The Indie Insider is our column dedicated to exploring the vast world of independent watchmaking through the eyes of Phillips in Association with Bacs & Russo. Expect in-depth coverage of the latest and greatest watchmakers and releases to enter the scene, as well as detailed analysis on all your favorite familiar names.
– Logan Baker
One of the most exciting debuts of 2023 came shortly after Geneva's annual Watches & Wonders exhibition closed its doors in early April. Simon Brette – the previously unknown, 35-year-old Frenchman behind the buzzworthy new watch – did more than just garner international attention with the release, his debut Chronomètre Artisans timepiece ended up stealing away any postshow honeymoon glow from Watches & Wonders' exhibiting brands.
Five months after its release, Brette’s Chronomètre Artisans watch has remained on the tip of every serious watch collector’s tongue when it comes to the best releases of the year. Pundits have called it an easy early favorite for the Men’s Watch prize at this November’s Grand Prix d'Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG) award show, and countless collectors have already set Brette’s number on speed dial for the small chance at getting on his waitlist.
All we'll say to their desire is: "Good luck" – the next publicized availability of a Chronomètre Artisans watch isn’t until 2028.
If this is the first you’re hearing of young Mr. Brette’s work, then the big, fat question you might be asking right now is: “Why?”
Or: “What could possibly make this guy’s watches so good?”
Well, before you go dismissing Simon Brette and the Chronomètre Artisans as another recipient of social media-induced hype, or the result of a watch-world “nepo baby” let loose at the watchmakers' bench – Brette is neither of those, for the record – just take a close look at the souscription version of the Chronomètre Artisans pictured below.
Take a look at the tops of the screw – they’re concave and black polished. When was the last time you saw that?
And then examine the solid 18k red-gold dial. It’s been engraved by hand to achieve an aggravated surface texture that Brette and his team of artisans (more on that below) calls the watch’s “dragon scales.” Oh, and just wait till you see the movement.
Brette’s workshop is currently located on the outskirts of Geneva, inside an industrial park on the north side of the Acacias neighborhood, and notably directly across the street from the green-tinted windows of Rolex’s international headquarters. Phillips had the pleasure of visiting his space back in February of this year, before the watch’s official launch, to chat with Brette about his background, what inspired him to start a brand under his own name, and what the future might hold for his now red-hot business.
The Backstory
Brette has always had a close relationship with craftsmanship. He grew up the son of a carpenter in the Auvergne region of France – a historic area that today stands as one of the least populated zones in all of Europe, but one that is luckily only a short three-and-a-half-hour drive from Geneva.
Brette eventually crossed the Schengen border to attend watchmaking school in Neuchâtel, where he graduating in 2011. He quickly found post-grad work as a movement constructor at Chronode, Jean-François Mojon’s powerhouse watchmaking operation. After nearly five years working with Mojon and his team in a variety of roles, Brette jumped over to MCT as a project manager for slightly less than two years, before ending up at MB&F in the same role.
Brette had worked alongside Max Büsser’s horological madhouse in the past as part of Chronode, helping to develop the original Legacy Machine 1 and Legacy Machine 2 in the early 2010s, a background that I’m sure helped in enabling him to hit the ground running once starting at MB&F in late 2017.
Brette has a number of highlights from his time at MB&F, including developing the case design and movement construction of the Horological Machine 10 "Bulldog" and the entirely sapphire crystal case of the Horological Machine 9, but his likely crowning achievement there was the design and development of the LMX.
Iintroduced in 2021 to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of the MB&F’s Legacy Machine collection, the LMX blended together a number of the original LM design elements, such as dual sub-dials and crowns for indicating the time in two time-zones at once, as seen in the inaugural LM1, while also incorporating aesthetic characteristics found some of the brand's later releases, such as inclined displays (at a 50-degree angle) that utilize a unique conical gearing system and were first seen in MB&F's 2020 collaboration with H. Moser & Cie.
The LMX eventually walked away from the 2021 edition of the GPHG with the award for "Men's Complication."
The all-around success of the LMX dovetailed with the birth of Brette’s first child, a daughter, that same year, which is when he began to seriously consider what it might look like to start a company under his own name – but his thinking wasn’t based solely on a desire to see his family name in lights.
