The partnership also includes:
— Manuel Thomas, 53, the founder of Artime, the watch-decoration company behind the partnership, who was head of Breitling’s complications department from 2000 to 2001, among other jobs. (According to Mr. Thomas, Artime finances the new watch and allows Artime Créations to use its space in three workshops in the merged municipality of Le Locle-Les Brenets, Switzerland, for watch decoration, assembly and more.)
— Stéphane Maturel, 47, who was at Renaud & Papi from 1999 to 2011, progressing from the workbench as a watchmaker to managing the company’s research and development services.
— Fabrice Deschanel, 62, who was managing director of the Renaud & Papi movement workshop from 1991 to 2015 and who, the watchmaker Richard Mille said in a 2022 interview with Hodinkee, was “not the least bit afraid to think in an unconventional manner.”
— and Claude Emmenegger, 58, whose prior work included designing Audemars Piguet’s Royal Oak Concept.
But Nate Borgelt, the head of watches in the Americas at Bonhams auction house, said the partnership was more about what the men could create together than it was about their names or work histories.
“Usually you see one or two people working on a watch, or two or three people, where someone works on mechanics, someone works on cases and someone works on dials,” Mr. Borgelt said. But Artime’s collaboration, he said, is “more conceptual, pushing design, pushing materials, but in a smaller way, not like a conglomerate like LVMH or the Swatch Group. It feels more holistic and more artisanal.”
It took a long time for the company’s first watch to appear. Mr. Thomas formed the Artime business in 2014, and the other partners joined over time.
Melanie Abrams
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