Romain Gauthier’s Insight Micro Rotor watch

[Baco Noir]

Saw an interesting article on Watch Time on a small watchmaker I hadn’t heard of before - Romain Gauthier. In 2011, he introduced a new model made from Titanium. Nothing earth shattering in the mainstream watch world, but for a boutique guy who’s know for precious metal pieces, it was a shock to his base. He just released a new model in both Ti and black Ti with 10 pieces per variant.

I didn’t see anything on pricing but I really dig these. I like that it’s skeletonized without really being skeletonized if that makes sense. Being able to see the balance wheel, bridges and micro rotor from both sides is very unique. Has a double barrel with an 80 hr power reserve and the size is right at 39.5mm.

www.watchtime.com/featured/romain-gauthier-insight-microrotor-titanium/

[Baco Noir]

Found a video tour of his manufacturing plant on YouTube. After seeing the QC and finishing, I'm guessing these are $50k+ watches. I submitted an online price inquiry on the watches listed above and will let you know what I hear back.

[Archer]

You mean this guy...here we were talking about how the details of the back mounted crown work on the original Prestige model...



Romain makes some wonderful watches, and on top of that he is a great guy. Didn't come through the traditional watchmaking path, so was more engineering based than watchmaking based (this resonated for me for obvious reason). He managed some shops that made parts for the industry, and then decided to strike out on his own. At the time I was in his shop/offices, he was just launching his first model, and for a very small operation with just him and one watchmaker at the time, he was doing some impressive work. He had some innovative ideas at the time and has kept on with innovations since. Date on this is 2014 but it was taken in 2007 actually...





At the time this one was 35,000 CHF and it was the cheapest version he made, so indeed these are not inexpensive watches (I still have the 2008 price list he sent me personally). Some of his more complex watches are 6 figures.

Cheers, Al

[priamo]

His S screws

[Baco Noir]

I just got an e-mail back from RG on pricing. The natural Ti Insight Micro-Rotor model is 68,000 Swiss francs. I figured that the price was going to be high, but that’s definitely out of my reach without a lottery win.

[carl]

I do like that concept of not too much of a skeleton dial. Some of them are just too busy. Love the personal touch of the "S" screws.