Vianney Halter is more than a watchmaker, he is a mélange of inventor, mad scientist and time traveler! His watches are definitely inspired by the science fiction steampunk imagery of the 19th century with their original shapes, porthole dials and riveted cases. He is considered as one of the founders of Modern Independent Creative Horology. A movement born in the late 1990s, this period saw the arrival of young talented watchmakers who completely disrupted the traditional watchmaking industry. These watchmakers, such as Felix Baumgartner of Urwerk, Denis Flageollet of De Bethune or Vianney Halter created timepieces like nobody had every seen before.

After having taken the horological world by storm with his surprising Antiqua perpetual calendar, Vianney Halter launched the Classic in 2000. A steampunk UFO straight out of the imagination of Jules Verne or H.G. Wells, the Classic (named as such due to its round case) features a bezel with rivets on each hour marker inspired by the portholes of Captain Nemo’s Nautilus. The dial gleams in its architectural beauty, it is multileveled with an elegant mix of frosted and polished surfaces. The whole topped with flame blued hands.

The automatic movement features an ingenious sapphire central rotor enabling a full view of the movement.

It is important to note that every component on the dial, case and hands has been hand finished by Vianney Halter in his workshops in St Imier, Switzerland.

The Classic was made in a total of 250 pieces in pink, yellow and white gold with different dial variants. The present example bearing number 8 in excellent condition is in yellow gold, a version rarely seen on the market and offers the opportunity to the collector of independent artisans to own an extremely coveted and hard to find timepiece.