The partnership also includes:
— Manuel Thomas, 53, is the founder of Artime, the watch decoration company behind the collaboration. From 2000 to 2001, he served as head of Breitling’s complications department, among other positions. (Mr. Thomas said Artime financed the new watch and allowed Artime Créations to use space in its three workshops in the merged city of Le Locle-Les Brenets, Switzerland, for watch decoration, assembly and more.)
— Stéphane Maturel, 47, worked at Renaud & Papi from 1999 to 2011, rising from a watchmaker to managing the company’s research and development services.
——Fabrice Deschanel, 62, served as general manager of the Renaud & Papi Movement Studio from 1991 to 2015. Watchmaker Richard Mille said in an interview with Hodinkee in 2022 that he “Not at all afraid to think in unconventional ways. “
— and Claude Emmenegger, 58, whose previous work includes designing the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak concept watch.
But Nate Borgelt, head of watches for the Americas at auction house Bonhams, said the partnership was more about what the men could create together than their names or work histories.
“Typically you’ll see one or two people making a watch, or two or three people, with someone working on the mechanism, someone working on the case, someone working on the dial,” Mr. Bogelt said. But he said Artime’s collaborations are “more conceptual, pushing design, pushing materials, but on a smaller scale, not like a conglomerate like LVMH or the Swatch Group. It feels more holistic and artisanal.”
The company’s first watch took a long time to come out. Mr. Thomas founded Artime in 2014, and other partners subsequently joined.
