A dealer calls one brand “a true manufacture,” a forum dismisses another as “just a microbrand,” and a collector swears his watch is “independent.” None of those words has a legal definition, and all three move the price. This is Part 1 of Watch Words, a multiple-part series on watch vocabulary, written for beginners and for anyone who nods along at a boutique without being sure. We start with who makes the watch: manufacture, maison, in-house, ébauche, independent, the AHCI and microbrand.

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MANUFACTURE

Manufacture is French for a factory, and in watch talk it means a company that makes the parts of its own base movement and assembles a complete caliber from them. The standard trade reference, the Dictionnaire professionnel illustré de l’horlogerie, defines it that way. No law sets the bar, so the word carries prestige without a test. Horopedia, an online watch encyclopedia, traces the marketing use of the term to the communication departments of the big watch groups from the 1980s on. When a brand calls itself a manufacture, the useful follow-up is which parts it makes.

MAISON

Maison is French for house, and many brands use it for themselves. Richemont, the Swiss group behind Cartier and Vacheron Constantin, calls every one of its brands a Maison in its own annual reports. The word sounds old and personal, and it says nothing about who makes the movement or who owns the company, so read it the way you read “artisanal” on a bread label.

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Based on our article “Audemars Piguet Finally Sells Used Watches: 8 Years, 2 CEOs and a 20% Fee,” published October 29, 2026. Audio produced from our published text.

Next up: N3W5: What Former Audemars Piguet CEO François-Henri Bennahmias Is Building

ABOUT US

Watch Lover is written by two collectors who wear and follow watches, from everyday favorites to rare independent pieces. We cover the secondary market, new releases and the watchmakers behind them.

For more images and videos, follow watchlover.xo on Instagram.

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Audemars Piguet opened a store for its own used watches on October 26, 2026, and the first thing it did was ask you for a selfie. The platform is called The Watch Keepers, it runs out of Le Brassus, the Swiss mountain village where AP has made watches since 1875, it is dressed as a virtual villa staffed by avatars, it takes up to 20% of your sale price, and it will not let you touch the watch before you buy it.

Four groups have something at stake: individual private owner sellers, buyers, the manufacture itself, and the dealers and auction houses who did this job for AP for years without being asked.

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METHOD, SAMPLE AND THE EIGHT-YEAR INCUBATION PERIOD

In January 2018, then-CEO François-Henri Bennahmias told Reuters that second-hand was “the next big thing in the watch industry” and that leaving it to the “dark side” was “an aberration commercially speaking.” Five years later, in March 2023, he told Robb Report the program would launch that year and predicted it could outgrow the new-watch business. AP filed the US trademark for The Watch Keepers on January 12, 2024, three weeks into Ilaria Resta’s tenure as CEO. Reports in 2025 pointed to a launch that year, and that date slipped too. The thing shipped in late October 2026, and Resta said, as Briefs Finance reported, it was designed to fix one pain point, “the trust for the buyer.” Eight years, two CEOs and one trademark for a consignment website is slow even by the standards of the Vallée de Joux, the valley around Le Brassus, where winters are long and people make minute repeaters to pass the time.

AP said about 100 watches would be live at any time. On October 27, 2026, the listings page showed 42, built between 1983 and 2021, 29 of them auctions. The villa opened with the furniture still in the truck. We could count the watches but not price them, because the site hides prices from anyone who is not registered.

INDIVIDUAL PRIVATE OWNER SELLERS: THE FEE SCHEDULE, DECODED

AP buried the fee in the FAQ rather than the press release, which Luxury Tribune noticed on day one. The seller pays 20% on the first 25,000 euros, 15% on the next 25,000 and 10% on everything above 50,000, and the fee is “not negotiable.” WatchPro reported the bands in Swiss francs; the FAQ says every binding price settles in euros, so we go with euros. The bands stack. At roughly $1.14 per euro, checked October 27, 2026, a 25,000 euro sale, about $28.5K, costs the seller 5,000 euros, about $5.7K. A 50,000 euro sale, about $57K, costs 8,750 euros, about $10K, an effective 17.5%. A 100,000 euro sale, about $114K, costs 13,750 euros, about $15.7K, or 13.75%. The structure rewards expensive watches, so the owner of a 1983 Jumbo pays a lower rate than the owner of a 2015 steel quartz Royal Oak with a diamond bezel.

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The fee buys authentication, a preparation service, logistics, photography, listing, insurance and, for whoever buys the watch, a travel pouch. No commission is charged unless the watch sells. Some launch coverage called the preparation a full service, which it is not. If AP’s watchmakers decide the watch needs one to meet the listing standard, the work is billed to the seller separately and done before listing. AP’s own video walks through that 10-step service, from diagnosis and new components to a water-resistance test, with refinishing optional. Decline the estimate and the watch comes home, having traveled farther than most of its owners. A watch needs at least 3 out of 5 on dial, case and bracelet to be listed, and some “may still be declined.” The seller sets the price with no guidance from AP, waits “as little as three weeks” from enrollment to listing, and is paid within 15 days after the buyer’s 14-day return window closes. Pull a listed watch and a withdrawal “Service Fee” applies instead. So a seller can pay for a service, wait a month, sell nothing, and pay a withdrawal fee to get the watch back.

^{Audemars Piguet’s complete maintenance service, January 2024: the work a seller pays for separately before a watch is listed. Video: Audemars Piguet.}

Because the platform is operated by Audemars Piguet (Marketing) SA under the EU’s DAC7 digital platform rules, The Watch Keepers reports every EU seller’s name, address, tax identification number, date of birth, bank account number and total proceeds to the French tax authority, the DGFiP, every year. AP’s privacy notice, updated October 2, 2026, adds that a seller’s original purchase invoice, name and address included, goes to the buyer. The grey market’s main selling point was that nobody filed anything. AP’s counteroffer is a photographer, a pouch and a form.

BUYERS: CERTIFIED, WARRANTED, UNTOUCHABLE

Every watch is checked against AP’s archive registers by AP watchmakers, graded on the five-point scale, photographed in 360 degrees, and shipped with a new certificate of authenticity, the pouch and a two-year warranty on functional and mechanical failure. The certificate is the real product. AP’s own service page draws the line: an extract from the archives only confirms the case and movement numbers appear in the records and “does not warranty the authenticity of the watch,” while a certificate requires AP’s experts in Le Brassus to examine the watch itself. AP says the target is counterfeits and “Frankenstein” pieces built from real but mismatched parts. Buyers pay nothing on top of the price, a point Watchonista confirmed with the brand. Missing box and papers are replaced with fresh AP paperwork, a quiet way of saying the manufacture’s certificate now outranks the one you lost. Lose your papers and AP prints better ones; lose your watch and you are on your own.

The catch is physical. The FAQ answer to “Can I see or try the watch before buying?” begins with the word “No.” The watch stays at an AP service center until it sells; you can book a video session with an “Expert Watch Keeper,” a real AP employee rendered as a digital avatar, instead.

AP boutiques, the FAQ adds, “do not handle The Watch Keepers activities.” For a Royal Oak that is a leap. AP’s own service page counts 24 bevel edges and 27 differently finished surfaces on the case and bracelet and recommends “no more than three to five aesthetic refreshings” in a watch’s life. A bracelet with stretch or an edge polished one time too many separates a great example from an expensive mistake, and neither shows up on a video call.

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F.P. Journe’s Chronomètre Bleu and Furtif Bleu. Journe turned tantalum into a collector obsession with the Chronomètre Bleu in 2009. Designed as an entry point to the brand, it has a solid rose gold movement and retails for $37,400, yet examples have sold at auction for more than $200K. Journe also made a unique Chronomètre Furtif Bleu on a tantalum bracelet for charity, which sold for about $2.4M.

Audemars Piguet’s Royal Oaks. AP put tantalum into watchmaking in 1988. Industry lore says it was because King Juan Carlos of Spain wanted a hunting watch that would not glint in the sun; AP’s own archive does not mention him. Its tantalum pieces are coveted today: a 1997 tantalum and platinum openworked perpetual calendar, ref. 25829TP, sold at Phillips in May 2022 for roughly $930K.

The microbrand disruptors, Zelos and Selten. Singapore’s Zelos set the floor of the tantalum market in 2021 with the Swordfish diver at $1,499 and has since released more tantalum models under $5,000. Selten offers a well-finished Chinese tantalum case as an upgrade to its $4,950 Yum Cha collaboration watch, at cost.

Atelier Wen. The brand showed that Chinese workshops could master a full tantalum bracelet, releasing the Perception in 2024 with a full tantalum case and bracelet for $10,000. Its newer $44,100 Shuò, made with Massena LAB, earns its price with a hand-engraved solid gold dial made in Switzerland.

H. Moser & Cie. and Zenith. To justify five-figure prices now, the top brands are moving the argument off the case. Moser machines bare sunburst tantalum dials for its $94,500 Concept Tantalum, a surface it says a Shenzhen supplier cannot yet match. Zenith puts its decorated Calibre 135 observatory movement inside an $83,400 tantalum watch and lets the movement carry the price.

Next up: Is F.P. Journe a Bubble? The Data Behind Its 197% YoY Surge

ABOUT US

Watch Lover is written by two collectors who wear and follow watches, from everyday favorites to rare independent pieces. We cover the secondary market, new releases and the watchmakers behind them.

For more images and videos, follow watchlover.xo on Instagram.

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Tantalum, the dark gray metal F.P. Journe turned into a collector obsession with the Chronomètre Bleu in 2009, is now something a small brand can order from a Chinese workshop as a finished case or a full bracelet, in one case at cost. The metal was never expensive. The premium paid for the skill to machine and polish it, and that skill spread. Below: what tantalum is, who made it famous, what it sells for from a $1.5K microbrand to a $930K Royal Oak, and how Journe, H. Moser and Zenith price it now that the case alone cannot.

We wore more tantalum than expected during New York Watch Week in October 2026. The watch that made the point was the Massena LAB x Atelier Wen Inflection Shuò at WatchTime, which we covered last week: a 40mm case and full integrated bracelet in 99.9% tantalum, from a brand that did not exist in 2016. At Windup, Tony Traina of the Unpolished Watches Substack was handling a Chinese-made tantalum case a microbrand offers buyers as an upgrade at cost. His verdict: tantalum used to mean expensive and no longer does. The two watches sat a few blocks apart in the same week, and the distance between them is this piece. The metal that cost Audemars Piguet, Journe and Moser years and ruined tooling is now something you order.

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WHAT TANTALUM IS, AND WHY THE PRICE WAS NEVER ABOUT THE METAL

Tantalum is element 73, a refractory metal around 16.6 g/cm³, close to 18k gold and twice the weight of steel. It melts above 5,400°F, shrugs off aqua regia, the acid that dissolves gold, and forms an oxide film in air that gives it a dark gray, faintly blue color no coating matches. Revolution and Time+Tide cover the chemistry. The pricing: the raw material is cheap and common, about 250 times more abundant than gold per Time+Tide, which also notes that brands buy it from refiners and have no obligation to say where the coltan it came from was mined. The US Geological Survey put the 2025 ore price at $180 per kilo of oxide content. Finished Chinese ingot was about $1K per kilo in May 2026 per SMM, the Shanghai metals data service. A case uses a few tens of grams, so the metal in a tantalum case costs tens of dollars. Gold runs more than a hundred times that per kilo.

Fabrication is where every dollar of premium came from. Tantalum is ductile and sticky: it seizes, tears and galls cutting tools, holds heat at the cutting edge, and its swarf can ignite in air. Everyone who made it says the same thing in different units. Kari Voutilainen, the Finnish independent, told Revolution milling platinum is a 3 out of 10 and tantalum a 10. Josh Shapiro of J.N. Shapiro said an end mill good for 20 steel cases lasts a third of one tantalum case; he made the first tantalum case produced in-house outside Switzerland in December 2021, the Infinity Tantalum, 26 pieces at $33K, and one later sold at Phillips for $40.6K.

