Taking advantage of Watches and Wonders, the founder of Watchmakers United, Maximilien Roussel, brought together until April 14 a careful selection of watchmaking artisans: Narbel & Co, Lundis Bleus, Oligo, Frédéric Jouvenot, Vicenterra, Skill, XRby, Sartory Billard, BA111OD… as well as some young French creators, delighted to present their watches to the world.
“I wanted to be there during Geneva Watch Week,”
explains Nousseïma Baraket, creator of the Parisian brand Buci.
Last December, I contacted Maximilien Roussel. I found his approach interesting. He didn't know Buci, but he was interested and everything happened quickly and well. We met in Morteau, the country of watchmaking, where he is from, and I presented him with my watches. I told him that I was releasing a new model that I am presenting here in Geneva for the first time. It's a story of timing and encounter. I also exhibited on Sunday for the general public day of the Time to Watches show. Being there, with all the big brands and their big signs shining in the night on the buildings by the lake, is a bit of a childhood dream. »
For Colin de Tonnac, founder of Semper & Adhuc, originally trained in Geneva at Patek Philippe, it is something of a return to basics. He who set up his workshop not far from Bordeaux in 2018, where he produces around fifty pieces per year, is taking advantage of the week to unveil his piece created for the occasion: a new, durable and French mechanical watch, beating to the rhythm of 'an old movement, rehabilitated.
“It was because I came to Geneva that I created this watch,”
he says.
There aren't that many watch gatherings. The Geneva show has completely replaced the Basel one. Last year, I wandered around the stands. This year, with the opening of Watchmakers United, I had the opportunity to exhibit. I called my creation l'Inopinée Genevoise, and it will be exclusively available here at the store. »
Romaric André does not make watches. But under the pseudonym ofSecond/Second, he regularly dynamites the dials, on the border between art and watchmaking...
“I am based in Lille. Even if I don't sell watches, you owe it to yourself to know the watchmaking ecosystem and to be known to it. In Geneva, I meet watch resellers of the brands with whom I have collaborated (like Buci, Editor's note), others with whom I am going to do so..."