Private Air New York

www.privateairny.com Private Air New York | Winter 2014/2015 50 BEHIND THE MEDIA DARLING It appears that it was the destiny of independent Swiss watchmakers from the early days of the past century, to stay unrecognized by the public, while at the same time making large quantities of watches for other brands. With the division of industrialization in this industry, the outsourcing of some high-end watches came about in smaller batches, allowing some watchmakers of superb skill to create brands of their own. us the launching of a independent brands came about. Christophe Claret has been one of the hottest independent watchmakers in recent years, in spite of his brand getting a late start. He launched the first watch under his name in 2009 and it became a true blockbuster. e news related to his launches of Casino watches, and X-Trem 1 – that indicates time magnetically with a steel ball were fully reported by the media – a rarity for independent watch brands. Claret had been active in the watch industry for more than twenty years before this time. He had set up a studio with APRP GiuiloPapi and Dominique Renaud, specializing in the development of complex functional modules for other brands in those earlier years. Unfortunately, the relationship broke off, with each still playing important roles within the watch industry today. Prior to establishing his own brand, Claret had many masterpieces under his belt too numerous to mention, but all exceptional. As to the singular importance and influence that he brings to watchmaking, one cannot deny his importing the CAD (computer aided design) principles to watchmaking, and the Classic Tourbillon that he designed for Breguet. In the early 1980s, CAD software use in the design movement of watches was rather a new phenomenon, and even the Jaeger – LeCoultre and IWC had no idea of it until the late 1980s. It was Claret who designed a minute repeater in Athens with CAD in 1986 that brought forth CAD design to the industry, changing the entire process of watchmaking in the long run, while in the short term, bringing a lot of business to Claret, including the Classic Tourbillon of Breguet. In 1987, Breguet entrusted Lemania of the same group, to make a tourbillon. is became a difficult task as it was not the leading edge of watchmaking then and its relative technology was little known. Again, it was Claret who took over the task of developing a singular watch for Breguet based on his performance in Athens. Claret and Papi, who were still together then, shared technologies related to CAD with Swatch Group and APRP – technologies that are still in use today. It is no exaggeration to say that most of the tourbillons available on the market today are from Claret since he laid the foundation of watches with complex functions twenty years earlier. His influence overall, is far more profound than that of the unusual and unique watches he has made for other brands since then. Despite the many contributions of Claret to the industry, few knew of him prior to his establishing his own brand. at appears to be the situation for most independent watchmakers of past decades. Independent watchmakers with superb reputations such as Philippe Dufour and FP Journe are rare. is is why they want to change this predicament. As a result of involvement by some, AHCI has been established, but to be honest, their achievements of the past decade have not been nearly as great as that of Maximilian Busser. Busser is so famous in the watch world, that there is no need for further introduction. Christophe Claret

• Cover