Martin Frei, co-founder of Urwerk, said in a 2021 press release his team made him promise never to use it again after the UR-110 TTH, whose tantalum bezel cut CNC bit life by a factor of three. Boîtiers de Genève, Journe’s case maker, calls its polishing method a manufacturing secret; a Quill & Pad writer touring the factory in 2017 was shown every component made except the Bleu case. Fleming, a young American brand, found one Swiss case maker willing to try, spent almost two years on it, and says the finished case costs as much as platinum or more.

A skills moat erodes. Know-how gets copied, taught or industrialized, and the premium it supported goes with it. A gold case will always cost what gold costs. A tantalum case costs what the best available machinist charges, and that machinist is no longer necessarily in Geneva.

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A SHORT, ODD HISTORY

Audemars Piguet’s own archive dates tantalum’s entry into watchmaking to 1988: two quartz Royal Oaks early that year, then the 14486TR in tantalum and pink gold, the first mechanical one, 215 made.

The story repeated everywhere and absent from AP’s archive is that King Juan Carlos of Spain wanted a Royal Oak that would not glint while hunting. AP kept the metal through the 1990s, almost always brushed, and rationed it since: Q Raghib, who writes the Substack Form. Function. Time., covered the 2011 Royal Oak 15201TS, ten pieces for a collector forum’s anniversary with a tantalum bezel and center links on a steel case at about $57K before tax. Edouard Meylan, Moser’s CEO, was given a tantalum AP for his 18th birthday and told Quill & Pad he never forgot it. Jaeger-LeCoultre polished a tantalum case on the Odysseus chronograph in 1989. Omega put it in the bracelet center links of the Seamaster 300M chronograph in 1993, where most people first saw the color. Then the metal went quiet, apart from a 300-piece Panerai in 2003 and Hublot putting it in the Big Bang catalog from 2008.

F.P. Journe changed its reputation in 2009 with the Chronomètre Bleu, the first time-only dress watch in tantalum. The dial came first: Journe told Revolution he could not make the blue dial he wanted until 2007, and only then picked the metal to suit it. The case was polished when, per Moser’s own press materials, most tantalum cases were sandblasted or satin finished, and the caliber 1304 inside is solid rose gold.

It was meant as the entry point to the brand, and per Phillips, the auction house, Journe wanted it cheaper still until case and dial costs made that impossible. He refused every other tantalum request and kept the metal for Only Watch charity pieces, a run the SF Watch Lover Substack cataloged, including a 2024 Chronomètre Furtif Bleu on the brand’s first tantalum bracelet that sold for about $2.4M.

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Voutilainen had made a one-off tantalum decimal repeater, the Tantalor, in 2008. In 2019 he cased ten of the 26 inverted Caliber 28 watches in tantalum at about $118K at the time, alongside eight in titanium and eight in platinum, and later made two pieces mixing tantalum and platinum, one of them listed by the retailer EsperLuxe at $140K.

In March 2025 Louis Vuitton put a tantalum case middle with platinum bezel and lugs on the five-piece LVKV-02 GMR 6 with Voutilainen, at about $515K before tax, and sold all five the first day.

Urwerk closed the UR-105 line in 2021 with a 12-piece tantalum-hull edition.

The Grönefeld brothers launched the 1941 Grönograaf in tantalum in 2022, 25 pieces, after years of persuading their case maker. H. Moser & Cie. shipped its first tantalum watch in 2023 after more than two years developing a polish to its standard.

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WHAT THE PRICES SAY

Prices are the cleanest evidence that tantalum was sold as a capability. Retail figures below are before tax, checked October 25, 2026; auction results include the buyer’s premium; Swiss franc and Hong Kong dollar results are converted at October 26, 2026 rates and rounded.

The Chronomètre Bleu launched under $20K in 2009, now retails at $37,400 and is nearly impossible to get at retail. In September 2026 Phillips sold a 2021 example in its Geneva online sale for about $215K against a $50K to $100K estimate. A 99-piece Byblos edition with an openworked dial, made for the Beirut boutique in 2014, brought about $250K at Phillips Hong Kong in 2022. A standard 2018 example was listed privately at $67.5K in January 2023, so most of the move is recent and mostly Journe scarcity. The case is still why the watch exists at that price.

At the Phillips Royal Oak 50th sale in May 2022, the ref. 25829TP, a 1997 tantalum and platinum openworked perpetual calendar from a run of 16, sold for about $930K against a $145K to $290K estimate. That is a 1990s AP in a metal AP never fully polished, at the price of twenty-five Chronomètres Bleus at retail. Treat it as a peak: the tantalum and yellow gold version, ref. 25829TA, also 1997 and one of 15, brought about $227K at Phillips Hong Kong in November 2024, just above its estimate.

Urwerk’s UR-105 TTH was about $93K in 2021, which SJX noted was 20% above the steel UR-105 CT, for a watch whose front plate and lid alone are tantalum. Moser’s first tantalum piece, the Endeavour Perpetual Calendar Tantalum Blue Enamel, launched at $82.5K in 2023 and lists at $94.5K at US retailers in October 2026.

At Watches and Wonders 2026, Zenith put its Calibre 135 in a 20-piece tantalum G.F.J. at $83.4K against $51.9K for the 161-piece yellow gold version. The tantalum watch also has an onyx dial and baguette diamond indexes, so the 60% premium is not the metal alone. The metal is still the headline, for a material at 1% of gold’s price.

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The rest of the ladder is thinner than the headlines suggest. Hublot is the one big brand that kept tantalum in the regular catalog, with the Big Bang Tantalum Mat from 2008, listed at $22,900 by 2015 and sold at Phillips Hong Kong for about $14.5K in March 2022.

Panerai made the Luminor Marina Tantalium in 2003, 300 pieces in a full tantalum case, now about $12.5K pre-owned. Omega still pairs it with titanium and Sedna gold on the current Seamaster Diver 300M chronograph, a numbered edition since 2020 with a tantalum bezel and bracelet links at $27.3K.

And Greubel Forsey put a tantalum bezel and caseback on the 11-piece Nano Foudroyante EWT in November 2024 at about $565K before tax, then dropped the metal for the all-white-gold series version in August 2025. Two brands kept it in the catalog; the rest treated it as a one-time event.

Now the other end. Atelier Wen, the Chinese brand with two French founders, put a full tantalum case and bracelet on its Perception in September 2024, 25 pieces at $10,000 with a Chinese movement, and sold out.

The Inflection followed in November 2025 as the first permanent full-tantalum bracelet collection, $29,800 on the bracelet and $19,800 on a strap, with a Girard-Perregaux movement and grand feu enamel.

The Shuò with Massena LAB is $44,100 in the US, 50 pieces, deliveries from early 2027. Look where the money sits: a solid gold dial with 14.6 grams of gold, hand engraved in Switzerland by Coralie Mercier for GT Cadrans in Lonay, on a customized GP03300. The tantalum is the frame. The dial and movement are the price. 1776 Atelier, the American brand of Jason Lu and Zach Smith, placed 11 of 13 Liberty 250 Tantalum pieces at $39K on launch day at Indies.NYC in October 2026, per Traina. Ming sells a tantalum Polymesh bracelet for $6.5K. J.N. Shapiro launched the Infinity Radiant in June 2026, a 38mm monopusher chronograph in tantalum on an optional tantalum bracelet, at $35.9K before tax, and allocated the first run of 75. Zelos of Singapore put a full tantalum case on its Swordfish diver in January 2021 at $1,499 with a Seiko movement, then on the Mirage that August at $4,900 with an eight-day La Joux-Perret caliber, sold 50 Nova 37mm at $1,999 in 2024, and in late 2025 sold out 50 Comet 39 in tantalum at $2,499 with a Swiss Peseux 7001.

And the case Traina handled at Windup is an upgrade to the Yum Cha, a 100-piece Selten collaboration with Watch Ho & Co. that lists at $4,950 in steel. Jackie Ho, the Hong Kong-raised founder of Watch Ho & Co. and the main voice in the South China Morning Post’s tantalum feature, told Traina the tantalum version is offered at cost. No price is published and at cost is his word, not an audited number, but a well-finished tantalum case as an option on a $5K watch is the point. In 2026 a tantalum watch runs from $1.5K to a $930K Royal Oak, and the floor has been there since 2021. In 2016 it ran from a Hublot to a Journe, and both were five figures.

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WHERE THE KNOW-HOW WENT

Supply-side change is already on the record. Robin Tallendier, co-founder of Atelier Wen, told Europa Star in November 2025 that in 2022 nobody was going beyond cases, that of 11 workshops he approached only one produced an acceptable prototype, and that the brand then signed an exclusive deal with a workshop in China. Several brands already asked Atelier Wen to supply tantalum components; many are reluctant to manufacture in China; Atelier Wen is not, provided it is not asked to become what he called a tantalum supermarket. Set that beside Traina’s Windup note on a well-finished Chinese tantalum case offered at cost as an option on a microbrand collaboration. The moat did not leak. It drained. The capability the Swiss guarded as a trade secret for thirty years is now a Chinese manufacturing competency sold as a service.

We watched the same thing with ceramic, with silicon hairsprings, and before that with the integrated steel bracelet. A material or process starts as proof of mastery, stays exclusive while the tooling knowledge is scarce, and becomes a line item once someone industrializes it. Tantalum took longer because the metal fights harder. The Swiss answer is already in motion: in November 2025 Stollenwurm, a Le Locle independent founded in 2024 that builds in platinum and tantalum, and AB Concept, a La Chaux-de-Fonds machinist, announced the first 3D-printed tantalum watch components, a buckle that tested harder than machined metal, with polishing still in development. When the machining moat drains, the next one is printing.

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WHAT THE TOP END IS DOING ABOUT IT

Repositioning is the response from the brands that built a story on tantalum. Moser’s Endeavour Perpetual Calendar Concept Tantalum, 50 pieces at $94.5K at US retailers, is the first watch with tantalum on the dial as well as the case, machined from solid plate with a brushed sunburst and no lacquer; Stevie Watches on Substack made it the example of the industry’s swing from texture to bare surfaces. Moser is no longer claiming it can make a tantalum case. It is claiming a surface a supplier in Shenzhen cannot yet give you. Journe’s polished case plays the same role, and the Bleu survives intact because it was never only a metal story: the dial defeated more workshops than the case did, and the movement is gold. Zenith’s G.F.J. pairs the metal with the most decorated observatory movement in history and lets the movement carry the price. Every tantalum watch now has to answer the question a buyer should ask: what else are you selling?

Once the case stops being the headline, the headline moves back to movement, finishing and dial. Good for independents, who always competed there; uncomfortable for anyone whose pitch was the metal. For fifteen years a brand could say the word tantalum and let the metal do the pricing. China took the word and sold it at cost.

ON THE WRIST

The Shuò is unbelievably heavy, far denser than it looks, and that density is also why it barely marks. A full tantalum bracelet also tells you where the metal belongs. It cannot be laser welded or soldered, so it only works as one-piece components, and it is too dense and too gray for anything inside a movement. It is an outside metal, built for the parts that take the hits, which is probably why a brand making integrated bracelets, rather than calibers, pushed it past the case.

For the metallurgy in more depth, Fratello’s explainer and The 1916 Company’s guide to unusual case materials are the two to read; Quill & Pad and Europa Star have the fullest accounts of the Inflection.

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LESSONS LEARNED

Price the skill, not the material, and know when the skill is leaving the building. Every brand here charged a premium because almost nobody else could machine and polish the metal. That premium was real for thirty years and is gone now. Difficulty is a weaker moat than rarity, because difficulty is exactly what manufacturing learns to solve. Any brand whose pitch rests on a hard-to-work material should assume a supplier will catalog it within a few years and plan the next argument first.

