Defining “independent watchmaking” is almost an impossible exercise. Ask any number of watch aficionados and the chances are you’ll probably get just as many differing answers. The reason for this is that the field today tends to be more of a spectrum that ends in two yin and yang like extremes of approach.
The rarer and increasingly desirable category is distinguished by a one-man show, in which a solitary artisan conceives and crafts a single watch from start to finish, almost entirely by hand. The innovations of such independents are often the well from which have sprung solutions to perennial problems that have gnawed at the minds of watchmakers for centuries. The next category is characterised by an unbridled technical, aesthetic and conceptual creativity, which, when realised in its most extreme forms, alters the language of watchmaking.
What both these categories of independent watchmakers have in common is complete autonomy — a vision unencumbered by the bottom lines and the marketing directives of a large corporate company. Instead, these independents work from an inner necessity and are almost strictly driven by intellectual and artistic pursuits, which oftentimes leave an impact on watchmaking that is directly inverse to their production numbers.
Independent watchmaking will not be what it is today if not for a handful of forerunners who have fought a brave battle to preserve the craft, expand the boundaries of horology and establish the innovations that we so often take for granted in watchmaking.
On that note, it is only apt to begin with a man whose contributions to horology have been so fundamental and multifaceted, yet for the most part, underappreciated during his lifetime.
