Phillips in Association with Bacs & Russo is proud to present a two-part documentary series on the Naissance d'une Montre 2 project, hosted by Arthur Touchot and Logan Baker. The Naissance d'une Montre 2 is a unique and completely handmade watch developed and created by Greubel Forsey, Urwerk, and Cyrano Devanthey and Dominique Buser of Oscillon. You can view part two of the documentary here. It will be auctioned off during The Geneva Watch Auction: XVII, on May 13 and 14, 2023.
– By Arthur Touchot
Naissance d’une Montre may not be the most talked about watch “collab”, it may not be collecting millions of views on social media thanks to a celebrity partner, but it could be the single most important program for the future of artisanal watchmaking.
Announced in 2007 by members of Time Aeon, a Swiss Foundation reuniting some of watchmaking’s greatest talents and craftsmen, the project aims to safeguard the manual skills and knowledge required to make a timepiece by hand. The announcement came with a warning against the industry’s growing dependence on computers to design (CAD) or produce (CNC) watch components.
Fundamentally, the project is motivated by a single, daunting question: Can today’s watchmakers match the quality of watches built by their predecessors, using only the tools that were available to them? Can they make timepieces the way Antide Janvier, Jacques-Frédéric Houriet, or Abraham-Louis Breguet did during the first golden age of watchmaking?
Quite naturally, the first watch in the Naissance d’une Montre series was overseen by Greubel Forsey and Philippe Dufour, a master watchmaker who has devoted his entire career to the preservation of traditional watchmaking and hand-finishing. Dufour collaborated closely with Michel Boulanger, acting as a mentor to the young watchmaking teacher. Together they created an impressive and classically styled hand-made tourbillon.
Unveiled in January 2012, the watch sent a powerful message throughout the watchmaking community and acted as an invitation for other others to rediscover the craft’s history. The watch was offered at auction in 2016 and raised more than USD 1.4 million to support the foundation’s activities. It was followed by another eleven pieces, to bring the total number of models of Naissance d’une Montre 1 to twelve.
Seven years later, the series is back with an extraordinary sequel and a new team of collaborators. This time, Greubel Forsey is joined by Urwerk and its construction partner, Oscillon, to further develop some of the concepts that Domique Buser and Cyrano Devanthey explored in the movement architecture of their first Oscillon wristwatch called “L’instant de Verite” (which translates to The Moment of Truth).
First teased in 2019, Naissance d’une Montre 2 presented a resolutely more contemporary profile than its predecessor with Urwerk’s extremely avant-garde aesthetic clearly reflected in the components which the brand was responsible for – namely, the design and the manual machining of the case.
Following years of back-and-forth between Oscillon, Urwerk and Greubel Forsey, Naissance d’un Montre 2 was finally completed a few weeks ago and delivered to La Chaux de Fonds for a final inspection. I had the opportunity to view the watch that day and sit down with Time Aeon’s Director, David Bernard, as well as the co-founders of Urwerk, Martin Frei and Felix Baumgartner, to discuss the project’s birth. We also talked about the challenge of creating the sequel to Naissance d’une Montre 1, the importance of collaboration in an industry that doesn’t necessarily encourage it at their level, and the stereotypes surrounding traditional watchmaking.
Naissance d’une Montre 2 will be offered at auction by PHILLIPS. Unlike the first project in the series, this piece unique will not be followed by a limited run. Instead, Time Aeon is raising the stakes by giving collectors only get one chance to acquire the Naissance d’une Montre 2, on 14 May, 2023.
You can view part two of the documentary here.
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 Arthur Touchot
Arthur Touchot is a former journalist who specialized in the luxury market. Having earned a master’s degree in journalism at Northwestern University, Arthur combined his love of watches and words by becoming a regular contributor to The New York Times and the Financial Times at the start of his career, later becoming senior European editor at Hodinkee. In 2017, Arthur joined Phillips as International Head of Digital Strategy to lead the global content and digital marketing strategy of the auction house’s watch department, and has been involved in bringing some of the world’s rarest timepieces to auction.
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