For buyers, a tantalum case is still beautiful and still heavy, and no longer a reason to pay up on its own. Pay for the polish Journe does, the dial Moser does, or the movement Zenith puts behind it; those are what a supplier cannot yet ship in a box. Judge a $40K tantalum watch as you would a $40K steel one, by what is inside and how it is finished, with the metal as a bonus.

For the independents this is good news. The scarce ingredient moved from the case back to the workbench, where they were always strongest. The metal gets you into the conversation. The watch has to earn the price.

Next up: Is F.P. Journe a Bubble? The Data Behind Its 197% YoY Surge

ABOUT US

Watch Lover is written by two collectors who wear and follow watches, from everyday favorites to rare independent pieces. We cover the secondary market, new releases and the watchmakers behind them.

For more images and videos, follow watchlover.xo on Instagram.

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At WatchTime New York, we tried on watches and talked with the people who made them. Voutilainen’s 16 watches stayed under glass because they belonged to a collector who lent them for the show, and the brand did not allow try-ons. The collection arrived with security, and we thought it was likely worth several million dollars, possibly more than any other display we saw.

We arrived at Gotham Hall at 11 a.m. on Sunday and walked straight in, with no line at the entrance. Inside, a record 48 brands exhibited, and the room was busy without feeling crowded. We had time to try on watches and talk with the makers.

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VOUTILAINEN’S BORROWED MILLIONS

The collector’s watches sat on a movement drawing, ranging from salmon guilloché and pale blue wave-pattern dials to iridescent mosaic work and a black dial with a baguette diamond bezel and matching lugs. The owner was absent, while Kari Voutilainen stood beside the display explaining his dial work.

At Phillips New York in June, four Voutilainens each cleared $1 million, including a Masterpiece Chronograph II at $1,841,500, with buyer’s premium. Kari told us the wait for a watch runs eight to ten years, and Phillips reported that the brand paused new orders earlier this year. Kari told us he personally avoids social media because he does not want other people’s designs influencing his own.

MB&F PUT DIAMONDS ON ITS SMALLEST WATCH

One of us tried a green Legacy Machine, while the Perpetual EVO on white rubber put its suspended balance above the calendar displays. The diamond-set SP One Pavée measured just 38mm, making it MB&F’s smallest and slimmest watch in a much less restrained finish. Nearby were the purple HM8 Mark 2 and an HM9 Flow with twin balance pods on tan leather.

The HM11 Architect was harder to mistake for anything else, with four rooms arranged around a central flying tourbillon. It includes a mechanical temperature display, and rotating the case winds the movement. Founder, Owner and Creative Director Maximilian Büsser was on the floor while visitors examined all of it.

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MASSENA LAB’S $44.1K ATELIER WEN

The Atelier Wen x Massena LAB Inflection Shuò carried a $44,100 price before taxes. For that money, its 50 buyers get a tantalum case and bracelet, a solid gold dial hand-tremblaged in Switzerland, and a customized Girard-Perregaux movement. Arabic and Chinese numerals share the dial, with deliveries scheduled for early 2027.

^{MING X Massena LAB 57.09 Secret Honey - Video: Watch Lover}

The MING x Massena LAB 57.09 Secret Honey, which we covered when orders opened last week, used three rotating sapphire discs over a brown lacquered base to create its changing pattern. The edition totals 125 pieces at $8,800 before taxes and duties. At MING’s own booth, an iridescent purple-and-blue dial changed color as the wrist moved, an effect that a single photograph struggled to capture.

A 52-GRAM ULYSSE NARDIN DIVER AND CZAPEK’S TIME JUMPER

^{Ulysse Nardin Super Freak - Video: Watch Lover}

The Ulysse Nardin Freak S went on one of our wrists, with its two inclined oscillators and rotating movement occupying much of the dial side. Another version used a red enamel hour disc. The brand also brought the Diver AIR, weighing 52 grams including its strap, and the Blast Moonstruck, with the northern hemisphere at the center and the sun and moon moving around it.

At Czapek, we asked to see the Time Jumper opened. Its hinged half-hunter cover conceals a skeletonized movement, while a magnifying window shows the two-disc, 24-hour jumping-hour display. The steel version is limited to 100 pieces, with a listed US price of $58,800. Green guilloché chronographs, blue Antarctiques and a Promenade L’Ecume Des Jours with a piano keyboard and pink lotus filled out the table.

^{Czapek Time Jumper - Video: Watch Lover}

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JACOB & CO. WAS SURPRISINGLY QUIET

Jacob & Co. displayed the rose gold Godfather II, a musical watch launched at $440,000 that plays either “The Godfather’s Waltz” or the love theme. A Casino with working roulette, a black Epic X skeleton and a lime-strapped Epic X Sport filled out the case. For all that, the booth was quiet when we passed, with much smaller crowds than we saw around several of the independents. That was one moment in one afternoon, but the difference was noticeable.

^{Jacob & Co. Bugatti - Video: Watch Lover}

ELSEWHERE ON THE FLOOR

Ressence showed its deep-blue, oil-filled Type 10 DN alongside sand-colored and green watches. Urwerk brought the UR-Satellite UR-101 Diamon Sky- a diamond-set case cut into pyramidal facets, while Laurent Ferrier offered blue dials and the rounded cases of the Classic Micro-Rotor. RGM’s blue guilloché dial, with a spiraling center and matching small seconds, deserved a close look too.

Chopard’s Alpine Eagle display ran from a baguette-set flying tourbillon to turquoise, pale green and skeletonized versions. One of us wore the standard blue 41mm. The other tried a Happy Sport on a steel bracelet, with a diamond bezel and floating diamonds under the crystal. Chopard’s L.U.C Full Strike Día de los Muertos paired a grinning green skull with white enamel teeth and an emerald bezel. Its minute repeater chimes on sapphire gongs carved from the same piece as the crystal, while the striking hammers and power-reserve indicators form the skull’s eyes.

^{Chopard L.U.C Quattro Mark IV - Video: Watch Lover}

^{Chopard Alpine Eagle - Video: Watch Lover}

^{Chopard L.U.C Full Strike Dia de los Muertos - Video: Watch Lover}

Glashütte Original brought the Senator Meissen “Cherry Blossom,” with a hand-painted porcelain dial in a 40mm red gold case. One of us tried a Serenade Luna with a mother-of-pearl dial, diamond bezel and blue strap. A dark blue aventurine-dialed two-hander also went on the wrist, among the quieter watches we stopped to examine that afternoon.

^{Glashütte Serenade Luna - Video: Watch Lover}

The organizers reported roughly 3,000 visitors across the weekend, another record for the show. We would choose the Sunday session again: it gave us room to handle watches and time to talk directly with the makers. We spent half an hour with Kari while the watches stayed behind glass.

Next up: Inside Grönefeld: Masters of Independent Watchmaking

ABOUT US

Watch Lover is written by two collectors who wear and follow watches, from everyday favorites to rare independent pieces. We cover the secondary market, new releases and the watchmakers behind them.

For more images and videos, follow watchlover.xo on Instagram.

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In this episode, we dive into the wild true story of the watch world’s ultimate outsider. We trace Chaykin’s unbelievable journey from a solitary army signalman tinkering with salvaged radios in St. Petersburg to a horological master who had to teach himself how to machine parts using CorelDRAW when traditional craftsmen refused to help him.

You’ll hear the dramatic story of how his workshop was nearly shuttered during a 2014 financial crisis, and the disastrous moment in late 2016 when his highly anticipated prototype completely failed ahead of the 2017 Baselworld exhibition. Out of sheer desperation, he flipped a moonphase display upside down, added rotating discs for eyes, and birthed the Joker, a watch that saved his business and created a waitlist of thousands.

Based on our article “Konstantin Chaykin’s Prototype Failed. His Desperate Backup Plan Had a Face.” published October 8, 2026. Audio produced from our published text.

In this episode, you’ll discover:

• The Anatomy of a Smile: The brilliant mechanics behind the Joker and how its expression changes dynamically as the time shifts.

• Mind-Bending Inventions: A deep dive into Chaykin’s most extreme creations, including his “Cinema” watch featuring a mechanically animated galloping horse, a tourbillon perfectly synced to Martian time, and the 664-part “Stargazer” that boasts 17 complications.

• Breaking World Records: How a small Moscow workshop went toe-to-toe with giants like Bulgari and Richard Mille to engineer the “ThinKing,” an astonishing 1.65-millimeter thick prototype that eventually sold at auction for roughly $611,000.

• The Collector’s Playbook: Practical advice for new buyers on how to navigate Chaykin’s massive waitlists, what to expect from authorized US retailers, and a breakdown of his pricing tiers, from the $24,200 Joker White and Grey up to the $590,000 ThinKing Mystery.

Next up: 16 Voutilainens Under Guard at WatchTime NY 2026 and You Couldn’t Try One On.

ABOUT US

Watch Lover is written by two collectors who wear and follow watches, from everyday favorites to rare independent pieces. We cover the secondary market, new releases and the watchmakers behind them.

For more images and videos, follow watchlover.xo on Instagram.

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In late 2016, Konstantin Chaykin was preparing a complicated watch for Baselworld, the international watch and jewelry fair in Basel, Switzerland. Then he faced a problem he could not solve in time: the prototype did not work. With the exhibition approaching, he needed another idea. The watch he eventually brought to Basel had rolling eyes and a smiling mouth. The Joker became his commercial breakthrough, introducing a much wider audience to a watchmaker whose work had already earned the respect of his peers.

Chaykin was born in Leningrad, now St. Petersburg, in 1975. As a boy, he assembled radios from salvaged components and learned Morse code at a radio club. He went on to study radio communications and spent seven months as his army unit’s only signalman. After military service, he worked in metalworking and sales before entering the watch business around 2000. His introduction to the industry involved buying inexpensive watches in Moscow and reselling them in St. Petersburg. Collecting and repairing watches drew him into their construction, and selling other people’s work gradually gave way to wanting to make his own.

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In 2003, he made a watch for his father’s fiftieth birthday, creating the case and dial around a purchased Swiss ETA movement. He then decided to build a tourbillon table clock with his own mechanism. After spending three months unsuccessfully trying to persuade an experienced craftsman to help, he bought equipment and began teaching himself. He drew components in CorelDRAW and learned to machine them through repeated attempts. In a later interview, he recalled that the project took about nine months. A Breguet exhibition at the Hermitage in 2004 strengthened his conviction that this was work he wanted to pursue.

His early inventions show how far that curiosity could take him. In 2005, he applied for a patent for a mechanism calculating the date of Orthodox Easter, a particularly difficult calendar problem because the holiday moves each year. That work developed into a series of Computus clocks. The Moscow Computus Clock, completed in 2016, incorporates 27 complications and 2,506 movement parts. The manufacture describes it as the most complicated clock ever made in Russia.

He also explored Islamic and Jewish calendars, displayed the moon as a sphere in the Lunokhod, and made the Levitas’s hands appear to float over a transparent dial. His Cinema watch mechanically animated a galloping horse. Chaykin later recalled watching people’s expressions change when they activated the animation. He wanted more watches that did that.

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Recognition came well before the Joker. In 2008, he became a candidate for the Académie Horlogère des Créateurs Indépendants (AHCI), the Swiss association of independent watchmakers and clockmakers founded in Geneva in 1985. He became a full member in 2010 and served as its president from 2016 to 2019. By January 2025, the manufacture reported that he had received his 100^th invention patent, alongside dozens of utility-model patents.

