- By Logan Baker
The Indie Insider is a new 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.
Sylvain Pinaud, 44, has spent his entire life in watchmaking.
His father owned a small watch and clock repair shop in Grenoble, France, while he was growing up. At just 16, Pinaud left his childhood home to study watchmaking in Morteau at the prestigious Lycée Edgar Faure.
Pinaud spent the first two decades of his career working for others, spending time everywhere from Dominique Mouret's renowned restoration workshop to Franck Muller’s sprawling “Watchland” campus on the outskirts of Geneva.
“I've tried to work in many different areas in my career," says Pinaud. "I really think to be a good watchmaker you must try many things. I’ve worked in a high production factory. I’ve worked with many strange complications, and I’ve worked in a clock restoration workshop. I’m not a fast learner. I couldn’t make a good watch when I was 20. I had to wait and immerse myself in watchmaking before being able to make my own watch in my forties.”
Pinaud has operated entirely on his own for the past five years. He sold his house in order to raise enough funds to open his own workshop in the tiny Vaud municipality of Sainte-Croix in 2018.
It was a risk that paid off.
After working for more than three years without so much as a salary to live on, Pinaud introduced the Origine, a time-only manual-wind wristwatch with an inventive movement architecture and an emphasis on decoration, in early 2022. After garnering extensive buzz during the last March’s inaugural AHCI Grand Exhibition of Watch and Clockmakers, the new watch earned Pinaud the honorary “Horological Revelation” prize at the 2022 Grand Prix d'Horlogerie de Genève.
Once in the background of the watchmaking world, Pinaud has quickly earned himself a front row seat in the minds of many lovers and collectors of independent watchmaking. I recently caught up with him to discuss his background, his watchmaking principles, and his exciting 2022.
Going Off On His Own
The Origine wasn’t the first watch Sylvain Pinaud created under his own name. The watch that Pinaud actually debuted under would be the Monopoussoir Chronograph, a single-button manual-wind chronograph that Pinaud created in 2019.
The Monopoussoir Chronograph is an impressive creation that inverts the chronograph mechanism and fully displays it on the watch's typical dial side. It was designed under the restrictions of Un des Meilleurs Ouvriers de France, a competition hosted in France every four years that highlights different areas of craftsmanship, including watchmaking.
The 2019 edition of the contest required the creation of a single-button chronograph wristwatch with a 45-minute counter and that utilized the gear train and escapement of the ETA Unitas 6497. The restrictions of the contest were so detailed they even included the diameter of the column wheel and the exact type of decoration needed on the movement components.
Out of 35 initial entrants, Pinaud was one of seven selected to compete in the trial. Only three out of those seven watchmakers actually completed a functioning prototype within the allotted time of one year. Pinaud was selected as the winner.
Naturally, a production version of the Monopoussoir Chronograph soon followed.
"The chronograph is one of the most beautiful complications in watchmaking, in my opinion," says Pinaud. "You push the lever and everything moves. I’ve always appreciated the complication, and so I decided to put it at the front of my watch so you could see it work."
Originally offered in titanium and red gold, the 42mm × 12.5mm chronograph utilized an offbeat oblong case design with hinged lugs and a screwed bezel. The horizontally coupled chronograph mechanism takes center stage in the lower half of the open dial, underneath a small hour and minutes display. The 45-minute chronograph totalizer is then placed near the traditional nine o’clock area via a clear disk; the only hand at the central position is the chronograph seconds. Pinaud taught himself CAD in order to complete the project.
The Monopoussoir Chronograph was proof that Pinaud could create a compelling watch under his own name. It didn’t necessarily set the world on fire, but it certainly caught the eye of a few knowledgeable collectors and industry watchers.
It wasn’t until 2022, however, that Pinaud’s name would become familiar to far more watch enthusiasts.
Breaking Out
It was about this time last year that Pinaud received a visit from his friend and fellow watchmaker Vianney Halter, who is also based in the Sainte-Croix area. Halter was viewing the prototype for Pinaud’s new watch, the Origine.
Halter was impressed with what he saw, and as an elder statesman on the independent watchmaking circuit, he knew Pinaud had a potential hit on his hands. He urged Pinaud to complete the prototype and exhibit it at the upcoming AHCI Grand Exhibition, which was scheduled to take place concurrently with Watches & Wonders 2022 in Geneva.
Pinaud finished the Origine prototype just in time to display it in Geneva last spring.
Halter was right – the Origine was arguably the surprise hit of the entire week. The 40mm × 11mm time-only wristwatch had a much more traditional case design than the Monopoussoir Chronograph, but the movement architecture was anything but simple.
Similar in spirit to his previous release, the balance and escapement of the Origine are located on the dial-side of the watch to showcase the detailed construction and high quality of decoration. A long, slender balance bridge extends across the lower half of the Origine’s dial, anchoring the balance assembly in place and highlighting Pinaud’s finishing prowess through the extensive use of black polishing.
Pinaud developed his own three-armed, free-sprung balance wheel for the Origine, utilizing gold regulating weights and a fixed stud for the Breguet overcoil balance spring. It was important for Pinaud to find the ideal medium between the size of his balance (13.2mm), the operating frequency (3 Hz), and the total running autonomy (55 hours). A hacking seconds mechanism is included in the movement construction in order to enable precision time setting.
Although the Origine contains no additional complications, it still requires a significant investment of Pinaud’s time and energy to complete. He builds a majority of the movement components at his workshop in Sainte-Croix using mostly traditional machinery such as Schablin lathes. Only certain components such as the hairspring, jewels, and crystal are sourced from suppliers. The case and dial also come from outside – Pinaud works with Kari Voutilainen’s case (Cattin) and dialmaking (Comblémine) companies to bring his designs to life.
Pinaud is only able to produce between 10-12 examples of the Origine per year right now, and although his order book remains open, there’s currently a three-year waitlist for the watch. It is not limited to any specific number. The success of the Origine has enabled Pinaud to hire an assistant watchmaker for the first time, as well as a finishing specialist to assist in production.
The Origine starts at CHF 65,000 and can be ordered directly from Sylvain Pinaud by contacting him through his website.
What’s Next
In order to focus on delivering the Origine to clients, Pinaud has paused production on the Monopoussoir Chronograph for the time being, but he hopes to one day revisit the design and complication. Although Pinaud will once again take part in the AHCI Exhibition that kicks off at the end of next month, there will be no new novelties from him this year.
That doesn’t mean he doesn’t have plenty of ideas. Pinaud mentions he has enough plans and projects to fill at least his next decade of work. He also hints that we can expect a potential follow-up to the Origine within the next “two to three years.”
In the meantime, Pinaud isn’t letting all the new interest in his work get to his head – he remains completely focused on developing his personal vision of watchmaking.
“I love to say that I've found my way of expression through watchmaking," he says. "I believe I've found my own artistic way through watchmaking.”
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 reporting on every aspect of the watch business. 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.
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