Romain Gauthier began his professional life as a micro-mechanical engineer, but he could not deny that watchmaking was in his blood, as both of his parents had worked for manufactures such as Audemars Piguet, Lemania, and Dubois Dépraz. He launched his watch brand in 2005 with the Prestige HM, which was well-received by collectors, largely due to the exquisite movement finishing incorporating brushed and grained finishes with sharply hand-beveled edges.
After the establishment of his company, Gauthier presented his first movement, cal. 2206HMS, which would be incorporated into the brand’s very first wristwatch, Prestige HM from the Heritage collection, featuring Gauthier’s signature “back-winding” crown. In 2010, the firm released the Prestige HMS (hours, minutes, seconds), an upgraded version featuring subsidiary seconds.
In 2019, Gauthier released an exclusive limited edition of ten pieces in stainless steel fitted with a striking meteorite dial, having never before cased any watches in series in stainless steel. The choice of meteorite was a particularly poignant one, as Gauthier’s father was a rock and mineral collector, and this passion was a visceral part of his childhood. The meteorite was sourced from the Henbury meteorite discovered in 1931 in Australia, noted for its particularly bold Widmanstätten pattern.
The present example is the same watch used in press photographs and the brand’s official press release from 2019. Each piece of meteorite refracts and shimmers in its own unique way. Incorporating the beautiful movement finishing Romain Gauthier is celebrated for, with hand-chamfered and hand-polished bridges and countersinks, hand-frosted mainplate, and straight-grained bridges treated with black NAC.