Building a viable business proved harder. Investment from Moscow watch company Nika helped expand the operation, which moved to Moscow in the early 2010s. Nika’s owners proposed closing his company during the 2014 crisis. He refused, resumed direct management, and reduced the staff from 30 to 14. The firm continued with only a small number of orders. By the time he was preparing for Baselworld 2017, he had already spent years trying to keep an ambitious workshop commercially sustainable.

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The Joker drew on ideas he had considered before the failed prototype forced a change of plan. A reversed moonphase display suggested a smile, and rotating discs became eyes, with one showing the hours and the other the minutes. As the time changed, so did the expression. The original watch combined his own display module with a Swiss ETA automatic movement. By the end of Baselworld, he had received prepayments for almost the entire first series of 99 watches. The Clown followed, winning the Audacity Prize at the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève in 2018.

The Wristmons family grew into an expanding cast of characters. Their faces can be mischievous, unsettling, or simply amusing, and they will never appeal to every collector. What makes them interesting is how closely the appearance depends on the mechanics. The moving eyes tell the time, and the changing expression gives the owner a reason to look even when knowing the hour is beside the point.

That approach has carried some serious engineering. The Martian Tourbillon displays time on Mars, with a tourbillon rotating once every 61.65 Earth seconds, the length of a Martian minute. His interest in space also has a practical side: the SC02C chronograph, introduced in September 2026 in an edition of 28, is an everyday version of a watch developed for Russian cosmonauts and tested during spacewalks. And he has put a calendar on a shirt cuff: the Master of Days cufflinks, introduced in October 2026, advance their day-of-the-week indicator each time the clasp is fastened.

The Stargazer, created for the manufacture’s twentieth anniversary in 2023 and added to its regular collection in 2024, gives the familiar face its most complicated job. Its hand-wound K.22-1 movement contains 664 parts and runs for 45 hours, carrying 17 complications, 11 of them astronomical. The case is reversible, with a different face on each side. On the darker dial, eyebrows show the length of day and night, the nose indicates the difference between solar time and the even hours kept by a clock, and the smile tracks the weekday before jumping back at the week’s end. A third eye holds a rotating map of the Northern Hemisphere’s stars just 6 mm across. Turn it over and a tourbillon becomes an astonished open mouth. Above it sit a moonphase display accurate to one day in 122 years and an indicator of the Sun’s activity cycle. Chaykin’s sunrise and sunset azimuth display shows where on the horizon the Sun will appear and disappear. The face has become an astronomical instrument.

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In August 2024, Chaykin entered the contest to make an exceptionally thin mechanical watch. His ThinKing prototype measured just 1.65 millimeters, with the caseback serving as the movement’s mainplate. A later prototype, accompanied by its PalanKing carrier case, sold at Phillips in Geneva in May 2025 for approximately $611,000 at the time. The winding system and the balance both had to be reinvented to get there, which put a Moscow workshop in direct competition with Bulgari and Richard Mille.

Chaykin is based in Moscow, where his manufacture produces its watches. Some models use Swiss base movements with his proprietary mechanisms, while others have movements developed by the manufacture itself. The company publishes annual production capacity of approximately 200 to 250 watches and reports several thousand people on its waiting list. It cautions that joining the list does not guarantee an allocation.

For buyers, current U.S. dealer listings provide a useful guide to prices. Exquisite Timepieces lists the Joker White and Grey at $24,200, Venus at $25,600, and Wolf and Panda Titanium at $28,500. The Joker Iron Mask and Golden Mask are $55,500, while ThinKing Mystery is listed at $590,000. These are advertised prices before applicable taxes, and availability varies by model. Bespoke Wristmons based on existing production models can also be commissioned directly; the manufacture quotes a twelve-month production period and requires full payment in advance.

American collectors can buy through domestic retailers. The brand lists Material Good in New York, Exquisite Timepieces in Naples, Burdeen’s in Chicago, and Davidson & Licht in Walnut Creek. International partners include Chronopassion in Paris, Ahmed Seddiqi & Sons in Dubai, The Hour Glass in Singapore, The Lavish Attic in Hong Kong, and Ginza Nisshindo in Tokyo. Phillips in Geneva and Ineichen in Zurich have also offered his watches at auction, including prototypes and unique pieces. For purchases from overseas, buyers should ask the dealer to confirm shipping, payment, and import arrangements for their destination.

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We saw the Bosphorus Joker and ThinKing in person at Contemporary Istanbul in September, during a visit to the Salon Kantièm space. We filmed both watches for WatchLover’s Instagram. One grins at you. The other you can barely feel.

By the time Chaykin gave a watch a face, he had spent more than a decade learning to manufacture parts, building unusual clocks, and finding ways to support the work. The Joker gave that experience an accessible expression and brought collectors into his world. A person can enjoy the smile immediately and spend much longer discovering the inventions behind it.

Next up: The GRØNE Horologium: Gone in Six Minutes

ABOUT US

Watch Lover is written by two collectors who wear and follow watches, from everyday favorites to rare independent pieces. We cover the secondary market, new releases and the watchmakers behind them.

For more images and videos, follow watchlover.xo on Instagram.

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F.P. Journe produced the most explosive result in EveryWatch’s H1 2026 Secondary Market Report. Sales value reached $202M, up 196.9% from the first half of 2025. The median sale price rose 81.7% to $215K and the brand reached those numbers on only 608 watches.

Our broader look at the 2026 secondary watch market showed Rolex leading on scale, Richard Mille on price, Tudor on turnover and F.P. Journe on growth. Journe’s result raised a question the wider market review could not answer: How much of that growth reflected durable demand, and how much came from a handful of record auctions?

Four extraordinary auction results helped drive the surge. One Chronomètre à Résonance sold for nearly $14M, setting a record for any watch by an independent watchmaker. Journe placed four watches among the ten largest auction sales of the half, and together they generated approximately $28.8M.

It is reasonable to ask whether F.P. Journe entered bubble territory. The records show clear signs of heat at the top, but the rest of the data shows demand spreading well beyond those four watches.

FOUR WATCHES RESET THE AUCTION MARKET

The F.P. Journe Chronomètre à Résonance “Souscription, No. 007” sold for $13,922,000 at Phillips’ New York Watch Auction XIV. Made circa 2000, it is number 7 of the original 20-piece subscription series that helped finance the launch of the Chronomètre à Résonance. Phillips identified it as one of only two known examples combining platinum, pink gold and a pink-gold dial. The result set records for F.P. Journe, for an independent watchmaker and for a 21st-century watch sold commercially.

The F.P. Journe Chronomètre à Résonance “Souscription No. 18” sold for approximately $6,274,645 at Phillips’ Geneva Watch Auction XXIII. It came from the same 20-piece subscription series and carried the same importance to the early history of the company.

The F.P. Journe Tourbillon Souverain Anniversaire “Hong Kong,” Number 1 of 5 sold for $4,355,000 in New York. The titanium and pink-gold watch commemorated the opening of F.P. Journe’s Hong Kong boutique and carried the first number in a five-piece edition.

The F.P. Journe Tourbillon Souverain “Chine 2010 38” sold for approximately $4,206,380 at Phillips’ Hong Kong Watch Auction XXII. One of five made for the opening of the Beijing boutique, it features a red lacquer dial inspired by the Chinese flag. Phillips described it as the only known example housed in the original 38mm case.

These four watches were never ordinary examples of regular-production Journe models. Two came from the 20 watches that supported the early Résonance project. The other two belonged to five-piece boutique editions tied to the company’s expansion in Asia. They combined rarity, provenance and a direct connection to the history of the manufacture. Their prices belong to a trophy market with little available supply. They should not become automatic pricing references for a Chronomètre Bleu, Élégante or current-production Souverain.

THE RECORDS ENLARGED THE SURGE, BUT THEY DID NOT CREATE IT

The four record lots clearly amplified F.P. Journe’s 196.9% growth. Remove all four, however, and the brand’s sales value still rose approximately 155% from the first half of 2025. Although the auction records made the surge larger and more dramatic, they did not create it. Even the more conservative figure describes an extraordinary revaluation across the brand.

THE TYPICAL F. P. JOURNE TRANSACTION BECAME FAR MORE EXPENSIVE

The median sale price provides stronger evidence than the auction total because a few multimillion-dollar watches have little influence on it. F.P. Journe’s median rose 81.7% to $215K. The price increase reached the middle of the market, not simply its most exceptional edge. More watches also changed hands. Unit volume increased 32.2%, the turnover rate reached 57.9%, and median selling time fell 25.3% to only 28 days. The wider secondary watch market took a median of 43 days to complete a sale. Buyers paid more, purchased more F.P. Journe watches and acted faster. Those are difficult conditions to reconcile with a market supported only by auction theater.

SCARCITY CAN STILL PRODUCE EXCESSIVE PRICES

F.P. Journe makes fewer than 1,000 watches per year, according to Christie’s, and produces approximately 95% of its components internally. Early brass-movement watches, Souscription pieces and boutique editions exist in much smaller numbers. Supply cannot expand quickly when demand rises. Collectors also shifted more money toward independent watchmakers as a group. The category grew 89% during the first half, with F.P. Journe at the center of that change in collector interest.

Scarcity alone cannot justify every price. A watch generates no earnings or cash flow, and no formula can establish the correct value of a Souscription Résonance. The result depends on how much a few collectors will pay for historical importance, technical originality and the possibility that another comparable example may remain unavailable for years. The trophy market is therefore vulnerable. If two or three major collectors step away, prices can fall quickly because the buyer pool is thin. A watch can be genuinely rare and still trade at an unsustainable price.

SO, IS F.P. JOURNE A BUBBLE?

The rarest auction pieces show signs of speculative excess. Prices accelerated rapidly, estimates repeatedly failed to anticipate demand, and four watches contributed nearly $29M to six months of sales. The 196.9% headline exaggerates how broadly values moved.

Calling the entire F.P. Journe market a bubble goes further than the evidence supports. Growth remains approximately 155% after removing the four largest auctions. The median price rose 81.7%, more watches sold, turnover remained strong and selling time fell to 28 days. Demand reached hundreds of transactions across the brand.

F.P. Journe now contains two closely connected markets. The trophy market covers foundational and exceptionally rare watches whose prices can reset during a single auction. The wider market includes hundreds of transactions that also became more expensive and more liquid. The trophy market produced the spectacle. The wider market supplied the confirmation.

WHAT TO WATCH IN THE SECOND HALF

The next record auction will attract attention, but ordinary transactions will provide the better test. If the median price remains near $215K, turnover stays above 50% and watches continue to sell faster than the broader market, the revaluation will look increasingly durable.

A different pattern would strengthen the bubble case. Rising inventory, falling turnover and longer selling periods would show that sellers moved ahead of demand. A widening gap between early trophy watches and regular-production pieces would also show that collectors became more selective.

The $13.922M Résonance defined the headline for the first half of 2026. The 28-day median selling time tells us more about what happened beneath it.

Sources: EveryWatch H1 2026 Secondary Market Report; Phillips’ New York results, Geneva results and Hong Kong results; Christie’s F.P. Journe Collecting Guide.

Next up: The Four Winners of the $10.5B H1 2026 Secondary Watch Market

ABOUT US

Watch Lover is written by two collectors who wear and follow watches, from everyday favorites to rare independent pieces. We cover the secondary market, new releases and the watchmakers behind them.

For more images and videos, follow watchlover.xo on Instagram.

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Rolex controlled 41% of the secondary watch market by value during the first half of 2026. Richard Mille recorded the highest median price among the seven largest brands, Tudor converted the greatest share of available inventory into sales among the top 30, and F.P. Journe increased sales value 196.88%.

EveryWatch based its H1 2026 Secondary Market Report on completed transactions from 650 dealers and 472 auction houses. The market generated $10.5 billion in sales, up 37.2% year over year on 795,000 watches sold. Median prices rose 19.3% to $5,900, while the turnover rate by value increased from 46% to 55.37%. Selling time moved in the other direction, with the median rising from 39 days to 43.

