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A growing choice
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A growing choice

Tuesday, 23 September 2014
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Christophe Roulet
Editor-in-chief, HH Journal

“The desire to learn is the key to understanding.”

“Thirty years in journalism are a powerful stimulant for curiosity”.

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2 min read

While major players such as Swatch (Blancpain, Breguet, Harry Winston…), Richemont (Cartier, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Piaget…), LVMH (Hublot, TAG Heuer, Zenith…) or Kering (Gucci, Girard-Perregaux, Ulysse Nardin…) dispose of sufficient production capacity to cover the majority of their requirements for mechanical movements, this hasn’t prevented them, and every other Fine Watch firm, from courting smaller, specialised structures for complicated calibres.

Among these masters of the minute repeater, these Einsteins of the tourbillon, we find Christophe Claret who, as horlogerie-suisse.com reminds us, supplies a number of Fine Watch marques in addition to his own, including Franck Muller, Harry Winston and De Grisogono. Now an integral part of Audemars Piguet, Renaud & Papi continues to deliver its mechanical marvels to third parties such as Richard Mille and HYT. Set up by two of the original trio behind the now defunct BNB (partly taken over by Hublot), La Fabrique du Temps first worked for “insider” brands such as Girard-Perregaux before becoming a full-fledged part of Louis Vuitton’s watchmaking arm. Adding to the list is Manufacture Hautes Complications, established in 2010 by Pierre Favre, also ex-BNB, whose developments include a bi-axial tourbillon with a three-dimensional moon for Graff.
  

Where, though, do brands turn when their needs, including for complications, dictate large production volumes?
Not just small series

Fabien Lamarche, who earned his stripes at Breguet before joining a nascent Roger Dubuis, founded Innovations Manufactures Horlogères, whose client list includes DeWitt, Louis Vuitton and Cecil Purnell, before launching the Julien Coudray 1518 brand. CompliTime, another prominent name, is sister company to Greubel Forsey and responsible for Harry Winston’s Histoire de Tourbillon saga, among other projects. Not forgetting Agenhor which brought to life some of Van Cleef & Arpels’ loveliest Poetic Complications.

Where, though, do brands turn when their needs, including for complications, dictate large production volumes? The list isn’t endless, particularly now that several firms have been gobbled up by the sector’s ever-hungry giants. La Joux-Perret, which delivers its chronographs to Hublot and Panerai, has, with its own Arnold & Son brand, become part of Japan’s Citizen Watch. Similarly, Soprod now comes under the Festina group where, alongside Manufacture Horlogère Vallée de Joux, it gives the Spanish firm some solid mechanical foundations. Vaucher Manufacture, which like Parmigiani is owned by the Sandoz Family Foundation, together with Concepto, Dubois Dépraz and Technotime, round out the offer which has grown considerably these past few years. The question being, is it enough? (CR)

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