16 stores · curated ORBIS register
World-time and jumping-hour complications are part of Andersen Genève's work, with the Montre à Tact among its named timepieces. Svend Andersen founded the Geneva atelier in 1980 after working on Grand Complications at Patek Philippe. Herbelin makes the Newport nautical model, developed by the sons of the French house's founder Michel Herbelin. In Lucerne, Chronoswiss assembles mechanical watches with hand-engraved guilloché and fired-enamel dials at its atelier.
City centre (riverside atelier)
Founded in 1980 by Svend Andersen, a former Patek Philippe Grand Complications watchmaker, this independent atelier produces roughly fifty timepieces a year from a riverside workshop in central Geneva. It is known for world-time and jumping-hour complications and the Montre à Tact, assembled largely by hand.
Best for Collectible independent complications
Tokyo, Japan
The unbreakable watch — Kikuo Ibe’s 1983 shock-resistant revolution, from DW-5600 to MR-G titanium.
Best for Toughest watch, DW-5600
Lucerne / Switzerland
Chronoswiss is an independent Lucerne watchmaker founded in 1983, assembling mechanical timepieces with hand-engraved guilloche and fired-enamel dials at its Atelier Lucerne. Its regional online shop sells watches directly and the brand's Chronoswiss House in the city can be visited by appointment.
Best for Watches, mechanical watches, guilloche, enamel
France
French watchmaker founded in 1947 by Michel Herbelin in Charquemont, in the Jura mountains - a historic center of French watchmaking. Herbelin began as a solo workshop on the top floor of his parents' house; the Newport nautical model, created by his sons Jean-Claude and Pierre-Michel, became the maison's signature.
Best for Elegant French watches; Antarès interchangeable; Newport yachting chrono; Watches
Michel Herbelin set up his own watchmaking workshop at age 26 on the top floor of his parents' house in Charquemont, a village in the Jura mountains long associated with French watchmaking. In 1947 he named his first watch 'IMPEC' - short for 'impeccable' - to declare his ambition of making flawless, France-made timepieces. The Newport, the brand's best-known model, was designed by Michel's sons Jean-Claude and Pierre-Michel Herbelin as a tribute to their father and his interest in sailing; it became the maison's emblematic nautical watch. Herbelin remains a family-run, France-based watchmaker built around accessible pricing relative to Swiss competitors.
Geneva / Switzerland / Online
Swiss watchmaker since 1980 — The Art of Fusion. Ceramic, carbon and gold fusions, Big Bang bravado and bold, oversized aesthetics.
Best for Fusion materials and bold contemporary watches
Carlo Crocco founded Hublot in 1980 with a heresy: a gold watch on a black rubber strap. The name means porthole — the bezel's exposed screws made the nautical case explicit — and the establishment's horror lasted exactly as long as it took royalty and tycoons to start wearing one comfortably. Rubber, it turned out, was the luxury.
The second act made the first look timid. Jean-Claude Biver arrived in 2004 preaching "the Art of Fusion" and delivered the Big Bang in 2005 — a layered, screwed, unmistakably loud chronograph fusing ceramic, carbon, gold and rubber that multiplied the company's revenues and won Geneva's Grand Prix. Magic Gold, the house's patented scratch-resistant gold-ceramic alloy, made the fusion thesis literal; sapphire cases made it transparent.
Under LVMH since 2008, Hublot owns the sports-marketing wrist — FIFA World Cup timekeeper, football's referee boards, Usain Bolt, Kylian Mbappé. The register is confident maximalism: engineering as spectacle, worn by people done with subtlety.
Rue du Prado 16, 3963 Crans-Montana / Crans-Montana / Switzerland
On the Prado. Watches and jewellery since 1962 — continuous independent desk with an atelier for creation and transformation. Not a pure monobrand cube. The conversation of a place that still works on the piece, not only sells a logo. Walk it when the watch or the jewel needs a local till that has been on the Prado for more than sixty years.
Best for Watches and jewellery — continuous since 1962 on Rue du Prado
France
French watch manufacture founded 1973 in Morteau, Jura; one of the few brands to design and assemble its own movements in-house, including the 2011 in-house Calibre Royal.
Best for Moorea diver 1000m; In-house movement, luxury; Rue Royale in-house
Pequignet was founded in 1973 in Morteau, in the Jura watchmaking region of eastern France. It has built its identity around being one of the only French watch brands to design, develop, and assemble its own movements domestically. That claim was substantiated in 2011 with the launch of the Calibre Royal, described by watch trade press as the first French-made movement to place its complications on a single mainplate; it is hand-assembled at the Morteau manufacture. The company holds France's 'Entreprise du Patrimoine Vivant' label, first awarded in 2014. Pequignet was acquired by the group Enowe in 2021.
France
Alsatian watchmaker since 1977—Beatrice and Jean-Paul Burgun's family-run atelier produces affordable French quartz watches with accessible refinement.
Best for Fashion-forward watches; Eolia mesh bracelet
Pierre Lannier is a French watchmaking house founded in 1977 in Alsace by Beatrice and Jean-Paul Burgun, now in its second generation under Pierre Burgun's leadership. The company relocated in 1985 to Ernolsheim-lès-Saverne, 40 minutes from Strasbourg, where it remains headquartered. The brand's origin reflects an unconventional entry into watchmaking: the Burguns began in the distribution business during a European trip and decided to launch their own brand from their dining room, initially partnering with France Ebauches for Swiss quartz movements and sourcing components from the Haut-Doubs region. Pierre Lannier positions itself as one of the last French watch designers and manufacturers, combining heritage with affordability across five continents. The label emphasizes refined, elegant timepieces at accessible prices, reflecting a commitment to making French watchmaking available beyond the luxury tier. Today, the company balances family ownership with international reach, maintaining production standards while distributing to a global customer base seeking French horological craft.