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ROLEX WON ON VOLUME

Rolex generated approximately $4.3 billion in secondary-market sales. Patek Philippe held 14.4% of the market, Audemars Piguet 9.4% and Omega 4.2%. The combined share of those three brands still fell short of Rolex.

Rolex sold 227,106 watches in six months at a median price of $13,937. Its total sales value increased 43.51%, compared with 37.2% for the overall market. That transaction volume gives dealers and collectors a large pool of comparable sales, which makes Rolex inventory easier to price and usually easier to resell. A Rolex effectively comes with its own price-discovery system.

The Daytona generated $962 million and the Datejust generated $940 million, placing them ahead of the Royal Oak at $668 million and the Nautilus at $516 million. The GMT-Master II rose 60% to $466 million and narrowly passed the Submariner at $465 million, with EveryWatch linking much of that growth to demand surrounding the discontinued “Pepsi.”

ROLEX CPO TURNED CERTIFICATION INTO SALES

Rolex Certified Pre-Owned sales increased 101% to $385 million and reached 9% of all secondary Rolex sales. Unworn Rolex sales fell approximately 25% to $335 million and an 8% share. CPO moved ahead of unworn Rolex in a single year.

Price helped explain the shift. The average CPO Rolex sold for approximately $16,800, between the broader Rolex average of $13,300 and the $19,200 average for an unworn example. Buyers paid more for certification and dealer backing while keeping a meaningful discount to unworn inventory.

Retail performance varied widely. Bucherer led CPO sales with $52 million, followed by Watches of Switzerland at $43 million and the 1916 Company at $40 million. The 1916 Company sold a CPO Rolex in a median of 24 days, while Mappin & Webb required 150 days. That spread points to major differences in pricing and inventory management among authorized retailers.

PATEK PHILIPPE GAINED GROUND ON AUDEMARS PIGUET

Patek Philippe’s secondary-market sales increased 52.36% to $1.51 billion, nearly twice Audemars Piguet’s 26.07% growth to $983 million. Patek’s unit sales rose 29.21%, compared with 13.45% for AP. More Patek watches changed hands, and the median price increased at the same time.

Growth also extended beyond the Nautilus, which rose 46% to $516 million. The Aquanaut climbed 65% to $225 million and passed the Royal Oak Offshore for the first time. Patek’s Perpetual Calendar collection increased 65% to $215 million, while its Chronograph collection gained seven positions on 55% growth.

VALUE RETENTION DEPENDS ON HOW IT IS MEASURED

Patek Philippe recorded the highest average premium to retail among the eight major brands in the report, at 75.4%. Audemars Piguet followed at 35.73%, with Rolex at 6.12%. Those were the only three major brands that traded above retail on average.

Rolex led when EveryWatch measured the proportion of each brand’s references trading above retail. Approximately 75.86% of Rolex references cleared retail, compared with 67.89% for Audemars Piguet and 52.04% for Patek Philippe. Rolex’s average premium was relatively small, but it applied across a much broader part of the catalog.

Patek’s figures also illustrated the effect of primary-market pricing. Its average secondary premium declined from 82% to 73% after a retail price increase, then recovered to approximately 75% in June. A higher retail price narrows the measured premium even when the secondary price remains steady.

RICHARD MILLE WON ON PRICE

Richard Mille generated $354 million from only 1,050 watches at a median price of $259,818. That was the highest median among the top seven brands and almost 19 times the Rolex median. Few brands can produce that much sales value from such limited volume.

The liquidity figures were weaker. Richard Mille recorded the lowest turnover rate among the top seven at 29.87%, and its watches took a median of 100 days to sell. Cartier’s greater volume pushed it ahead in total sales, $381.7 million to $354 million, even though Cartier sold at a far lower price per watch.

Richard Mille’s inventory carried a median age of 253 days, the oldest among the seven largest brands. The figures describe substantial pricing power along with a limited pool of buyers at those prices. The second half will show whether that inventory begins to move more quickly.

F.P. JOURNE COMBINED PRICE GROWTH WITH FASTER SALES

F.P. Journe generated $201.58 million from only 608 watches. Sales value rose 196.88%, while the median price increased 81.66% to $215,000. No other brand among the top seven approached that growth rate.

Several large auction sales lifted the headline figure. Journe placed four watches among the half’s ten largest auction results, led by a Chronomètre à Résonance at $13.922 million. Those four watches generated approximately $28.8 million, or 14.3% of the brand’s total secondary-market sales.

Removing those four transactions reduces F.P. Journe’s year-over-year growth from 196.88% to approximately 155%. The adjustment is conservative because it removes the exceptional 2026 results without making a corresponding change to the prior-year total. Growth still remained far ahead of every other top-seven brand.

The rest of the data also points to demand beyond the major auction lots. Unit volume rose 32.17%, turnover reached 57.88%, and median selling time fell 25.33% to 28 days. F.P. Journe approached Richard Mille’s median price while selling more than three times as quickly and converting almost twice the proportion of available value into completed sales.

THE REST OF THE TOP 10

Breitling ranked eighth with approximately $199 million in sales, up 35.78%. Vacheron Constantin ranked ninth at $174.8 million on 27.61% growth, while IWC completed the top 10 at $157.2 million, up 21.23%. All three grew, although each remained below a 2% share of the market.

Omega stood apart from that group in fourth place. It generated $440 million and held a 4.2% market share, the final position above 4% before the rankings narrowed sharply. Cartier and Richard Mille followed in the mid 3% range, with every lower-ranked brand below 2%.

TUDOR WON ON TURNOVER

Tudor climbed two positions to thirteenth as sales value increased 39.76% to $124 million. Its turnover rate reached 61.98%, the highest among the top 30 brands and slightly ahead of Seiko at 61.53%. Tudor watches sold in a median of 30 days at a median price of $3,865.

The Black Bay recorded a 95% turnover rate, the strongest of any collection in the report. Tudor also traded approximately 14% below retail on average, and fewer than 5% of its references sold above retail. Its strong turnover reflects accessible secondary pricing and steady demand, while its value-retention figures remain modest.

INDEPENDENT WATCHMAKERS GREW UNEVENLY

Independent brands generated approximately $354.6 million, up 89.03% year over year. That total exceeded the $284.1 million in secondary sales attributed to LVMH’s watch portfolio. Richemont and Swatch Group remained larger at $617 million and $633.8 million, respectively.

F.P. Journe accounted for more than half of the independent total. H. Moser & Cie. grew 64% to $26 million, Parmigiani Fleurier rose 60% to $21 million, and Daniel Roth increased 104% to approximately $6 million. M.A.D. Editions climbed 33 positions as sales value rose 228% to $4.8 million.

Results elsewhere in the category were much weaker. De Bethune grew only 2%, MB&F declined 16.64%, and Franck Muller fell 14 positions as sales value dropped 64.77%. Buyers concentrated their spending among a relatively small number of independent watchmakers.

WHAT WE WANT TO SEE IN THE SECOND HALF

F.P. Journe’s 57.88% turnover rate will be one of the clearest tests of whether its growth can continue. More supply could lengthen selling times or reduce the rate at which listings convert to sales. Stable turnover at a $215,000 median would support the view that demand extends well beyond the major auction pieces.

Richard Mille faces a different issue. Its $259,818 median remains the highest in the group, but a 100-day selling cycle and 29.87% turnover rate leave considerable room for improvement. Cartier could widen its lead in aggregate sales if Richard Mille inventory continues to move slowly.

Tudor’s turnover will also be useful to follow as prices rise. The brand currently combines a $3,865 median with a 14% average discount to retail, and that pricing supports liquidity. A higher median could test how much of the current demand depends on that discount.

Rolex CPO will show whether certification continues to take share from unworn inventory. Retailers with long selling times may need to adjust prices or change the mix of watches they hold. Another period of rapid CPO growth would confirm that buyers increasingly assign value to authentication and dealer support.

Vacheron Constantin enters the second half with a reasonable lead over IWC, $174.8 million to $157.2 million. Both brands grew more slowly than several names around them, so a relatively small change in momentum could alter the lower end of the top 10. Their sales and selling times should provide a useful reading on demand outside the dominant brands.

The market-wide median selling time may be the most useful figure to track. It rose from 39 days to 43 even as sales value, volume and turnover improved. If selling time stabilizes while turnover remains near 55%, buyers are continuing to absorb more expensive inventory. A further increase would suggest that sellers are raising prices faster than demand can follow.

Source: EveryWatch H1 2026 Secondary Market Report.

Next up: Audemars Piguet Finally Sells Used Watches: 8 Years, 2 CEOs and a 20% Fee

ABOUT US

Watch Lover is written by two collectors who wear and follow watches, from everyday favorites to rare independent pieces. We cover the secondary market, new releases and the watchmakers behind them.

For more images and videos, follow watchlover.xo on Instagram.

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In this episode, we unpack the phenomenal success of the GRØNE Horologium drop, where Bart and Tim Grönefeld sold over a million dollars in watches in just six minutes. We break down the genius of their accessible "brand ladder" strategy, their highly unconventional marketing (which included polling cows), and the surprising buyer psychology that led the quiet "Something Classic" to sell out faster than the hyped "Something Quirky".

Topics covered in this episode:

• The Power of Locked-Out Demand: How the Grönefeld brothers successfully captured the pent-up demand from their flagship brand with an accessible $2,750 secondary line.

• Unconventional Marketing: A look at their direct, highly informal community engagement, from answering caseback questions in the Instagram comments to asking cows for their dial preferences.

• The Poll vs. The Wallet: Why pre-launch polls overwhelmingly favored the bright orange “Something Quirky,” but the most committed buyers cleared out the restrained salmon “Something Classic” first.

• The “Brand Ladder” Strategy: How independent watchmakers use secondary brands to build audience goodwill and maintain intentional scarcity without diluting their core brand’s prestige.

Based on our article “The GRØNE Horologium: Gone in Six Minutes” published August 15, 2026. Audio produced from our published text.

Next up: Inside Grönefeld: Masters of Independent Watchmaking

ABOUT US

Watch Lover is written by two collectors who wear and follow watches, from everyday favorites to rare independent pieces. We cover the secondary market, new releases and the watchmakers behind them.

For more images and videos, follow watchlover.xo on Instagram.

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^{‘Something Quirky’ and ‘Something Classic’ Horologium via GRØNE’s Instagram}

THE SELL-OUT

The GRØNE Horologium went on sale at 9:00 a.m. Eastern time on August 13. By 9:04 the "Something Classic" was gone. By 9:06 the "Something Quirky" followed. Bart and Tim Grönefeld confirmed the sellout times a few hours later in a post that showed them with beers in hand. The arithmetic follows from there: 376 watches at roughly $2,750 each is more than a million dollars of watches, moving at better than a watch per second.

^{Tim & Bart Gronefeld celebrating the Horologium sale via Tim’s Facebook}

WHAT THE WATCHES ARE

^{‘Something Quirky’ and ‘Something Classic’ Horologium casebacks via GRØNE’s Instagram}

The case measures 39 mm by 10 mm in stainless steel. A manual-wind La Joux-Perret movement with a 60-hour power reserve sits inside, finished with Côtes de Genève, heat-blued screws, and polished anglage. A raised small-seconds subdial and the line's first exhibition caseback complete the package. Deliveries start in mid-September. Each variant is capped at 188 pieces with a stated promise that the edition will never repeat.

