The Phillips Hong Kong Watch Auction: XXII takes place on 30 & 31 May 2026, at our West Kowloon headquarters. The auction includes more than 250 of the world's finest watches – and though we are loath to boast, we truly think it's one of the best catalogues we've ever put together. We'll be highlighting a number of the most interesting lots and stories from the sale over the next month, including the auction debut for the handmade Oscillon L’instant de Vérité.
– By Logan Baker
In the world of independent watchmaking, the phrase “fully handmade” still carries real weight. Not because it is romantic marketing language, but because very few watchmakers are willing to commit to the idea in its purest form. It means slower work, greater risk of failure, and a level of patience that sits uncomfortably in an industry increasingly defined by CNC machining and scalable production.
Yet a small number of watchmakers still insist on doing things the hard way. Among them are Dominique Buser and Cyrano Devanthey, the founders of the Swiss atelier Oscillon. Their watch, L’Instant de Vérité, is a rare example of what happens when traditional watchmaking methods meet highly original mechanical thinking.
The present example, numbered 05 and produced around 2022, will be offered at the upcoming Phillips Hong Kong Watch Auction: XXII, marking the first appearance for the Oscillon L’Instant de Vérité at auction. Cased in 18k white gold and measuring 38mm in diameter, it is part of a special edition of just four pieces. Like every Oscillon watch, it was constructed almost entirely by hand in the brand’s workshop in Buchs, Switzerland, with only the crystal, jewels, and gaskets sourced externally.
To understand how Oscillon arrived here, it helps to look at the long friendship between its founders. Devanthey and Buser met in the early 1990s at watchmaking school in Solothurn. They bonded over a shared fascination with antique tools and manually operated machines, the kind that defined watchmaking long before CNC milling became standard.
Their careers eventually diverged. Devanthey went on to work at Omega, where he spent more than a decade training watchmakers and leading work in the tourbillon workshop. Buser, meanwhile, pursued engineering and concept development, eventually collaborating with Felix Baumgartner on the groundbreaking Opus V project for Urwerk and Harry Winston.
The two eventually reunited at Urwerk’s R&D atelier in Buchs. Their shared interests had not changed much since watchmaking school. They were still fascinated by historical techniques and traditional machinery. What had started years earlier as a half-serious conversation about whether a modern watch could still be produced entirely with traditional equipment slowly evolved into a real project.
In 2012, that idea became Oscillon.
“We are not against CNC machines,” Devanthey explained to me a few years ago. “We love the possibilities of CNC machines, and we use them every day when we do engineering work for Urwerk. But Oscillon is about traditional watchmaking. When we engineer a component at Oscillon, we already know which machine it will be produced on afterward. Every machine has its limitations in terms of shape and possibility, so you design accordingly.”
That philosophy has also led the pair into some of the most important preservation efforts in modern watchmaking. Buser and Devanthey played a central role in the development of the Naissance d'une Montre 2 project.
Working in collaboration with Greubel Forsey and Urwerk, the project was designed to transmit traditional watchmaking techniques to a new generation of watchmakers through the mentorship of master craftsmen. Like Oscillon’s own work, the project emphasized the importance of traditional tools and hand fabrication in an era increasingly dominated by industrial production.
The ideas explored in those projects are reflected clearly in Oscillon’s own timepieces.
The pair introduced their first wristwatch, L’Instant de Vérité – or “the moment of truth” – in 2016. At first glance, the watch appears almost restrained. The dial layout is classical, with a three-hand display and a torque indicator positioned discreetly on the surface.
The real story lies on the reverse side.
Turn the watch over, and the movement architecture reveals a series of unusual choices. Two large bridges dominate the layout. One secures the balance assembly, while the other supports the mainspring system. Both components, however, depart radically from conventional watchmaking practice.
The balance wheel, for instance, is not actually a wheel.
Instead of the familiar circular structure used in nearly every mechanical watch, Oscillon developed a proprietary free-sprung balance shaped like an hourglass or bowtie, with opposing inertia screws positioned along its arms.
“The idea was to make a different shape to better show the oscillations of the balance,” Devanthey says. “If you have a round balance wheel, you see the oscillation mostly on the arms of the wheel. With a non-round balance, you are much more aware of the oscillation.”
This distinctive form required careful engineering. Air turbulence can become a real concern when a balance moves through space in an unconventional shape. The Oscillon movement, therefore, leaves generous open space around the balance, allowing it to breathe and maintain stable amplitude.
The second major innovation is even more unusual. Rather than using a conventional mainspring system, Oscillon developed what it calls the Tensator constant-torque spring. The system relies on two barrels connected by an extra-long, continuous S-shaped spring that is wound using a planetary gear arrangement.
“What we have is on one barrel, the spring is completely enrolled like a little snail, then we connect it to the other drum in an S-shape,” Devanthey explains. “It can then be wound up to the other barrel, similar to a chain-and-fusée. The spring wants to return to its initial shape, so it constantly pulls on the second barrel, providing constant torque.”
The advantage of this architecture is that the torque delivered to the gear train remains virtually unchanged as the spring unwinds. Traditional mainsprings deliver power that gradually declines over the course of their running autonomy. By contrast, the Tensator system maintains stable energy output, helping the balance maintain a consistent oscillation amplitude.
Interestingly, Tensator springs are not unique to watchmaking. They appear in many everyday mechanical systems, including modern seatbelt mechanisms, where constant force is required. Devanthey and Buser were inspired in part by a table clock built by the British horologist Anthony Randall that used a much larger version of the same principle.
Adapting the concept for a wristwatch proved significantly more difficult. The spring had to be studied, cut, and shaped over several years before the pair found a geometry that worked reliably on a miniature scale.
The effort was worthwhile. The system delivers roughly 80 hours of power reserve while maintaining remarkably stable torque throughout the entire running period.
These technical solutions would already be impressive in an industrially produced watch. In the case of Oscillon, they are executed entirely by hand, using traditional machines and manual finishing techniques. Each watch emerges slowly from the Buchs workshop through a process that demands extraordinary patience.
Production reflects that reality. Oscillon produces only a handful of watches each year, typically no more than five.
That scarcity helps explain why the appearance of L’Instant de Vérité at auction is such a notable moment. For collectors interested in the most intellectually adventurous corners of modern horology, Oscillon represents something increasingly rare: a watch conceived from first principles, built slowly and deliberately by two watchmakers who remain deeply committed to the craft.
The name L’Instant de Vérité translates to “the moment of truth,” a phrase that captures the spirit of the project rather well. In watchmaking, as in many disciplines, the moment of truth arrives when theory meets metal. For Oscillon, that moment comes every time a handmade component finally takes its place within the movement.
And in a world increasingly defined by industrial perfection, that human moment remains one of the most compelling aspects of independent watchmaking.
You can learn more, place a bid, and view the entire Hong Kong Watch Auction: XXII catalogue 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 ten years covering the watch industry from every angle. He joined Phillips in Association with Bacs & Russo in early 2023 as Senior Editorial Manager, after previous roles at Hodinkee and WatchTime. Originally from Texas, he spent a decade in New York and now calls Geneva home.