Brette was growing more and more concerned with a negative trend he observed throughout the Swiss watch industry that was impacting small-scale artisans and specialist parts makers. These men and women who had dedicated their lives to a certain craft or specialty were quickly losing important clients left and right as a result of the increasing industry verticalization. And since these individuals had almost always worked on contract and behind-the-scenes for bigger watchmakers and companies, they had no outstanding commercial leverage to help secure their livelihood.
Brette officially left MB&F in April 2021 to concentrate on what his nascent business model might look like. It took a while to get things off the ground, and for the first 18-odd months, Brette supported himself and his family by taking on freelance gigs for other watchmakers focused on movement construction and development. At the same time he was working for others, however, he continued to pour all his remaining free time into developing the horological concept that would eventually become the Chronomètre Artisans series.
But he couldn't afford to physically build his product outright without a little outside financial assistance. Brette decided to offer the first batch of the Chronomètre Artisans series under a souscription – or subscription – method that would involve taking downpayments from early clients to fund the creation of their watch. It's an approach with a long history in watchmaking and that effectively acts like a more exclusive version of Kickstarter.
The enterprising young professional that he is, Brette took an unusual path in finding the initial set of clients that were willing to spend tens of thousands of dollars sight-unseen to support a relatively unknown watchmaker. What did he do? He cold-messaged a number of known collectors of independent watchmaking on Instagram with a teaser of what he was working on. Keep in mind, these were all people Brette had never previously spoken to, and yet it didn’t take long for 12 intrigued individuals from all over the world to take Brette’s bait. These 12 collectors have since remained in almost daily communication with Brette (and with each other) via an active WhatsApp group chat.
That level of personal accessability is a great example of the type of enthusiasm that Brette has for the life of a watchmaker, and that he carries as goes about his daily business. Brette is a tireless networker, but it comes across as completely authentic to who he is as a person.
When Geneva's restaurants, hotel bars, and late-night lounges were overflowing with members of the international watch community during the week of Watches & Wonders this year, it truly felt you couldn't go anywhere without coming across Brette's smiling face.
Although he had yet to publicly reveal the Chronomètre Artisans, he always had it on his person that week, ready to show it off to everyone from tenured industry executives to auction house specialists and young collectors. If the Swiss watch world awarded an annual “Geneva Prom King” for the culture-defining week of Watches & Wonders, I have no doubt that Brette would have gone home with the crown on his head.
Finally, on April 12, 2023, Brette officially revealed the souscription edition of the Chronomètre Artisans – the first watch with his name on the dial – to the rest of the world. The reaction it received, as we now know, was exceptional.
It looks like Brette will have to settle for a GPHG award instead of a secondary-school honorific.
The Watch
It's easy to see why the first edition of the Chronomètre Artisans has proved to be so attention grabbing. Its dial aesthetics are unconventional, the unique elements – hand-engraved dial, observatory-style blued hands, and exposed gear train and keyless works – feel entirely fresh yet familiar.
But perhaps the watch's most important element is something that comes from the wheelhouse of the rest of Brette’s career to date: the movement.
Brette’s debut in-house movement, the Calibre SBCA, was developed through the lens of being a “classical chronometer.” Its large-diameter balance wheel beats at the traditional rate of 2.5 Hz, similar to historic marine chronometers, and is supported by a single, straight rounded bridge crafted in non-magnetic grade-five titanium. The balance wheel of the Chronomètre Artisans is fitted with a hairspring featuring a Breguet overcoil and adjustable inertia blocks for fine adjustment.
Interestingly, the Calibre SBCA's third and fourth wheels are lowered to the dial side, a choice Brette says was made to offer a unobstructed view of the balance wheel. The escape wheel and pallet fork also incorporate a unique design with counter-pivots that are positioned so a watchmaker can easily access them without having to remove the balance wheel. The movement also allows for hacking seconds for precise time setting, enabled by a flexible “S”-shaped arm that pauses the balance wheel via a sliding pinion when the crown is pulled out.
The two large mainspring barrels deliver a three-day power reserve, impressively healthy for the movement's low beat rate. Similar to the screw heads found throughout the watch's movement and dial, the barrels have a fluid concave design and are completely mirror polished.
One highlight of the movement design is the wolf's teeth gearing used on the ratchet and crown wheel, another nod to the world of old-school chronometers. Brette also designed a special click designed using a compliant monolithic mechanism that is said to be more reliable and have a more responsive winding action than the multiple components found in conventional wristwatch movements. The crown wheel, meanwhile, was one of the more complex components devised by Brette. It utilizes a total of three different types of gear-cutting: wolf's teeth connected to the ratchet wheels, vertical teeth engaged with the winding pinion, and a set of internal teeth that act as a pawl for the crown wheel.