^{Tim & Bart Gronefeld introducing the Horologium ‘Something Quirky’ & ‘Something Classic’ via GRØNE’s Instagrem}

"Something Quirky" carries a bright Dutch-orange dial with baby-blue accents, and a Dutch proverb printed in orange inside the sapphire caseback, translating loosely as "home sweet home." "Something Classic" uses a soft salmon dial with a sunray finish and leaves the crystal free of any printed text, so nothing sits between the eye and the movement. The two designs track the brothers' own tastes: the inscription is Bart, the restraint is Tim.

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WHY GRØNE EXISTS

The main Grönefeld brand has been closed to new orders for years. The brothers’ Oldenzaal atelier produces roughly 80 watches a year, entry prices sit north of $50,000, rising to roughly $190,000 for the most complicated pieces, and the wait lists stretch for years. On the secondary market a steel 1941 Grönograaf currently lists at more than $220,000, well above what the atelier charged, and the brand’s own site shows the steel edition under a temporary order stop, which is what locked-out demand looks like in numbers. Scarcity built the brand’s desirability, but scarcity also puts a ceiling on the business: when the atelier can physically make 80 watches, enormous demand does not translate into growth. A large group of collectors admire the design language and trust the makers yet have no realistic path to ownership. That locked-out demand still exists. It simply needs a product to land on.

GRØNE is that product. It comes from the same brothers, carries the same design DNA drawn from the 1941 collection, and lands at roughly one-twentieth the price. The edition sizes are a deliberate choice, and the finishing is real. The brothers have been unusually open about the economics: the new movement costs a multiple of the previous one, the bill of materials rose sharply, and they held the price anyway because the line is meant to stay accessible. At $2,750 the value holds up for the collectors who could never reach the main brand.

The loop is starting to close, too. Buyers on two platforms reported waiting at the opening and still walking away empty-handed. The brand built to absorb locked-out demand has begun generating some of its own.

HOW THEY MARKETED THE HOROLOGIUM

^{“The great battle of ‘Something Quirky’ vs ‘Something Classic’ is on! Everyone in our atelier has picked a side. “ via GRØNE’s Instagram}

The campaign put the family identity front and center. Swiss and German maisons advertise formally, all product close-ups and hushed voice-over. The brothers walked the atelier floor and asked every staff member which version they preferred, on camera. Then they took the same question outside to a pair of cows at a fence. One answered the Quirky with a clear moo and turned away from the Classic; asked whether any cows were Classic cows, the herd declined to comment. No other brand we follow would put cows in an ad, and that is the point. It captured who the brothers are: distinctly Dutch, allergic to formality, and clearly enjoying themselves. The captions asked viewers the same question.

^{“Are you Quirky or Classic? Some moo-ving responses🐮 “ via GRØNE’s Instagram}

The brothers also worked the comments themselves. When a collector asked why a Dutch brand's watch says Swiss made, Tim explained the split personally: GRØNE is made in Switzerland, Grönefeld in Oldenzaal, at completely different volumes. Bart fielded a finishing question the same way, explaining that Côtes de Genève belongs to GRØNE's Swiss movements, while Grönefeld pieces keep their own hand-finished language. And when a buyer agonized over choosing between the two dials, Tim replied with the only answer a co-founder could: why not get both. Two makers whose flagship pieces cost as much as a Porsche were answering caseback questions in their own comment section. That access is part of the product.

THE POLL GOT IT WRONG

The orange “Something Quirky” drew most of the pre-launch attention. It photographs loudly and announces itself. A collector who ran an informal poll in the brand’s comments days before launch had Quirky winning, 57 to 43. Sentiment favored orange. So did we, and for a practical reason: we already own a salmon dial from these brothers, the Manueel Bart’s One, and the Classic sat too close to it. The Quirky filled a slot nothing in the box filled. That may be a clue about who bought the Classic so fast; a buyer already holding a Manueel had a reason to pass, so the four-minute crowd likely skewed toward collectors coming to the brand fresh.

^{our Grone Manueel One Bart’s One}

The wallets went the other way. With identical pricing, identical edition sizes, and identical access, the collectors who showed up at 9:00 a.m. sharp cleared the quiet salmon first. The four-minute buyers are the most committed segment of the audience, and their revealed preference was restraint. Ours was not. We were in the six-minute group.

The caseback may have played a part. For the collectors most focused on the movement, Classic offers the fully unobstructed view through the sapphire, and at least one said in the brand’s comments that this tipped the choice. Either way, the gap between what people said they wanted and what they bought at the opening bell is the story. These buyers look less like hype collectors who stumbled onto a limited drop and more like Grönefeld admirers who finally found an open door, and their taste was formed by the main brand’s classicism.

THE PATTERN ACROSS RELEASES

The Manueel One, the brand’s 2024 debut, sold out within hours. We own two of the three references, Tim’s One and Bart’s One, each named for a brother and true to type. Tim’s is the restrained one, a beige dial that goes to the office under most suits and blazers. Bart’s is the extrovert, salmon, and stays home on weekdays. The Horologium runs the same split at a faster clock. The Moment Meter chronograph went in under nine minutes. The Horologium Classic went in four. Each release moved faster than the last. The drops are training an audience of their own rather than simply borrowing heat from the main brand.

^{our Grone Manueel One Tim’s One}

This is a structure other independents run too. MB&F does it with M.A.D.Editions (we own a M.A.D.2), Hajime Asaoka with Kurono Tokyo: the unobtainable flagship builds the equity, the accessible line converts it. Luxury conglomerates spend decades and entire portfolio strategies engineering this kind of brand ladder. Two brothers in Oldenzaal built one with a second logo. They could charge more or make more pieces. They choose not to. The unmet demand at this price keeps the next drop an event, and the goodwill of an attainable price leaves the flagship’s mystique intact.

THE SECOND CHANNEL STILL FEELS LIKE THEIR WORK

Earlier this summer we covered the Grönefeld story in depth, as a written article with voiceover and as a podcast episode for those who prefer to listen. The Horologium drop sits in the same line of thinking. Even the edition size echoes the flagship: the steel 1941 Grönograaf, the atelier's GPHG-winning chronograph, is limited to 188 pieces, and each Horologium variant carries the same cap. The brothers keep the complicated production small and then build a second channel that carries their signature without diluting it. On August 13 that channel moved 376 watches before most people finished their morning coffee. We skipped ours to be in the queue.

Next up: Inside Grönefeld: Masters of Independent Watchmaking

ABOUT US

Watch Lover is written by two collectors who wear and follow watches, from everyday favorites to rare independent pieces. We cover the secondary market, new releases and the watchmakers behind them.

For more images and videos, follow watchlover.xo on Instagram.

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After tripling revenue at Audemars Piguet, Bennahmias is trading the traditional owned manufacture for a “portable watchmaking ecosystem”. This model leverages a $37 million investment to coordinate a network of world-class independent specialists, including enamelist Anita Porchet and engine-turning expert Yann von Kaenel, without the massive overhead of building a factory from the ground up.

In this video, we analyze:

• The Capital Efficiency Model: How N3W5 uses its $37 million in funding to access elite craftsmanship through industrial partners like Biwi and Metalem instead of fixed infrastructure.

• The Profit-Sharing Philosophy: Why offering artisans like Anita Porchet creative freedom and an equal share in profits is a strategic move to secure the industry’s best ideas.

• The Scaling Challenge: How a brand built on “intimate craftsmanship” plans to produce several thousand watches annually at a price point of $25,000 to $74,000.

• Institutional Trust vs. Personal Credibility: The risks of building a “ghost brand” that lacks a historical archive and must convince skeptical collectors of its long-term durability.

Is this the future of Swiss watchmaking, or a “Design by Committee” risk? Watch to find out how Bennahmias plans to create an icon from scratch.

Based on our article “N3W5: What Former Audemars Piguet CEO François-Henri Bennahmias Is Building” published August 6, 2026. Audio produced from our published text.

Next up: Audemars Piguet Finally Sells Used Watches: 8 Years, 2 CEOs and a 20% Fee

ABOUT US

Watch Lover is written by two collectors who wear and follow watches, from everyday favorites to rare independent pieces. We cover the secondary market, new releases and the watchmakers behind them.

For more images and videos, follow watchlover.xo on Instagram.

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When François-Henri Bennahmias stepped down as CEO of Audemars Piguet at the end of 2023, he left one of the most successful companies in modern watchmaking. Bennahmias joined AP in 1994, became interim CEO in 2012 and assumed the permanent position in 2013. During his tenure, annual revenue more than tripled (250% up, from $830M to $2.9B), while production grew by less than two-thirds (59% up, from 32K watches to 51K watches), doubling per-watch revenue.

Audemars Piguet reduced its reliance on traditional retailers and brought more clients into its boutiques. AP Houses replaced the atmosphere of a conventional watch store with private spaces built around hospitality and personal relationships. Collaborations with Jay-Z, LeBron James, Marvel and Travis Scott also placed the brand inside contemporary culture, even when they divided traditional collectors. The Royal Oak became one of the defining luxury products of its generation.

N3W5 will test how much of that success Bennahmias can reproduce without AP’s history or its most famous watch. Pronounced “news,” N3W5 takes its name from the four cardinal directions. It sits within The Honourable Merchants Group, the private luxury company Bennahmias established after leaving AP.

N3W5 secured approximately $37M from undisclosed investors. Its first watches are scheduled to appear at Dubai Watch Week in late 2027, with commercial sales expected in 2028. Prices will start around $25K and rise to approximately $74K. Two collections have been announced. The first will use a round case, followed by a cushion-shaped collection expected in 2028. Each will have a newly developed mechanical caliber. One movement is protected by multiple patents, and early reports refer to a “spatial pivot,” although no detailed technical explanation was released.

Bennahmias initially attempted to acquire De Bethune and reportedly held discussions with two other independent watchmakers. When those talks ended without an agreement, he decided to build from the ground up. An acquisition would have provided existing watches, clients and history. N3W5 begins instead with a prominent founder, significant capital and an extensive network of specialists.

That network is the most interesting part of the project. Enamellist Anita Porchet created work for Patek Philippe, Vacheron Constantin, Hermès and Piaget. Yann von Kaenel of Décors Guillochés developed the concentric pattern used on the redesigned Code 11.59 dials. Independent artisans Pierre-Alain Lozeron and Kevin Vatteau will handle engraving. The design team includes Sébastien Perret, Xavier Casals and Dalibor Klas. Casals previously worked at Audemars Piguet and later became artistic director of HYT, where he worked alongside Perret’s Neuchâtel agency, Étude de Style. Their history gives N3W5 a design team with an established working relationship rather than one assembled solely for the announcement. The industrial partners include Biwi, Multicuirs and Werthanor for cases, bracelets and straps. LM Cadrans and Metalem are involved with the dials, while Alpine Précision, Régence Production and TimeForge are among the movement specialists.

These companies normally work behind the names printed on watch dials. N3W5 is making the production network part of its public identity. Bennahmias said that he wants to reward everyone involved in creating value. Profit sharing forms part of the wider Honourable Merchants Group philosophy, although the precise arrangements with every external partner have not been disclosed. The most specific example involves Porchet who will receive unusual creative freedom while sharing equally in the profits from her contribution.

The structure has a practical business purpose. Exceptional independent specialists have limited capacity and can choose their projects. Recognition, creative influence and a financial interest may help N3W5 secure their strongest work.

The supplier network also allows N3W5 to use its capital efficiently. At 3K watches and an assumed average retail price of $40K annual retail sales would reach approximately $120M. Building an owned manufacture capable of supporting that scale would consume much of the company’s $37M before the first watch reached a client. Working with established specialists gives N3W5 access to expensive capabilities without recreating every workshop internally. What sounds like a statement about collaboration is also a financial strategy.

The approach carries risks. A group of exceptional contributors does not automatically produce a coherent watch. Each component may be beautifully made while the finished object still lacks a recognizable identity.

