Independent watchmaking remains one of the most compelling corners of the modern watch world because it still has room for risk.
The best small makers aren’t trying to please everyone, and that’s often the point.
Across five recent debuts, the ideas range from a reimagined historic escapement to a platinum-cased one-hander, each offering a different answer to what contemporary haute horlogerie can look like when scale is kept deliberately small.
At a glance
- Five emerging independent watchmakers stand out for distinctive first or early creations.
- The watches include rare escapement work, hand finishing, jumping hours, retrograde displays and unusually restrained one-hand timekeeping.
- Production is highly limited across several pieces, with confirmed prices ranging from CHF 10,998 to CHF 150,000.
Small ateliers with unusually big ideas
L’Atelier Bernard arrives with the kind of debut that immediately signals serious intent.
Founded by Bernard van Ormelingen and Bernard Braboretz, the atelier’s first watch, The Owl, uses a reworked Duplex escapement, a mechanism more commonly associated with 18th- and 19th-century pocket watches than contemporary wristwatches.
The visual drama doesn’t stop at the regulating system.
Its barrels are decorated with three-dimensional guilloché, and the surrounding finishing gives the watch the feel of a studied object rather than a conventional debut model.
Only six examples are being made, all already allocated, with a price of CHF 150,000.
Mathieu Cleguer’s Inspiration One takes an equally ambitious route, but with a different technical vocabulary.
The watch is built around an “Innate” dual escape wheel escapement, inspired by Fasoldt’s concept and natural escapements, and places that architecture prominently on the dial side.
It’s joined by an off-centre hours and minutes display, central seconds, and a partially exposed barrel with power reserve indication.
The first 12 titanium examples have sold out, while total production is planned at 80 pieces, with future models priced at CHF 95,300.
When restraint becomes the complication
Mermont’s La Parfaite sits at the opposite end of the expressive spectrum.
Rather than foregrounding mechanical complexity, it reduces the display to a single hand moving over a Zapon blue varnished dial with colimaçon brushing.
The Breguet numerals and softly swept minute track give the watch a classical tone, but the hand itself is the focal point.
Its three-dimensional construction is made and finished by hand, turning the simplest possible time display into an exercise in craft.
The platinum case is paired with a manually wound La Joux-Perret D101 movement, helping keep the price to CHF 10,998.
Niton’s Prima is less a completely new name than a revival of a historic one.
The brand, once known for jumping-hour watches, has been brought back by Yvan Ketterer and Leopoldo Celi with a rectangular dress watch that carries the complication into a modern setting.
The Prima divides time across running seconds, central minutes and a jumping hour visible through a sculpted aperture.
A shaped calibre, the NHS01, follows the geometry of the case, a detail that matters in rectangular watchmaking because it avoids the compromise of simply placing a round movement inside a shaped shell.
The watch has been launched in two limited editions of 19 pieces each, in rose gold or platinum, with pricing from CHF 44,740.
Retrograde theatre from Stéphane Pierre
Stéphane Pierre’s L’Imprétant brings a more kinetic character to the group.
Its defining feature is a dual retrograde display for the hours and minutes, with two hands crossing an arched scale at different speeds.
The lower half of the dial is anchored by a large balance wheel held under a polished bridge, giving the watch a sense of depth without overcrowding the display.
The reverse side adds a seconds indication and a power reserve display.
The first version is a 15-piece subscription watch in zirconium and rose gold, followed by a 50-piece titanium run, with pricing set at CHF 84,000 before taxes.
Details & Specifications
| L’Atelier Bernard The Owl | Reworked Duplex escapement, three-dimensional guilloché barrels, six pieces, CHF 150,000, allocated |
|---|---|
| Cleguer Inspiration One | “Innate” dual escape wheel escapement, off-centre time display, central seconds, exposed barrel with power reserve, 80 pieces planned, CHF 95,300 for future models |
| Mermont La Parfaite | Platinum case, single-hand display, Zapon blue varnished dial, La Joux-Perret D101 manual movement, CHF 10,998 |
| Niton Prima | Rectangular case, jumping hour, central minutes, running seconds, shaped NHS01 calibre, 19 pieces each in rose gold and platinum, from CHF 44,740 |
| Stéphane Pierre L’Imprétant | Dual retrograde hours and minutes, rear seconds and power reserve display, 15-piece zirconium and rose gold subscription edition, 50-piece titanium run, CHF 84,000 before taxes |
What connects these watches isn’t a single style or complication, but a willingness to make narrow, specific decisions.
For collectors who enjoy watchmaking as an act of authorship, that specificity is exactly where the appeal begins.
