Our first live auction of 2024, the PHILLIPS Geneva Watch Auction: XIX, takes place on May 11 and 12, at the Hotel President, at Quai Wilson 47 in central Geneva. The auction includes more than 215 of the world's finest watches – and though we are loath to boast, we truly think it's one of the best catalogs we've ever put together. We'll be highlighting a number of the most interesting lots and stories featured in the sale, including the Andreas Strehler Papillon d'Or featured below.
– By Logan Baker
A regiment of young, unknown upstart independent watchmakers appears annually these days.
We expect it.
Early blueprints are traded among clients via private WhatsApp group chats. Deposits are taken before any physical product ever exists. It often works out well for everyone involved, but it’s risky.
And it’s something that is still a relatively new part of the watchmaking and collecting ecosystem.
Andreas Strehler, 52, remembers when it wasn’t nearly as easy for a new watchmaker to make a new for himself.
He introduced the first timepiece under his own name in 1998 at the Basel fair – the innovative, first-of-its-kind Tischkalender (desk calendar). It received little attention in Basel.
So he tried again. The following year, at Basel 1999, Strehler revealed the Zwei, the very first mechanical pocket watch to incorporate switching indications. And once again, he received little to no recognition.
It took Andreas Strehler until 2008 – an entire decade after the Tischkalender’s debut – until he sold a single watch with his name on the dial.
That’s despite his already very prestigious background. A graduate of the Solothurn Watchmaking School, he joined Renaud et Papi in 1991, where he had the distinction of being the very first watchmaker on staff that wasn’t one of the firm’s founders. After four years serving as the company’s Head Prototypist, he started his own business in 1995, focused on restoration of antique clocks and watches.
Strehler was 17 years into his watchmaking career before he sold a watch under his own name.
And today, a full 16 years after that first successful sale, he remains criminally underrated as an independent watchmaker by collectors.
His peers, however, are fully aware of his skill.
In addition to his work under his own brand, he’s the founder of UhrTeil AG, a horological engineering firm located in Sirnach, Switzerland, that has developed complicated movements for countless big names across the watch industry.
Much of the work completed by Strehler and his 20-person team at UhrTeil AG is kept quiet under non-disclosure agreements, but a few of his publicly known projects include the Opus 7 for Harry Winston, the H. Moser & Cie. perpetual calendar, the Maîtres du Temps Chapter Three (with Kari Voutilianen), as well as exclusive manufacture movements for brands as varied as Chronoswiss and Maurice Lacroix to Grönefeld and Garrick.
The Andreas Strehler brand has continued to develop in between these projects.
The first wristwatch in his signature Papillon (French for butterfly) collection emerged in 2008.
The butterfly has become a trademark of Strehler’s work – interestingly, it wasn’t his intentional choice from the outset.
The design process for the first Papillon wristwatch started with the decision to use two barrels. He wanted to use large gears to make space in the movement. When he started to create a bridge to hold all the components together, he noticed it formed the shape of a butterfly.
“I even tried to do other shapes, but everything else was ugly,” Strehler said. “So I continued with the butterfly shape, which became the brand logo.”
Those choices continued with the Cocon model in 2012, the Sauterelle in 2013, the Sauterelle à Lune Perpetuelle in 2014, the Papillon d’Or in 2015, the Lune Exacte in 2016, and the Trans Axial Tourbillon in 2018, among others.
The original Sauterelle earned him a 2013 Prix Gaïa award in the category of Artisanat‐Création, while the follow-up Sauterelle à Lune Perpetuelle and Lune Exacte put his name in the Guiness Book of World Records for the most precise moon-phase (approximately 2.045 million years) and moon age indication (a record that held until just last month, when IWC Schaffhausen unveiled its Portugieser Eternal Calendar wristwatch at Watches & Wonders Geneva 2024).
The Papillon d’Or brought the butterfly-shaped movement architecture to the front of the dial, while the Trans-Axial Tourbillon introduced a remontoir d’égalité and tourbillon escapement to Strehler's recognizable mechanical butterfly caliber.
More recently, Strehler has added an entirely new dimension to his work. He announced a separate brand named “Strehler” in 2013, focused on a more approachable price point.
The first watch under the Strehler identity is the Sirna. It’s far more conventional than his typical butterfly-inflected creations, featuring a 40mm × 8.5mm round case in stainless steel, with a self-winding time-only movement inside.
Despite its apparent simplicity, the caliber SA-30 inside is still an in-house construction from Strehler and his team at UhrTeil AG, featuring a free-sprung balance, 60 hours of running autonomy, and noticeable hand decoration.
Of course, none of it is as elaborate as what you’ll find on an “Andreas Strehler”-signed piece, which is why the Strehler Sirna carries an MSRP of just CHF 20,000 compared to the six-figure price tag of a watch like the Trans-Axial Tourbillon.
Also, only 10-12 Andreas Strehler pieces are crafted each year, compared to a goal of approximately 50 Strehler Sirna examples every year.
Strehler is considered one of the few true geniuses in the business. I’ve heard stories from younger watchmakers of how after encountering a problem in a movement, and sitting stumped at their work bench for months and months, they finally asked Strehler for assistance. His help came quickly and efficiently, solving the issue and helping them move forward.
It took far too long for Strehler to receive the recognition he very much deserved early in his career, but he never allowed that to make him bitter or deter him from his horological goals.
You can learn more, place a bid, and view the entire Geneva Watch Auction: XIX catalog right 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 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.
Recommended Reading
Hervé Schlüchter, The Philosophical Watchmaker
Meet Simon Brette, The Fresh-Faced Frenchman That Has The Swiss Watch World Buzzing