The world is clearly amid the ecstatic throes of a love affair with independent watchmaking so super heated that it makes Bernini’s famous Ecstasy of Saint Teresa seem altogether chaste in comparison. What’s the reason for all the mercury rising? Well, for one thing, several indies have proven themselves to be the best appreciable assets around. Philippe Dufour’s Simplicity went from a sub one-hundred-thousand-dollar, beautifully finished but fairly basic small sized dress watch to a one-million-dollar unicorn in the space of two years. F.P. Journe’s Souscription Tourbillons similarly exploded into the six-digit realm last year, increasing tenfold in value, causing new watches like his iconic Chronomètre à Résonance to trade at three times retail on the secondary market. To those that would listen, I’ve been championing the extraordinary watchmaking at De Bethune for years. Now, in the past six months, any Kind of Blue watch comes at a premium that two years ago might have bought you the watch itself.
The second reason independent watches are hotter than ever is that in a market where all the most entrenched populist models have now become trophies for rappers, movie stars and hedge funders, a Kari Voutilainen, an MB&F or a Moser demonstrates that your watch knowledge is deep and sets you apart from the culturally homogenous sheep. These two factors combined have created powerfully heated avarice for all things independent.
Says watch industry legend Jean-Claude Biver, “In my 50 years in the industry, I’ve never seen anything like this.” But if you look at the indies, there is one that fulfills the neoclassical niche better than all others, and that is Laurent Ferrier. While the majority of other rock star independents range from futuristic like Urwerk, quirky like Konstantin Chaykin, 18th century in inspiration like Théo Auffret, highly technical like Bernhard Lederer or irrepressibly crazy like Vianney Halter, Ferrier has perfectly defined the space of the restrained modern classic. Because he does
