First visits of Monochrome’s Tour de Suisse

The first independent watchmakers I visited where Thomas Prescher, Peter Speake-Marin and Greubel Forsey. I think you don’t have to be an admirer of independent haute horlogerie to appreciate their watches. Any watch aficionado will probably enjoy the amazing timepieces and horological art these watchmakers created.

Thomas Prescher’s atelier is in Twann, a small village down the road of Biel-Bienne toward Neuchatel, next to Lake Biel-Bienne. This is where he creates the incredible triple axis tourbillon, a masterpiece no other watchmaker has successfully produced to this day. The Triple Axis Tourbillon was initially presented together with a Single Axis and Double Axis Tourbillon, as the Trilogy. In following reports I’ll tell more about Prescher‘s Trilogy, Tempus Vivendi, Scultura Una and maybe some news…?

At Baselworld 2009 Peter Speake-Marin launched caliber SM2, which he designed with sturdiness, reliability and ease of maintenance in mind. Being a (very good) watchmaker, he knows the importance of these principles and now integrated them with some typical British watchmaking elements.

It’s no secret anymore that Speake-Marin will launch another new, entirely self developed, movement pretty soon. Although caliber SM2 was designed to be the basis for several future movements, quite a bit of significant changes had to be made for the new caliber. It won’t be long and for now all i can say is that I am very exited about Speake-Marin’s new movement and everything that will surround it.

Now it won’t be fair to compare anything I have seen (and probably will see) to the following manufacture I visited. Every watch Greubel Forsey create is incredibly impressive. It really is another league and I think it’s best described as a league of their own. I know this sounds like big words, but if you are every in the position to see and touch one of the Greubel Forsey timepieces i’m sure you’ll feel the same.

Gruebel Forsey‘s design is bold and so everything about the watches. They are not for the faint of heart… The most recent release is the Double Tourbillon 30 degrees Historique. Limited to 11 pieces in red gold and 11 pieces in platinum, they will be the last of in total 186 pieces of the Double Tourbillon 30 Degrees to be produced.