The age old themes of mortality and time comprise the starting point of Fiona Krüger’s Skulls. However, these are not your run-of-the-mill memento mori. The Petit Skulls are quirky, interesting, and beautiful in their own special way. And they do something that is very near and dear to my own heart: they highlight the beauty of the mechanical movement.
Romain Gauthier, the independent watchmaker at home in Le Sentier, Switzerland and the French fashion icon Chanel, are bound by more than a passing working relationship: Chanel now reveals that it owns a “friendly” stake in Romain Gauthier. The seeds of this seemingly disparate partnership between Chanel and Romain Gauthier were sown during a meeting that took place at the 2011 edition of Baselworld. At Baselworld 2016 it comes full circle with the Monsieur de Chanel.
Look at this. Just look at it. If you’re anything like me, you were in awe when you first saw this watch – just the sheer technical look of it was enough to send my heart racing. And then the questions come. Why does it look this way? What kind of technology is behind it? Is this really just an instrument to tell the time? Spoiler alert: questions are answered inside.
Late in 2015 the news came through that A.H.C.I. co-founder Svend Andersen had sold his company. But how did Andersen get here? Let’s take a quick tour of 53 years’ worth of independent horology the Danish way to find out, which includes an extravaganza of worldtimers, unusual erotic watches, and even poker-playing dogs.
A tsuba is the hand guard of a traditional Japanese sword. “These eventually became elaborate pieces of art – far beyond their practical use,” says engraver Kees Engelbarts, whose fascination with Japanese handcrafts led him to use the Japanese metal alloying technique called mokume gane as the first one in watchmaking. It has now also led him to dedicate a watch to the tsuba theme, inspired in particular by a piece by Japanese swordsmith Hamano Masanobu.
Dominique Renaud began working at Audemars Piguet in 1980. He received his watchmaker education in Besançon, though his family originally hailed from the Vallée de Joux. Renaud and Guilo Papi, both employed by Audemars Piguet at the time, struck out on their own, founding Renaud & Papi SA in 1986 to explore avenues of high complication. So why do I bring this up now?
Post-SIHH reports indicate that the inclusion of the so-called indies was a big success for both visitors and the small brands alike, but also that there was a little grumbling from some of the large established SIHH brands generated by the fact that visitors to the fair remarked − with justification − that there were more interesting watches in the Carré des Horlogers than in the rest of the SIHH altogether. What can the industry learn from their inclusion in 2016’s first fair?
Previously, I had the wonderful opportunity to report on an important and previously unknown watch: the “G.N. Papi 1” pocket watch made by Giulio Papi and now owned by a good friend of mine. At the time, I promised to follow up should more information come to light on the watch. At SIHH 2016, our group of collectors received an update on this timepiece from none other than Giulio Papi himself.
Watchmaker Patrik Sjögren recentently shared the news that his business partner Johan Gustafsson will be featured in an upcoming book by David Darom focusing on artistic folder knives and how they are made. A photo shoot in Gustafsson’s Swedish smithy was staged to illustrate the procedures he uses to make his signature Mosaic Damascus steel and the duo’s superb new Winter Nights model. Here we share some of those mood-heavy photos.
It’s already been six consecutive years that I’ve had the delightful experience of going through SIHH week with several of my closest friends. Our closing discussions centered around four questions, which were focused more tightly on SIHH itself this year due to the inclusion of nine independent watchmakers: what watch did you think was best of show at SIHH? What was the worst watch of the show? What watch displayed at the show would you buy if money were no object? What watch did you see on display that would you buy with your own money?