Production in the several-thousand-piece range also places N3W5 well beyond the smallest artisanal independents. Porchet and von Kaenel are unlikely to decorate every watch personally. Their work may be reserved for limited pieces, while more scalable processes support the wider collection. N3W5 will have to explain how much of its celebrated handcraft is present in the watches most clients can buy.

Bennahmias must also convert personal credibility into institutional trust. His relationships with prominent collectors may provide an audience for the first pieces, but early sales within that network will not establish lasting demand. Buyers spending $25K or more will want confidence in servicing and the company’s long-term survival. Resale value will also be watched closely.

Code 11.59 offers the clearest warning. Audemars Piguet launched the collection in 2019 with considerable technical resources and nearly 150 years of history behind it. The initial response was still difficult. Later references improved the collection, but its reception showed how reluctant collectors can be to transfer their affection from a familiar design to an unfamiliar one.

N3W5 is asking them to make a larger leap. It has no Royal Oak drawing people toward the rest of its catalog and no archive capable of giving a new design immediate historical context.

The market is also unsettled. Swiss watch exports totaled approximately $15.9B during the first half of 2026, down 0.7%. Greater China stabilized, although only after a 30% decline over the previous two years. The Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry reported continued pressure on suppliers as retailers remained cautious about restocking. Exports improved modestly in May and then rose 11.2% in June, suggesting that the opportunity to secure specialist capacity while order books remain soft may not last.

The first collection will show whether the design and engineering justify the names attached to it. The more consequential test will come after curiosity surrounding Bennahmias’ return fades.

N3W5 is built on the belief that a modern watch company can earn legitimacy through the quality of its collaborators and the way it treats them. Bennahmias already shown that he knows how to enlarge the meaning of an established name. N3W5 will reveal whether he can create one.

All dollar equivalents are approximate and use an August 5, 2026 exchange rate of approximately $1.24 per Swiss franc. No inflation adjustment has been applied.

Next up: Audemars Piguet Finally Sells Used Watches: 8 Years, 2 CEOs and a 20% Fee

ABOUT US

Watch Lover is written by two collectors who wear and follow watches, from everyday favorites to rare independent pieces. We cover the secondary market, new releases and the watchmakers behind them.

For more images and videos, follow watchlover.xo on Instagram.

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Key Discussion Points

• A Century of Heritage: The Grönefeld story began in 1912 with Johan Grönefeld in Oldenzaal, who maintained the clock in the Basilica of St. Plechelmus. This heritage continues today with brothers Bart and Tim Grönefeld, and is now entering its fourth generation as their children began training in 2024.

• Distinctive Movement Architecture: Unlike most watchmakers who use brass or German silver, Grönefeld movements feature stainless steel bridges. These are more difficult to machine and finish but provide a unique brightness and visual weight. The bridge shapes are inspired by the bell-gabled façades of traditional Dutch architecture.

• Mechanical Innovation: The brothers focus on solving real mechanical problems through inventive engineering:

  • 1941 Remontoire: Uses an eight-second constant-force mechanism to ensure consistent energy flow.

  • One Hertz: Features an independent dead-seconds mechanism.

  • 1941 Grönograaf: Incorporates a centrifugal governor—typically found in minute repeaters—to slow and soften the reset of the chronograph hands, protecting the mechanism from stress.

• Award-Winning Excellence: The sources detail Grönefeld’s success at the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG), where they have won three prizes across different categories: Tourbillon (2014), Men’s Watch (2016), and Chronograph (2022).

• The Philosophy of Finishing: Even “approachable” models like the 1941 Principia require roughly five weeks of hand-decoration and assembly. The brand produces only about 80 watches a year, prioritizing meticulous hand-finishing over high-volume production.

• Place in Modern Watchmaking: Grönefeld is positioned alongside legends like Philippe Dufour and F.P. Journe, defined by a balance of original engineering, Dutch identity, and artisanal hand-finishing.

Based on our article “Inside Grönefeld: Masters of Independent Watchmaking” published July 18, 2026. Audio produced from our published text.

Next up: The GRØNE Horologium: Gone in Six Minutes

ABOUT US

Watch Lover is written by two collectors who wear and follow watches, from everyday favorites to rare independent pieces. We cover the secondary market, new releases and the watchmakers behind them.

For more images and videos, follow watchlover.xo on Instagram.

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In this episode, we explore:

• The origins of Girard-Perregaux in 1791
• Constant Girard, Marie Perregaux, and the Three Gold Bridges
• The manufacture’s early wristwatches for German naval officers
• The Gyromatic HF and the 32,768 Hz quartz standard
• The evolution of the Laureato since 1975
• The GP4800 and Constant Escapement movements
• Girard-Perregaux’s Formula 1 partnerships with Ferrari, Aston Martin, and Williams
• Patrick Pruniaux and the company’s return to independence

We also discuss our personal connection to the manufacture. We own a diamond-bezel Laureato Fifty 36mm and a Laureato Chronograph Ice Blue 42mm, one of only 180 pieces. We have also met Patrick Pruniaux at two events he hosted with Wempe in New York.

Based on our article “Girard-Perregaux: Making the Invisible Visible” published August 3, 2026. Audio produced from our published text.

Next up: N3W5: What Former Audemars Piguet CEO François-Henri Bennahmias Is Building

ABOUT US

Watch Lover is written by two collectors who wear and follow watches, from everyday favorites to rare independent pieces. We cover the secondary market, new releases and the watchmakers behind them.

For more images and videos, follow watchlover.xo on Instagram.

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Girard-Perregaux is one of Switzerland’s oldest watch manufactures. Its contributions include the Three Gold Bridges, high-frequency mechanical movements, the frequency that became the quartz industry standard, the Laureato, and the Constant Escapement.

We own two Girard-Perregaux Laureatos with “Clous de Paris” dials. One is the Laureato Fifty 36mm, the other is the Laureato Chronograph Ice Blue 42mm, a limited edition of 180 pieces.

The watches have very different personalities, but their shared design is immediately recognizable. Both have the “Clous de Paris” dial, an octagonal bezel, a circular dial, an integrated bracelet with a combination of polished and brushed surfaces.

We met Patrick Pruniaux, CEO of Girard-Perregaux and the Sowind Group, at two events he hosted along with Wempe in New York. Those events gave us the opportunity to meet the person leading the manufacture during its current period of independence.

^{Girard-Perregaux and Wempe NYC event}

Our interest in Girard-Perregaux grew through owning and wearing the watches, studying the company’s history, and meeting the people connected to the manufacture.

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THE EARLY HISTORY OF GIRARD-PERREGAUX

Girard-Perregaux traces its origins to 1791 and Jean-François Bautte, a Geneva watchmaker, goldsmith, and entrepreneur. His workshops brought together movement production, case work, engraving, and jewelry. This was an early form of integrated watch manufacturing. Bautte became known for producing ultra-thin watches and elaborate mechanical objects for an international clientele.

The Girard-Perregaux name appeared after Constant Girard married Marie Perregaux. The company was established in La Chaux-de-Fonds in 1856.

Girard-Perregaux played an early role in the development of the wristwatch. During the late nineteenth century, the company produced a substantial series of wristwatches for German naval officers.

Most men still used pocket watches at the time, and since naval duties required the use of both hands, the pocket watch was inconvenient. Wearing a watch on the wrist allowed an officer to check the time quickly while continuing to work.

THE THREE GOLD BRIDGES

During the 1860s, Constant Girard developed a tourbillon movement constructed beneath three parallel bridges. These bridges secured the barrel, gear train, and regulating organ. Instead of treating them only as structural components, Girard made them central to the appearance of the movement.

Girard patented the refined three-bridge design in the United States in 1884. Five years later, his celebrated La Esmeralda pocket watch received a gold medal at the Paris Universal Exposition. Its movement featured three parallel, arrow-shaped bridges made of gold.

The design established a design identity that Girard-Perregaux continues to use today. The bridges allow the viewer to understand the organization of the movement while also providing balance and visual structure.

Girard-Perregaux describes this approach as “making the invisible visible.” The same idea appears in the company’s modern Bridges collection and several of its current movements.

GIRARD-PERREGAUX AND THE PURSUIT OF PRECISION

In the 1950s, Girard-Perregaux introduced the Gyromatic automatic-winding system. This work eventually produced the Gyromatic HF, one of the early high-frequency mechanical movements. It operated at 36,000 vibrations per hour.

In 1966 the manufacture’s achievements in precision were recognized, when it received the Centenary Prize of the Neuchâtel Observatory. The present-day 1966 collection takes its name from this period.

In 1971, Girard-Perregaux introduced a quartz movement operating at 32,768 Hz. The frequency could be divided efficiently to produce a one-second impulse and became the standard used throughout the quartz-watch industry.

These developments show the range of Girard-Perregaux’s technical work, from mechanical chronometry to electronic timekeeping.

THE GIRARD-PERREGAUX LAUREATO

Girard-Perregaux introduced the Laureato in 1975. It was one of the early integrated-bracelet luxury sports watches of that decade and was developed internally by the manufacture.

^{Girard-Perregaux Laureato 1975 to today}

The design combines an octagonal bezel with a circular base, a flowing case, and an integrated bracelet. Brushed surfaces are bordered by polished bevels, and many versions have a “Clous de Paris” dial that adds depth and texture.

The Laureato looks clean and balanced from a distance. A closer view shows how the bezel, case, dial, and bracelet respond differently to light. These details give the watch visual interest without making the design feel crowded.

The original Laureato used a highly precise quartz movement, which connected it directly to Girard-Perregaux’s work in quartz technology. Later generations adopted mechanical manufacture movements while retaining the original design language.

^{Girard-Perregaux Laureato movements over time}

The proportions have changed over the past five decades, but the watch remains easily identifiable. The design supported a wide range of case sizes, materials, complications, and dial treatments.

OUR TWO GIRARD-PERREGAUX LAUREATOS

Our diamond-bezel Laureato Fifty 36mm emphasizes the more elegant side of the design. The diamonds follow the octagonal shape of the bezel, and the silver “Clous de Paris” dial adds texture without overwhelming the watch. The integrated bracelet gives it enough presence for everyday wear, while the diamonds also make it suitable for more formal settings.

^{Girard-Perregaux Laureato Fifty 36mm}

Our Girard-Perregaux Laureato Chronograph Ice Blue 42mm has a more assertive character. Its ice-blue “Clous de Paris” dial was a new color for the Laureato when the watch was introduced. The chronograph counters have concentric circular patterns that separate them from the texture of the main dial while preserving the monochromatic appearance.

The watch has a 42mm case and integrated bracelet made from 904L stainless steel. Alternating polished and satin-finished surfaces emphasize the shapes of the bezel, case, and bracelet. The automatic Caliber GP03300 powers the chronograph, date display, and small seconds.

The ice-blue dial gives the watch a distinctive appearance without changing the established Laureato design. Its limited production also makes it a particularly uncommon version of the Laureato Chronograph.

Living with these two watches helped us understand the flexibility of the Laureato design. The diamond-set model and the Ice Blue chronograph look and feel different on the wrist, but the octagonal bezel, integrated bracelet, and careful use of contrasting finishes connect them clearly.

GIRARD-PERREGAUX AND FORMULA 1

Girard-Perregaux supported motorsport for decades. Its partnership with Ferrari ran from 1994 through 2004 and produced chronographs, split-seconds chronographs, perpetual calendars, and world timers. Many of these watches drew design inspiration from specific Ferrari road and racing cars.

The company returned to Formula 1 in 2021 as the official watch partner of Aston Martin and its Formula 1 team. The relationship produced several limited editions, including Laureato chronographs and the Tourbillon with Three Flying Bridges Aston Martin Edition.

For the 2026 season, Girard-Perregaux began a multiyear partnership with the Atlassian Williams F1 Team as its Official Watch Partner and Chronograph.

