SIHH 2019: Independents allow creativity to shine through in original timepieces
- Watchmaking’s equivalent of haute couture makes timely statements with artisanal content and unusual designs
The independent watchmaking scene could be defined by strong-minded individuals making between 15 and 1,500 unique watches with extremely artisanal content and unusual designs. At SIHH they have a dedicated hall – the Carré des Horlogers.
What is independent watchmaking? Think in terms of haute couture. Just as in fashion, you can also make a timely statement with a watch. The unique Moser Nature Watch is nothing short of a miniature garden for your wrist. It comes with a positive message urgently needed by every industry: a commitment to a zero carbon footprint, ethical sourcing, local suppliers and supporting education.
When I talked business with Edouard Meylan, CEO of H. Moser and Cie., he, as always, kept it real. “Some markets are amazing and booming. The Middle East, the US and Europe are quite stable, so the big question mark is Asia. Retailers in Asia are very cautious, but that could change very quickly. And you can have great surprises in that region with collectors buying very expensive watches, but it is really binary. I would say that the standard businesspeople want to wait and see for the first quarter,” said the head of a company making 1,500 watches per year.
Time is fluid, it is a constant flow. Just like Heraclitus said – no man steps in the same river twice
When it comes to sheer, instantly recognisable beauty, few watches can match the drop-lugged precious works of Kari Voutilainen. The Finn is a former teacher at the top Swiss watchmaking school Wostep. In 2002, Voutilainen started the brand that carries his name and soon became famous for his own kind of energy-conserving escapement, very large balance wheels and a unique balance system combining a Breguet overcoil with a Grossmann Curve. And his guilloche and enamel dials are so perfect they might have led Plato to rethink his allegory of the cave.
With Type 2, Ressence addresses a real problem with mechanical watches: unreliability. Founder and industrial designer Benoît Mintiens calls his smart crown system the e-Crown, which allows the fully mechanical automatic watch to be connected with your smartphone. When it is, you simply tap the glass a couple of times for the watch to set itself automatically – even if it has not been used for months.
This practical feature aside, the mechanics are also singular: the separately rotating discs for hours, minutes and seconds move thanks to magnetic transmission.
“We have improved mechanical watches when it comes to legibility, wearability, trust and functionality. No more do you have to double-check the time on your phone,” says Ressence brand director Gaëtan Gaye.