Post by Sam on Jul 8, 2007 14:35:40 GMT -6
Now for something a bit different. 
Although we did visit a couple of independent maker’s shops/offices, we were also treated to an evening at a local vineyard outside Geneva. We had a casual dinner and time with these guys, several of them being AHCI (Horological Academy of Independent Creators) members. Not all are full members of the academy as some are candidates for membership and some have not yet reached that stage either. I believe you must meet certain criteria, and part of that is submitting your work to the AHCI for review to see if you are “worthy” of membership.
Disclaimer – the lighting wasn’t the best that night, and there were a lot of people clamoring to get at the watches, so I took the best photos I could as I was being jostled around. I’ve tried to clean some of them up, but several did come out quite blurry. I apologize in advance for some of the quality of these…
We hopped on the bus and made our way to the location, and when we arrived we were welcomed by the people who owned the vineyard, and by one of the watch makers who helped set this up.
Here are several tour participants milling about…..
The setting was just incredible….most of the evening was outdoors since the weather was quite nice.
Grapes weren't the only things being grown at this location. They also had pear trees, and these cherries - unfortunately not quite ripe enough to eat yet!
The person with their back turned to the camera is Nick our tour guide, but the others are some of the watch makers I respect the most after seeing their work in person – I will prepare separate reports on these folks for you so they won't be included here.
So they had tables set-up outside, and the various makers took their turn giving us a presentation of their watches. No one brought a huge selection, but there was enough to give us all a taste of what these guys can do. I have included links to each of their web sites so you can explore them in more detail – I didn’t take a ton of notes that night as I was busy filling my face, drinking superb wine, and taking these pictures.
First up is the Delaloye Brothers – Nicolas Delaloye is the prime force behind the brand, and is on the left of this picture. His brother gave the presentation as his English was better. Delaloye is a candidate for membership in the AHCI.
www.montresdelaloye.ch/
Nice presentation boxes……
Dials and movements are very nice on these “Le garde Temps” models – the level of detail is outstanding, but is hard to convey in photos…..
The movements are manual winding, and although hard to see in my blurry pictures, feature screwed gold chatons, which is something you don’t see very often.
Prices are in the area of $30,000 US for these models – this one with a mother of pearl dial.
Next up was Vianney Halter. He didn’t actually attend, but sent his representative with one watch for us to review. This is the Antiqua perpetual calendar model. It’s certainly not something I like very much, but again I admire the attention to detail.
www.vianney-halter.com/
A closer look – sort of a Captain Nemo feel to it for me, like a 1930’s version of what the future will look like……
I tried to get a decent shot of the back. This watch is actually an automatic, although initially you could be forgiven for thinking it was a manual wind. It features VH’s patented “Mysterious” rotor design, where the rotor is not really visible with the exception of the outer ring. This is accomplished by making part of it out of sapphire.
Next up was Kees Engelbarts. Kees specializes in a technique called Mokume Gane that is a Japanese method of making metal appear to have a grain similar to wood. He started out as an engraver doing work for other companies, but then decided to make his own watches.
www.kees.ch/
The dial looks fantastic in person – certainly something quite different!
This one is highly engraved – very elaborate work but not my thing really…..
Dial view….
Next up is Peter Speak-Marin. Speake-Marin is a member of AHCI, and produces some interesting pieces. He also makes some simple looking pieces, but brought along more complicated and heavily worked watches to this dinner.
www.speake-marin.com/
This is called “Captive in Time” and the dial was engraved by Kees Engelbarts…….
The back is interesting and the rotor is another strange looking design with the “spokes” coming out to the weight along the edge forming an interesting pattern. Note that this is watch 1 of 1!
This is the “Vintage Tourbillon” and I quite like the treatment given to the dial.
The back shows some good detail on the movement, and also the twin retrograde displays for power reserve. Note that there is a power reserve warning indicator on the dial side at 6 o’clock. Impressive piece!
Here is a shot of the front with flash…..
Here is the dial side of the Skeleton Quantième Perpétuel (perpetual calendar)....love the hands on this one!
Last, but certainly not least in my mind, is Kari Voutilainen from Finland. Kari is a member of the AHCI.
www.voutilainen.ch/
I would not say he is shy, but is certainly more reserved than the others….
He only brought two watches with him, and they were the same model in different materials. The model is an “Observatoire” model. As the name suggests these watches were born out of the Observatory Chronometers of old and Kari managed to source some unassembled Peseux movements made for Observatory trials from days gone by, and took them to the next level before installing them in his cases. I very much like the style of his creations.
These models list for approx. 51,000 Swiss Francs BTW…….and he does make more complicated watches as well.
Take a close look at the hands. It’s hard to see in these photos, but the hands have polished sections and blued sections. The “hoop” is blued with the rest being shiny silver coloured. I had a conversation with Kari regarding how he makes his hands. I asked if he blues the whole hand and then removes the colour from the part he wants silver. He responded by saying that the hands were actually made in 3 pieces! He said getting the pieces to press fit together was quite a challenge…..I can easily imagine how difficult that is!
So that was the end of a fabulous evening. Again I was astonished to hear that when this dinner was being set-up, the makers who attended were asking how much they would have to pay to meet with us! In fact the cost of this dinner was covered by TZ.
I found them all to be quite pleasant to talk to, and willing to answer almost any question I asked about their watches and production methods. They are an incredibly enthusiastic group, and although they have to be businessmen as well as artists, the passion for their watches came through loud and clear.