Watchmaking and racing depend on precision, timing, materials, and mechanical performance. Girard-Perregaux’s relationships with Ferrari, Aston Martin, and Williams show a sustained commitment to motorsport across several decades.

Our Laureato Chronograph Ice Blue gives us a personal connection to this part of the company’s identity. It is not an F1-branded watch, but its chronograph function and legible counters fit naturally within Girard-Perregaux’s association with racing.

PATRICK PRUNIAUX AND GIRARD-PERREGAUX’S INDEPENDENCE

In 2022, Girard-Perregaux and Ulysse Nardin returned to independent ownership through a management-led acquisition of the Sowind Group from Kering. Patrick Pruniaux led the transaction and continues to guide the two manufactures.

Pruniaux’s background includes senior positions at TAG Heuer and work at Apple during the development and introduction of the Apple Watch. His experience covers traditional Swiss watchmaking, luxury management, and consumer technology.

Meeting Pruniaux at the two Wempe New York events gave us a closer view of Girard-Perregaux’s current leadership. Collectors usually experience a watch company through its watches, boutiques, and communications. Meeting the person running the company creates a more direct connection.

Watches also accumulate personal associations over time. They become connected to the circumstances in which they were acquired, the places where they were worn, and the people met through collecting. Those events became part of our experience with Girard-Perregaux.

MODERN WATCHMAKING: THE GP4800 & CONSTANT ESCAPEMENT

The Caliber GP4800 is an important recent development for the Laureato. It includes a silicon escapement, hacking seconds, a variable-inertia balance, and a power reserve of at least 55 hours. A skeletonized 18-karat gold rotor leaves much of the decorated movement visible.

The GP4800’s architecture includes references to the Three Bridges. Girard-Perregaux incorporated that history into the movement’s construction and finishing. The caliber now powers the latest Laureato Fifty models in 36mm and 39mm sizes.

^{GP4800 - Laureato Fifty Movement}

The Constant Escapement represents another area of Girard-Perregaux’s technical work. A mechanical watch receives varying levels of energy as its mainspring unwinds. Girard-Perregaux developed a system that uses a thin silicon blade buckling between two stable positions to deliver consistent impulses to the regulating organ.

The Constant Escapement entered production in 2013 and received the Aiguille d’Or from the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève that year.

The current Neo Constant Escapement provides at least seven days of power reserve and places the mechanism at the center of the watch’s design.

WHY WE VALUE GIRARD-PERREGAUX

Girard-Perregaux’s history includes tourbillons, early wristwatches, automatic-winding systems, high-frequency chronometers, quartz movements, integrated-bracelet sports watches, and silicon escapements. A consistent interest in combining mechanical structure with visual design runs through these developments.

Our two Laureatos express that idea in watches we can wear regularly. Their construction, proportions, and finishing become easier to appreciate with time and use.

Our connection with Girard-Perregaux comes from the history we have studied, the watches we own, and the people we have met through the company. The Three Bridges provide a fitting symbol for all three. They hold the movement together while allowing the viewer to see and understand how the watch works.

That idea remains visible in Girard-Perregaux watches today.

Unless otherwise noted, images and videos courtesy of Girard-Perregaux and Watch Lover.

Next up: N3W5: What Former Audemars Piguet CEO François-Henri Bennahmias Is Building

ABOUT US

Watch Lover is written by two collectors who wear and follow watches, from everyday favorites to rare independent pieces. We cover the secondary market, new releases and the watchmakers behind them.

For more images and videos, follow watchlover.xo on Instagram.

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^{Image: Grönefeld}

From Oldenzaal, a small Dutch city near the German border, brothers Bart and Tim Grönefeld built one of the most respected names in independent watchmaking.

Their movements are immediately recognizable, combining sculpted stainless steel bridges, meticulous hand finishing and inventive mechanisms that solve real mechanical problems.

^{Johan Grönefeld workshop and boutique 1912}

The family story began in 1912 and is now entering its fourth generation. Bart and Tim Grönefeld strengthened that heritage with advanced Swiss training and years spent working on demanding complications, before launching their own brand. Three Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève awards later, Grönefeld belongs in any serious discussion of the world’s finest watch movements.

^{Tim Grönefeld, ‘Tim’, born in 1972 and Bartholomeus Grönefeld, ‘Bart’, born in 1969}

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Four Generations of Watchmaking

2. How Bart and Tim Mastered Complications

3. What Makes a Grönefeld Movement Different

4. The Watches That Built the Reputation

5. Grönefeld’s Most Approachable Watch

6. Does Grönefeld Make the Best Movements?

1. FOUR GENERATIONS OF WATCHMAKING

^{Johan Grönefeld, born in 1896}

The Grönefeld story began in 1912, when Johan Grönefeld established the family’s watchmaking business in Oldenzaal. He also cared for the clock in the tower of the nearby Basilica of St. Plechelmus. His son Sjef continued the trade, and his grandsons Bart and Tim became the third generation to work as watchmakers.

^{Johannes Grönefeld, ‘Sjef’, born in 1941}

That history still shapes the modern brand. The 1941 collection is named for the year Sjef was born, while the movement bridges recall the bell-gabled façades found in traditional Dutch architecture. The family’s experience with the basilica clock also helped inspire the use of constant-force mechanisms in the brothers’ wristwatches.

^{Dutch houses}

The story is now moving into a fourth generation. Bart and Tim’s children began watchmaking training at the company in 2024. They also appeared with the brothers at the 2026 Watches and Wonders, showing that the next chapter is already beginning inside the atelier.

^{The children of Bart and Tim Grönefeld starting with watchmaking training}

Few independent watchmakers can point to more than a century of continuous family involvement. At Grönefeld, heritage is not simply a date printed in advertising. It continues to influence the people, movements and visual identity of the watches.

2. WHAT MAKES A GRÖNEFELD MOVEMENT DIFFERENT

Plenty of independent watchmakers finish movements beautifully. Grönefeld’s advantage is that the architecture itself is original. Its broad bridges are made from stainless steel rather than the brass or German silver commonly used for movement construction. Their centers are micro-blasted and circular-grained, while the bevels are polished by hand. Gold chatons, polished countersinks, relief engraving and carefully decorated wheels complete the design.

^{Grönefeld - The 1941 Grönograaf movement}

Steel is harder and less forgiving to machine and finish than more traditional bridge materials. The choice increases the difficulty of producing clean bevels and polished surfaces, but it also gives Grönefeld movements their distinctive brightness and visual weight.

The movements look architectural without becoming crowded. Enough of the mechanism remains visible for an owner to understand how the components interact, so the decoration emphasizes the engineering rather than concealing it.

^{Grönefeld - 1941 Principia movement}

That standard takes time. The 1941 Principia, with a comparatively less complex movement, requires about five weeks to decorate and assemble, only a few days less than the more complicated now discontinued 1941 Remontoire.

^{Grönefeld - The 1941 Remontoire movement (discontinued)}

Grönefeld’s annual output historically remained in the dozens rather than the hundreds or thousands. Production is at roughly 80 watches a year, with expansion approached cautiously because increasing volume too quickly could compromise the finishing that built the company’s reputation.

^{Grönefeld - One Hertz movement (discontinued)}

^{Grönefeld - One Hertz dial (discontinued)}

The engineering beneath those surfaces is equally important. The now discontinued One Hertz used an independent dead-seconds mechanism, allowing its seconds hand to jump once per second from its own gear train and power source. The 1941 Remontoire used an eight-second constant-force mechanism designed to prevent the energy reaching the balance from declining as the mainspring unwinds.

^{Grönefeld - 1941 Grönograaf dial}

The 1941 Grönograaf chronograph addresses a different problem. Chronograph hands normally snap back to zero, creating forces that may stress the mechanism. Grönefeld added a centrifugal governor, a device more commonly found in minute repeaters, to slow and soften the reset.

These are not complications included merely to lengthen a specification sheet. Each one addresses a real mechanical concern and turns the solution into part of the watch’s character.

3. THE WATCHES THAT BUILT THE REPUTATION

Grönefeld’s record at the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève tells the story of the brand’s excellence.

^{Grönefeld - The 1941 Parallax Tourbillon (discontinued)}

The now discontinued Parallax Tourbillon won the Tourbillon Watch Prize in 2014. The now discontinued 1941 Remontoire received the Men’s Watch Prize in 2016, and the 1941 Grönograaf earned the Chronograph Watch Prize in 2022.

^{Grönefeld - The 1941 Remontoire (discontinued)}

Three awards across three categories demonstrate unusual range. especially for a smaller independent watchmaker. Grönefeld was not repeatedly rewarded for variations on one successful model. The judges recognized the brothers’ work on a tourbillon, a constant-force watch and a chronograph.

^{Grönefeld - The 1941 Grönograaf}

The production numbers also reveal the company’s scale. The first 1941 Grönograaf edition was made in tantalum, now discontinued, and limited to 25 pieces, followed by 188 watches in stainless steel, still in production. Rarity alone does not make a watch important. In Grönefeld’s case, scarcity is a consequence of the labor involved, not a substitute for substance. The watches are difficult to obtain because the movements take time to finish, assemble and regulate.

4. GRÖNEFELD’S MOST APPROACHABLE WATCH

Introduced in 2018, the 1941 Principia was Grönefeld’s first automatic three-hand watch and remains the most approachable model in its main collection.

“Approachable” is relative, at €44,900 in stainless steel, €57,750 in red gold and €59,950 in white gold, excluding taxes and shipping. High demand and limited production capacity prevent Grönefeld from accepting ordinary orders for the time being. Interested buyers are directed toward a wait list, and the completion can take months or even years.

^{Grönefeld - 1941 Principia dial}

The 1941 Principia removes the tourbillon, remontoire and chronograph, but it does not remove the workmanship. Its automatic G-06 movement contains 226 components and provides a 56-hour power reserve. It uses a solid 22-karat gold rotor, 31 jewels, partially set in solid-gold chatons, and the same stainless steel bridges with hand-polished bevels, micro-blasted centers and circular graining found throughout the brand. Each movement is finished and assembled by hand and carries an individually numbered gold plate.

Its five-week decoration and assembly period may be the clearest explanation of Grönefeld’s pricing. Even when the brothers remove the major complications, the time-consuming finishing remains. The 1941 Principia is simpler mechanically, but it is not treated as a lesser watch. That is what makes it such a revealing entry point into the brand. Buyers are paying less for complexity, not for reduced attention to the movement.

5. DOES GRÖNEFELD MAKE THE BEST MOVEMENTS?

There is no objective way to name one watchmaker the best. Philippe Dufour represents one ideal of traditional hand finishing. F.P. Journe approaches chronometry and movement construction differently. Kari Voutilainen and Greubel Forsey offer their own interpretations of mechanical and decorative excellence. A. Lange & Söhne’s movements, especially those powering its Triple Split, Double Split, Datograph and Zeitwerk references, are renown for their complexity. Grönefeld’s case rests on the balance it achieves.

The movements are beautifully finished, but they are not decorative shells built around conventional ideas. Their mechanisms are inventive and purposeful. Their architecture is immediately recognizable, and the family history genuinely influences the watches rather than simply surrounding them with a convenient story.

The company also remains small enough for Bart and Tim Grönefeld’s point of view to stay visible. The shape of the bridges, the independent seconds train and the controlled chronograph reset all feel like decisions made by working watchmakers, not features selected by a distant marketing department.

Grönefeld may not make the single, undisputed best movement in the world. No company can prove that title. But the combination of original engineering, difficult hand finishing, Dutch identity and four generations of family involvement places Grönefeld firmly among the finest movement makers working today.

^{All images courtesy of Grönefeld}

Next up: The GRØNE Horologium: Gone in Six Minutes

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