There are many celebrated heroes from the world of independent watchmaking from the likes of Philippe Dufour, Kari Voutilainen, Franck Muller and François-Paul Journe. But here are those who are lesser known and often unsung heroes.
Six unsung watchmaking heroes from the independent world
This is an exploratory article. Of course, those in our list may be well known and highly touted in some markets, but in our view, these individuals do deserve more attention and focus.
Jean-Marc Wiedderrecht
Jean-Marc Wiedderecht is a Swiss watchmaker and founder of Agenhor. Born in 1969, Widderech began his career in watchmaking at the age of 15, working for various prestigious watch manufacturers before establishing his own brand in 1996.
Key Achievements
Wiedderecht is a behind-the-scene maker, who have been producing exceptional works under his company – Agenhor, where he is best known for the Agengraphe. This is a modern chronograph which radical rethinking of the tradiitonal column wheel chronograph. However, the concept is deeper than that. The base movement is designed as a donut shape with an empty center which can be used to contain complications. The Agengraphe uses this space for a chronograph, but Jean-Marc tells us that it can be used for a calendar, a central tourbillon or other interesting complication.
The Agengraphe is used in the Fabergé Visionnaire Chronograph as well as in the Singer Reimagined chronograph watches. Moser has recently made a minority acquisition of Agenhor, and also uses the Agengraphe in their chronographs, including the Streamliner Flyback Chronograph Automatic.
Andreas Strehler
Andreas Strehler is a Swiss watchmaker and founder of the independent watch brand, Andreas Strehler SA. Born in 1971, Strehler began his watchmaking career at the age of 16. He was the Head of Prototype Development with Renaud et Papi in 1991. He became independent in 1995 with his own brand.
Key Achievements
Strehler works both behind the scenes as a “skunkworks” style problem solver, but also has his own independent brands. Notable work done for other brands include the Chronoscope for Chronoswiss (2003), Le Chronographe for Maurice Lacroix (2006) the Moser Perpetual (2006) and the Harry Winston Opus 7 (2007). Under his own name, watches which are signed “Andreas Strehler” are fully bespoke, and he also has a lower line known as Strehler which is somewhat mass produced in his manufacture.
For all his watches, including the less expensive Sirna, he still makes every component, case and dial in his facility, but the watches are not customisable. He is well known for his World Record for moonphase accuracy of 1 day in 2 million years, a record which recently fell to the IWC Portugieser Eternal Calendar’s 1 day in 45 million years moonphase display. He is also known for his Papillon, in particular the Salterelo. And our favourite watch from Andreas is his Trans-axial Remontoir Tourbillon.
Reinhard Meis
We have carried a couple of articles Reinhard Meis. We interviewed him in an article published the conversation here. This was a collaboration with Peter Braun of Armbanduhren Magazine in Germany, with special facilitation by our special correspondant, Dr. Frank Müller of The Bridge to Luxury. The article has been published in Issue 1 of Armbanduhren for 2021.
He was a primarily known for his work as an educator and author. Born in 1940 Koppelow (Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Germany), he was trained as a watchmaker, but spent most of his life in the Physics Faculty of the University of Konstanz. During his tenure, he wrote some key reference books in watchmaking.
Key Achievements
His first book was Die alte Uhr, in two volumes, published in 1978. This was followed in 1979 by Taschenuhren, and in 1985 by IWC-Uhren. In 1986 he produced his most seminal work- Das Tourbillon. However, it was through the book IWC Uhren that he first came into contact with Günter Blümlein, then CEO of IWC Schaffhausen. In 1990, he accepted Blümlein’s offer to work in the about to be revived A. Lange & Söhne. He worked with on the design of the Lange 1, the Pour le Mérite Tourbillon and the Datograph.
Aaron Becsei
Aaron Becsei is a Hungarian watchmaker and founder of the independent watch brand, Bexei Watches. Born to a three generation watchmaking family in 1979, Aaron showed his first clocks in Baselworld 2007, and his first pocket watch – the Primus Triple-Axis Tourbillon in 2008. in 2009, he presented his Tourbillon No.2 Carriage Clock in Baselworld and was elected into the AHCI.
Key Achievements
Most of the watches he delivers are fully customised. We covered a Dignitas Pure where he worked with our friend and collector to design the watch. The movement design and finish is exceptionally beautifully and superbly well finished.
Christophe Claret
Christophe Claret is a Swiss watchmaker and founder of the independent watch brand, Christophe Claret SA. Born in 1962, Claret began his watchmaking career at the age of 14, working for prominent watch manufacturers before establishing his own brand in 1986, manufacturing complicated movements like tourbillons, striking watches, chronographs, calendars and unusual displays are the mainstay of his business.
Key Achievements
The maison began delivering exclusive movements and watches for high-end watchmakers in the following years. In 1987, Ulysse Nardin became the first major client with an order for 20 minute repeater movements. Other clients include Breguet, Cartier, Chopard, Corum, de Grisogono, Franck Muller, Girard-Perregaux, Harry Winston, and Parmigiani. Many of these already own and operate high-end movement workshops of their own but chose Claret for his ability to deliver complicated pieces, particularly chiming movements. For example, Parmigiani Fleurier uses Claret as one two sources for striking watches for Parmigiani, the other being Renaud et Papi (AP Le Locle). The recent Parmigiani Armoriale Répétition Mystérieuse uses a Claret repeater mechanism.
He also does work under his own brand name, the most well know is perhaps the Dualtow, which was nominated for GPHG 2009. We published a full review of the X-TREM 1 Pinball (shown above), which is based on the same movement, but uses an unusual magnetically suspended ball to show the progress of the hours and minutes.
Derek Pratt
Derek Pratt was a British-born Swiss watchmaker and for many years was responsible for watches which was signed Urban Jürgensen. Born in 1938, Pratt began his watchmaking career at the age of 15, working for prominent watch manufacturers before establishing his own brand in 1977. He does not normally sign his name on the watches.
Key Achievements
Derek is considered by many to be the equal in skills to George Daniels. And his works which were signed Urban Jürgensen go for record prices in the secondary market. Interesting side-note is that Urban Júrgensen is being revived once again, by non other than Kari Voutilainen. We have been invited to the launch event in Santa Monica in June 2025. Watch out for our detailed reports on the novelty (or novelties).
He was recently honoured in a posthumous tribute by Luca Soprana. Luca presented a new Remontoir d’égalité in January 2023 with the support of Derek’s family. The watch is completely Swiss Made, though contains elements which may be ascribed as traditional English style, but is mostly the aesthetics practiced by Derek in Switzerland. The style is perhaps best described as having some elements taken from traditional English and blended with Breguet inspiration with a serving of Urban Jurgensen. Of course, this interesting styling does not take anything away from the spectacular work on the timepiece.
Concluding thoughts
So how many in this list of unsung heroes do you already know? If you did, what are your favourite pieces?
