Out of the blue, out of this world, Vanguart’s UFOs for the wrist prove there’s still plenty of space in Switzerland
Internationally, it’s neutral. Nationally, something of a trilingual melting pot. But whether you speak French, German or Italian, Switzerland bears one partisan belief: it’s the true home of horology, with history proving it’s their way or no way.
Thanks to its famed neutrality, Switzerland’s watch industry thrived during the war while others were repurposing their tools for bomb timers and cockpit instruments. As Orson Welles’ character Harry Lime quipped in Carol Reed’s 1949 film noir The Third Man, Switzerland became the “home of the cuckoo clock.”
Following the 1980s quartz crisis, Switzerland reinvented the humble mechanical watch as an eternal investment, which inherently harks back to the quaint cottage industry of the Jura mountains – a region in western Switzerland known for its limestone peaks, dense forests and horology hub La Chaux-de-Fonds. This revival rested firmly on the foundation of prestigious heritage brands.
But that’s changing. Since the 1990s, French startup Bell & Ross, for example, dared to disrupt the puritanical codes of the pilot watch. While still relying on Swiss know-how and resources, they revolutionized the design and proved there’s room for new faces in a familiar field. This encouraged stripped-back techno startups like Richard Mille in 2000, MB&F and its steampunk creations, the flying saucers of Ulysse Nardin’s Freak series, Urwerk et al. Even indie brands like the Grönefeld brothers have decamped wholesale back to their Danish homeland.
So where in this brave new galaxy does that leave an upstart like Vanguart? Positioned at the ‘vanguard’ of conceptual horology, as its portmanteau attests, Vanguart is bravely advancing the sci-fi experimentalism of kinetic sculpture in timepieces.
It’s also brave for standing on the shoulders of Swiss giants, but with none of the hoary mentality that so often shackles the established brands to their heritage. Take Vanguart’s debut, the Black Hole: a planetary body spinning above its apex in the form of a flying tourbillon carriage, regulating the flick of its mesmeric, concentric hours and minutes rings. For 2024, Vanguart pares things back to that flying saucer of a tourbillon, hovering centre stage and powered by a rotor like no other – a ceramic ring orbiting the circumference, whose orbit is only discernible thanks to a single diamond-set satellite.
Mehmet Koruturk (chairman), Axel Leuenberger (CEO), Jérémy Freléchox (chief technical officer) and, last but not least, Thierry Fischer (creative director) revealed to 10:10 how they brought the future back to horology’s heartland, with a wilfully artistic, less academic attitude.
10:10 You have quite the dream team, it appears.
Mehmet Koruturk We have the dream team. Axel started his watchmaking career at Audemars Piguet’s APRP hothouse, by the side of Giulio Papi himself , while Jeremy worked for Girard-Perregaux before joining APRP.
MK I was a complete outsider! Whilst I have extensive experience in broader luxury (fashion, automobiles), my professional work in high-end watchmaking was just beginning when I met these guys. I discovered the haute horology world in a deeper way while working for Genii Capital and more specifically through the sponsors of its flagship asset: the Lotus F1 Team.
Axel Leuenberger We had a dream to make a ‘black hole-vortex’ type of tourbillon a reality few years ago. Beautiful encounters and shared visions have made us become partners and grow the project.
10:10 That’s an interesting way in – how, exactly?
MK I created and founded the creative agency Magnat as a hobby to link watch brands with brand ambassadors: the first collaboration we set up was between Axl Rose of Guns N’ Roses. It’s through this collaboration I first met Axel and Jeremy. Long conversations over two years ended up with all of us (Thierry joining too) exiting our jobs and founding Vanguart in 2017. I was truly inspired by what they had already achieved.
10:10 The design of the Black Hole: inspired by the Millennium Falcon, perhaps?
Thierry Fischer There isn’t really an obvious transposition of one universe or another. All four of us are from the generation of the 80s and 90s who were immersed in sci-fi and fantasy, cars and spaceships. I think anyone who looks at the shape of the Black Hole case sees something from that imagination that many share in common.
10:10 Was the concentric jumping display module an evolution of an existing style of mechanism? Or a totally new concept?
AL That was a totally new concept, based on a design of Thierry. The entire movement is dedicated to this particular complication, started from a blank page.
Jérémy Freléchox From a blank page. Proprietary, and entirely conceived and assembled in our atelier.
10:10 What sort of set-up is Vanguart HQ? Don’t most new high-end brands necessarily rely on the cottage industry of parts suppliers in and around the Jura mountains’ historic cradle of horology, La Chaux-de-Fonds?
JF Once again, the planets aligned when we became partners. A mutual friend had to hand over his premises in La Chaux-de-Fonds. It was a video creation office for Breitling, in fact. We then moved into a place full of history, a place renovated with great taste. Moreover, it was previously the old Vulcain brand’s building – where so many of their famous alarm wristwatches rang-out for the first time! So, we are now emerging from startup mode, fully fledged…
TF The Black Hole was an ideal launch; it allowed us to push our collective vision as far as possible. We’ve now been able to carry the purity of its design aesthetic forth – to evolve into the Orb. And beyond, of course…
Vanguart Orb from CHF180,000 plus VAT; Vanguart Black Hole from CHF290,000 + VAT; vanguart.com
Photography George Harvey
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