Phillips in Association with Bacs & Russo is thrilled to welcome you to The Geneva Sessions, Fall 2024, online auction, running from 12:00 PM CET, Thursday, September 5, to 2:00 PM CET, Thursday, September 12. Featuring more than 70 different high-end luxury wristwatches, the sale covers everything from A. Lange & Söhne and F.P. Journe to Audemars Piguet and Patek Philippe, including the one-of-a-kind, Swiss-made Atelier Wen Perception featured below.
Chinese watchmaking is ascendant. Whether we’re talking about the remarkable creations of Kiu Tai Yu, the contemporary experimentation of Behrens, or the GPHG-award-winning CIGA Design, there’s been plenty of fascinating Chinese timepieces to discuss in recent years.
Today we bring you word of another young brand making waves out of China: Atelier Wen. The company boasts some intriguing early credentials that connect it to the Old Continent, too. Atelier Wen was founded by a pair of youthful Frenchman, Robin Tallendier and Wilfried Buiron, who were exposed to Chinese watchmaking while studying abroad in the country.
Tallendier later went on to serve on the French Chamber of Watchmaking in Shanghai and was even appointed to the Chinese Horologe Association. They partnered with a pair of Chinese designers, Li Mingliang and Liu Yuguan, to start Atelier Wen, officially forming the company in 2017.
Atelier Wen didn’t achieve mainstream success, however, until the 2022 release of the company’s Perception collection. Riffing off the classic integrated steel bracelet look, the Perception was highlighted by the presence of a guilloché dial, handmade in China by a master craftsman named Cheng Yucai and his small team of protégés.
Cheng is considered to be Asia’s only guilloché master craftsman. He is fully self-taught and built his rose engines by himself, even holding patents for them.
The original Perception series models sold out quickly and garnered a lengthy waitlist. Atelier Wen followed it with additional variations, produced in collaboration with Wristcheck, a pre-owned watch seller, and Revolution, a popular editorial platform.
Earlier this year, during the hectic week surrounding Watches & Wonders Geneva, Atelier Wen traveled to Switzerland to show off its wares for the first time. However, rather than Tallendier and Buiron simply standing behind a booth and showing off their latest releases, they decided to transport Cheng and one of his rose engine machines from China to Geneva to show off their dialmaking prowess.
While in Geneva, Cheng continuously used his rose engine to craft dials. Despite the busy surroundings, he managed to complete 3 dials during the week, each with a different pattern. Those dials are thus, technically, made in Geneva.
The Atelier Wen team then contacted a local watchmaker, Fabiano Pericles, to assemble the watches using the new dials.
As the dials were created and mounted in Geneva, the caseback of all three unique pieces features an engraving highlighting the significance of the set: crafted, not in China, but in Geneva. And rather than featuring the brand's wordmark on a dial plate like usual, Atelier Wen opted to print their name on the crystal, which casts an attractive shadow on the guilloché dial.
Of Atelier Wen’s three Swiss made watches, two of them were offered to the brand’s partners. The third, however, has been donated by the brand to be auctioned in the upcoming Phillips Geneva Sessions, Online Auction, Fall 2024. This is the only Swiss-made Atelier Wen watch to come to market to date, and the full proceeds of the sale will be donated to UNESCO China, to support local efforts to foster and preserve traditional Chinese culture and craftsmanship.
The end result is an especially unique watch, made in Switzerland, by Chinese hands, that speaks to Atelier Wen’s unique position in the market. Geography isn’t the only indicator of quality in watchmaking – it’s all about the skill and talent of craftsmen involved.
The unique Swiss-made Atelier Wen wristwatch is included in the Phillips Geneva Sessions, Online Auction, Fall 2024, at an estimate of CHF 2,500 - 5,000.
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.
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