A Guide to Independent Watchmaking

There is a particular pleasure in discovering a watch and the mind behind it. Independent watchmaking can take a collector from an individual watchmaker’s workbench to an integrated manufacture, from centuries-old decorative techniques to entirely new ways of constructing, regulating, or displaying time. Take a closer look, and you’ll see that the word ‘independent’ describes a wonderfully motley group. It includes master watchmakers and movement inventors who are true pioneers, as well as designers, engineers, small ateliers, and specialists whose names might never appear on a dial. Their structures and methods are incredibly varied, and it’s this diversity that makes this part of watchmaking fascinating to explore. 

The people behind the ideas 

Dominique Renaud is a name worth knowing. An important movement constructor in modern watchmaking, he returned this year with a venture bearing his own name and a team of nearly 20. At the centre of its first watch, the Pulse60, sits a large 20 mm balance beating at a deliberately slow 1 Hz. The unusual mechanics invite curiosity, but the more interesting story lies in Renaud’s desire, after more than four decades in watchmaking, to keep re-examining some of its fundamentals.

Placing the watchmaker at the centre of the story is hardly a new idea. In 1985, Svend Andersen and Vincent Calabrese founded the community that evolved into the Académie Horlogère des Créateurs Indépendants, providing individual watchmakers with a collective platform to present their work. Four decades later, Calabrese offers a wonderful example of how those ideas can endure across generations. Now 82, he has found a new audience through M.A.D.Editions. The M.A.D.3 reinterprets his Baladin wandering hour concept, featuring a case designed by MB&F collaborator Eric Giroud. The project brings together a veteran independent watchmaker, a contemporary creative house, and a designer who began his career in architecture. It offers a glimpse of how freely ideas can travel through independent watchmaking.