The Calibre SBCA is a cleverly designed movement intended to maximize precision as well as aesthetics. The concave, polished screws set in gold chatons are, of course, a highlight, as are the hand-chamfered and mirror-polished rims of the titanium bridges. With the mix of high-polished and low-key matte elements, the movement feels remarkably contemporary despite its relatively old-school architecture.
The movement aesthetics aren't the only surprisingly modern element to the Chronomètre Artisans. The case of the souscription model is crafted out of zirconium, an uncommon-in-watchmaking metal that is highly ductile and offers impressive resistance to natural corrosion and heat. Composed of three parts and with a mixture of brushed and polished surfaces, the compact 39mm × 10mm case appears to be remarkably simple in construction. The tapered lugs are all invisibly screwed to the main case, leaving no visible screws. Meanwhile, the slightly oversized crown at three o'clock has the same polished concave design as the screws used on the movement and dial.
Set inside the caseband at nine o'clock is a sentimental "dovetail" figure made of 18k rose gold that calls back to a symbol often used by Brette's father in his carpentry.
Brette's father was just one source of inspiration for the Chronomètre Artisans. In total, Brette cites 13 different artisans and specialists that assisted with various parts of the Chronomètre Artisans. Every single one of them is credited and highlighted on Simon Brette's website, and was provided with not only unlimited time to execute their work to the highest quality possible, but also a platform to communicate to the rest of the industry about their skill and work ethic. All 13 individuals are listed here to support that goal:
- Matthieu Allègre ― Watchmaking designer
- Yasmina Anti ― Hand engraver
- Marc Bolis and Alyna Rouelle ― Micromechanical machining
- Barbara Coyon ― Watchmaking decorator
- Pierre-Alain Dornier & Cie ― High-precision machining
- Julien Ducommun & Cie ― Manufacturing, micromechanics, and machining
- Damien Genillard ― Surface finisher
- Nadine Görgl ― Hairspring regulator specialist
- Alexis Greco & Cie ― Watchmaking decorator
- Nathalie Jean-Louis ― Watchmaking decorator
- Luc Monnet ― Prototypist Watchmaker and art mechanic
- Anton Pettersson ― Prototypist Watchmaker and art mechanic
The 12 initial examples of Chronomètre Artisans were listed at a price of CHF 60,000 and are set to be delivered later this year – of course, all 12 of the souscription pieces are spoken for at this time. But Brette has teased numerous future editions of the Chronomètre Artisans to look forward to.
The inaugural model featured in this story's images is the only example of the watch publicly released so far. It will also be the only set of examples to ever be cased in zirconium, set with an 5N red gold "dovetail" symbol in the caseband, or feature a 5N red gold dial outfitted with the hand-engraved "dragon scale" pattern. Brette has already teased potential future case metals for the Chronomètre Artisans that he's working on, including titanium, red gold, stainless steel, and platinum – and it likely won't be too long until we see Brette unveil his official follow-up to the Chronomètre Artisans.
Maybe that's looking too far down the road – but it's hard not to be excited about Brette's future. If the success of the Chronomètre Artisans is anything to go off, we have plenty to look forward to.
You can learn more about Simon Brette and the Chronomètre Artisans through his official website.
About Phillips In Association With Bacs & Russo
The team of specialists at PHILLIPS Watches is dedicated to an uncompromised approach to quality, transparency, and client service. Phillips in Association with Bacs & Russo holds the world record for the most successful watch auction, with its Geneva Watch Auction: XIV having realized $74.5 million in 2021. Over the course of 2021 and 2022, the company sold 100% of the watches offered, a first in the industry, resulting in the highest annual total in history across all the auction houses at $227 million.
About Logan Baker
Logan has spent the past decade working in watch-focused media, reporting on every aspect of the industry. He joined Phillips in Association with Bacs & Russo at the start of 2023 as the department's Senior Editorial Manager. He splits his time between New York and Geneva.
Recommended Reading
Independent Watchmakers: The Bridge Between Vintage And Modern Collectibles
Sylvain Pinaud Had A Whirlwind 2022. It’s Just The Beginning Of His Journey.