonance.

Svend Andersen, the co-founder of the AHCI, has played an important role, not only as a master watchmaker but also by welcoming a whole generation of young watchmakers into his workshop, where they learned lessons in watchmaking and independence.

At the heart of Geneva’s historic city centre, the windows of Rexhep Rexhepi’s workshop – Akrivia – open directly onto the street, and it is no rare occurrence that passers-by stop to observe the watchmakers bent over their workbenches or, on the other side of the street, to admire an old man who makes watch cases. This transparency is for a reason: authenticity.

Ludovic Ballouard has been self-employed for the past twelve years, makes twelve watches a year all on his own and has no intention of making more. Twelve watches a year that literally turn time upside-down, all the better to tell it the right way up. Just to ensure you grasp the full philosophical measure of taking time.

We are in Le Solliat, in the Joux Valley, two hundred metres from Philippe Dufour’s workshop and a short distance, as the crow flies, from the great Jaeger-LeCoultre. Next to David Candaux at the workbench is his father, himself the son of a watchmaker. Watchmaking does not get more traditional than that. Yet David Candaux intends to carve out his own path.

Just above the Sainte-Croix Pass and the high-perched abode of Denis Flageollet, the watchmaker behind the De Bethune trademark, you will also find the eagle’s nest of Kari Voutilainen. Together, they show how independence can allow a watchmaker’s talents to flourish. The path is no easy one, but ultimately the passion is multiplied tenfold, as our meeting with Denis Flageollet vividly showed.

Daniel Roth? A lovely man! And a master among master watchmakers. But despite that, humble, smiling and considerate. He lost everything, including his own name – he now signs his work Jean Daniel Nicolas – but watchmaking has by no means lost its hold on him.

Canadian brand Charles Simon is a luxury luggage manufacturer that started designing cases for watches after the outbreak of the pandemic. Founded by two aeronautical engineers, the start-up aims to combine traditional craftsmanship with modern engineering technologies. We met one of its co-founders, Charles Girard Tremblay.