Thanks for reading this and I hope you have seen some watches in this report that you would not see otherwise.
Al
Although we did visit a couple of independent maker’s shops/offices, we were also treated to an evening at a local vineyard outside Geneva. We had a casual dinner and time with these guys, several of them being AHCI (Horological Academy of Independent Creators) members. Not all are full members of the academy as some are candidates for membership and some have not yet reached that stage either. I believe you must meet certain criteria, and part of that is submitting your work to the AHCI for review to see if you are “worthy” of membership.
Disclaimer – the lighting wasn’t the best that night, and there were a lot of people clamoring to get at the watches, so I took the best photos I could as I was being jostled around. I’ve tried to clean some of them up, but several did come out quite blurry. I apologize in advance for some of the quality of these…
We hopped on the bus and made our way to the location, and when we arrived we were welcomed by the people who owned the vineyard, and by one of the watch makers who helped set this up.
Here are several tour participants milling about…..
The setting was just incredible….most of the evening was outdoors since the weather was quite nice.
Grapes weren't the only things being grown at this location. They also had pear trees, and these cherries - unfortunately not quite ripe enough to eat yet!
The person with their back turned to the camera is Nick our tour guide, but the others are some of the watch makers I respect the most after seeing their work in person – I will prepare separate reports on these folks for you so they won't be included here.
So they had tables set-up outside, and the various makers took their turn giving us a presentation of their watches. No one brought a huge selection, but there was enough to give us all a taste of what these guys can do. I have included links to each of their web sites so you can explore them in more detail – I didn’t take a ton of notes that night as I was busy filling my face, drinking superb wine, and taking these pictures.
First up is the Delaloye Brothers – Nicolas Delaloye is the prime force behind the brand, and is on the left of this picture. His brother gave the presentation as his English was better. Delaloye is a candidate for membership in the AHCI.
www.montresdelaloye.ch/
Nice presentation boxes……
Dials and movements are very nice on these “Le garde Temps” models – the level of detail is outstanding, but is hard to convey in photos…..
The movements are manual winding, and although hard to see in my blurry pictures, feature screwed gold chatons, which is something you don’t see very often.
Prices are in the area of $30,000 US for these models – this one with a mother of pearl dial.
Next up was Vianney Halter. He didn’t actually attend, but sent his representative with one watch for us to review. This is the Antiqua perpetual calendar model. It’s certainly not something I like very much, but again I admire the attention to detail.
www.vianney-halter.com/
A closer look – sort of a Captain Nemo feel to it for me, like a 1930’s version of what the future will look like……
I tried to get a decent shot of the back. This watch is actually an automatic, although initially you could be forgiven for thinking it was a manual wind. It features VH’s patented “Mysterious” rotor design, where the rotor is not really visible with the exception of the outer ring. This is accomplished by making part of it out of sapphire.
Next up was Kees Engelbarts. Kees specializes in a technique called Mokume Gane that is a Japanese method of making metal appear to have a grain similar to wood. He started out as an engraver doing work for other companies, but then decided to make his own watches.
www.kees.ch/
The dial looks fantastic in person – certainly something quite different!
This one is highly engraved – very elaborate work but not my thing really…..
Dial view….
Next up is Peter Speak-Marin. Speake-Marin is a member of AHCI, and produces some interesting pieces. He also makes some simple looking pieces, but brought along more complicated and heavily worked watches to this dinner.
www.speake-marin.com/
This is called “Captive in Time” and the dial was engraved by Kees Engelbarts…….
The back is interesting and the rotor is another strange looking design with the “spokes” coming out to the weight along the edge forming an interesting pattern. Note that this is watch 1 of 1!
This is the “Vintage Tourbillon” and I quite like the treatment given to the dial.
The back shows some good detail on the movement, and also the twin retrograde displays for power reserve. Note that there is a power reserve warning indicator on the dial side at 6 o’clock. Impressive piece!
Here is a shot of the front with flash…..
Here is the dial side of the Skeleton Quantième Perpétuel (perpetual calendar)....love the hands on this one!
Last, but certainly not least in my mind, is Kari Voutilainen from Finland. Kari is a member of the AHCI.
www.voutilainen.ch/
I would not say he is shy, but is certainly more reserved than the others….
He only brought two watches with him, and they were the same model in different materials. The model is an “Observatoire” model. As the name suggests these watches were born out of the Observatory Chronometers of old and Kari managed to source some unassembled Peseux movements made for Observatory trials from days gone by, and took them to the next level before installing them in his cases. I very much like the style of his creations.
These models list for approx. 51,000 Swiss Francs BTW…….and he does make more complicated watches as well.
Take a close look at the hands. It’s hard to see in these photos, but the hands have polished sections and blued sections. The “hoop” is blued with the rest being shiny silver coloured. I had a conversation with Kari regarding how he makes his hands. I asked if he blues the whole hand and then removes the colour from the part he wants silver. He responded by saying that the hands were actually made in 3 pieces! He said getting the pieces to press fit together was quite a challenge…..I can easily imagine how difficult that is!
So that was the end of a fabulous evening. Again I was astonished to hear that when this dinner was being set-up, the makers who attended were asking how much they would have to pay to meet with us! In fact the cost of this dinner was covered by TZ.
I found them all to be quite pleasant to talk to, and willing to answer almost any question I asked about their watches and production methods. They are an incredibly enthusiastic group, and although they have to be businessmen as well as artists, the passion for their watches came through loud and clear.
Thanks for reading this and I hope you have seen some watches in this report that you would not see otherwise.
Al