Paris / Online
Place Vendôme creativity since 1975 — interchangeable watch straps and the twisted Coeur Entrelacé.
Best for Ma Première watch and playful fine jewelry.
Nové Město nad Metují / Prague
PRIM is the Czech watch brand that grew out of Chronotechna, founded in 1946. The first wristwatch prototypes were made in Nové Město nad Metují in 1954, with series production from 1957. For decades the name was split between two companies, until MPM Quality and Elton hodinářská were united under one owner in 2025. Official boutiques stand in Frýdek-Místek, Prague and Nové Město nad Metují.
Best for In-house Czech calibres and the Orlík legend.
PRIM is the Czech watch brand whose industrial history begins in 1946, when the Chronotechna company was founded in Liberec. Two years later it became a national enterprise based in Šternberk. The plan for a wristwatch dates from 1948. The first prototypes were made in 1954 at the plant in Nové Město nad Metují, inspired by the French LIP R 25 movement. They had 15 jewels and a self-compensating hairspring, and series production started in 1957. The first Czechoslovak wristwatches carried the name SPARTAK after a public competition. The PRIM name spread from alarm clocks and wall clocks to wristwatches over time. After 1989 Chronotechna was privatised. The brand ended up split between two independent producers, one in Frýdek-Místek and one in Nové Město nad Metují. That split led to years of legal disputes over the trademark. In spring 2025 the two rights holders, MPM Quality and Elton hodinářská, were brought together. The regional daily Deník reported on 6 June 2025 that Petr Hanko, owner of MPM Quality, had bought Elton hodinářská from the CSG group. The purchase ended the disputes and left PRIM with a single owner, with production in Nové Město to continue. Official boutiques operate in Frýdek-Místek at Příborská 1473, in Prague 1 and at Náchodská 2105 in Nové Město nad Metují. Each of the official boutiques also handles servicing of the watches for their owners.
Lengnau
Swiss watch brand pioneering high-tech ceramics since 1962. Scratch-proof cases in futuristic designs. The True Square and Captain Cook collections blend innovation with Swiss precision.
Best for High-tech ceramic watches and the Captain Cook line
Zurich
Family-owned Geneva watchmaker since 1976. Known for the Millesime collection — vintage-inspired sector dial watches that won the 2023 Challenge Prize, as recorded by GPHG.
Best for Millesime sector-dial watches and Geneva watchmaking
Tokyo, Japan
Japan’s watchmaking empire — the 1969 Quartz Astron that changed everything, Prospex divers, Presage craft.
Best for Presage, Prospex, 5 Sports; Enamel dials, dress watches; Professional diver's watches
Denmark / USA
Danish-named watch brand founded in New York in 1989 by Henrik and Charlotte Jorst, who named it for Skagen, Denmark's northernmost town. Sold to Fossil in 2012 for about $237 million; now designed in Denmark, manufactured mainly in China.
Best for Thin titanium minimalist
Skagen was founded in 1989, not in Denmark but in New York City, by Danish expatriates Henrik and Charlotte Jorst. The couple had moved to the US in 1986 after Henrik was posted there as sales manager for Carlsberg. They began by acting as American representatives for Danish manufacturers of corporate gift watches, and in 1991 found a way to produce slim, minimalist watches at lower cost; when the pieces drew attention at a corporate-gift trade fair, the Jorsts decided to sell them under their own name instead. They called the brand Skagen, after the town at the northern tip of Jutland known for its light and its 19th-century painters' colony, and used a matching Scandinavian design language - thin cases, brushed steel mesh straps, uncluttered dials - as the brand's signature. The first watches went on sale in 1992, made at a factory in Hong Kong, and the company expanded into the UK and the rest of Europe by 2000. Skagen Designs Ltd. was acquired by the American company Fossil Group in 2012, in a deal reported at roughly $237 million. Fossil now oversees global operations from its Richardson, Texas headquarters, while Skagen keeps regional offices in Denmark and Hong Kong, with production having shifted to Fossil's Chinese manufacturing base after the acquisition.
Via Dei Condotti, Rome / Online
The 1983 watch that saved Swiss watchmaking — collectible plastic pop, now MoonSwatch mania.
Best for Playful Swiss watches.
France
French watchmaker founded 1948 in Besancon by Henry Louis Belmont; its 1963 Superman diver and Rallygraf remain signature models, and Yema became the first French watch worn in space in 1982.
Best for Superman diver, Rallygraf; Rallygraf racing chrono; Superman locking bezel; Wristmaster micro-rotor
Yema was founded in 1948 in Besancon, France's historic watchmaking center, by Henry Louis Belmont, a graduate of the city's National Watchmaking School who set out to build French watches able to compete with Swiss manufacturing. The brand became known for tool watches aimed at divers and aviators; in 1963 it launched two of its most enduring models, the Superman dive watch and the Rallygraf chronograph. A Yema Rallygraf was worn by Formula One champion Mario Andretti. In 1982, Yema became the first French watch brand to go to space when astronaut Jean-Loup Chretien wore one during a Soviet Salyut 7 mission. The Superman and Rallygraf remain in Yema's current catalog, reissued in updated form.
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