Having a watch made for you - Watch Around

28MARKETMARKE
Having a watch made for you
Horus allows customers to create the watch of their
dreams in shape, colour, complications, dial layout
and decorations including gemstones, engraving
and a miniature in enamels. The choice is practically
endless. “My first customer, for example, had
a magnificent yacht and wanted his watch in the
same style,” Grossmann recalls. “He chose a flying
tourbillon in a case of polished white gold finished
like the chrome brightwork of his yacht, with
a dial in strips of wood like a laid deck.”
Horus might be the most expensive offer of its kind,
but it is not the first. Golay Spierer in Carouge
near Geneva was the pioneer in custom-made
watches.Nearly 10 years ago, the firm’s cofounder,
Christophe Golay, started offering clients
“tailor-made time”. A more high-tech and cheaper
solution comes from 121 Time, a company
founded in Martigny, Canton Valais in 2002. It uses
the internet to offer customers a huge range of
models that can be personalised and ordered
online. More than 10 million combinations of case,
dial, movement, bezel, hands, bracelets and technical
options are possible, plus a personal engraving
on the caseback. All this in a certified
Swiss-made product, starting at less than 500 dollars
for a quartz or mechanical movement, and
delivered in 10 days. Nevertheless, the options are
standard and predefined, so it is more a matter of
mass personalisation than custom-made.
Grégoire Baillod
The bespoke watchmaker allows you to cobble up just
about anything.
”I’ve often thought it amazing that a watch costing
several hundreds of thousands of dollars cannot
be made more to the buyer’s specifications,” says
André Grossmann, founder of the Horus brand
launched in 2008 and based in Monaco and
Montreux, Switzerland. For him exclusiveness and
rarity define the luxury product. Measuring time to
the measure of the customer is his motto.
Fashion has its bespoke tailors and boot makers,
but when it comes to watches, the customer’s
choice is limited to predefined variations of models
designed entirely by the producer, whether a limited
edition or a unique piece.
A watch unlike any other. At Horus or Golay
Spierer, on the other hand, the customer has free
rein to design a unique watch. The creative
process always starts with a consultation to determine
exactly what the customer wants. Some people
have a clear idea and come armed with
sketches or examples taken from books, magazines
or a variety of other sources of inspiration.
Others have only a vague starting point – a sports
watch, something conventional or in a particular
shape. “I guide each client through the design
process,” explains Christophe Golay – a process
that can take several months. Some customers are
concerned only with the exterior of the watch,
choosing a particular style of case, dial or hands
and opting for a standard ETA or Soprod movement.
Others are particular about the mechanisms
and indications. Both Horus and Golay Spierer can
provide refurbished vintage movements or a unique
28
| watch around no 009 spring-summer 2010

TMARKETMARKET
technical feature. “One customer wanted an original
indication of the phases of the moon,” recounts
Christophe Golay. “Our watchmaking engineer
constructed a module matching the journey of the
moon on the dial with its different phases. It was
built on a restored Fontainemelon FHF 73 movement.”
Another creative example is the navyinspired
Horus Ultramarinum with a unique “time
control” lever that makes the hands go faster or
slower and brings them instantly to the right time.
André Grossmann works closely with three manufacturers,
including Concepto in La Chaux-de-
Fonds, to develop bespoke movements for
demanding customers. “We contribute our technical
know-how and advice rather like an architect
designing a dream home,” he explains. Pursuing
the analogy, buying a branded watch would be the
same as buying a house plan or a ready built home.
The cost. However these horological architects
act above all as contractors. The advantage of
Horus or Golay Spierer lies in their network of firstclass
horological resources. It’s not easy to persuade
suppliers, who usually produce large series
for watch brands, to make a single component.
“For one of my suppliers,” says Christophe Golay,
“it was an opportunity to employ their prototype
department.” The necessarily higher costs are
reflected in the price of the watch.
In fact, how much does it cost to have a watch
made “You can get a custom-made piece from
around 20,000 dollars,” Christophe Golay replies.
And the most expensive from among the
1,000 watches he has made A white-gold watch
with a lapis-lazuli dial and the movement with the
unusual moon-phase indication cost around
190,000 dollars. The cheapest watch from Horus,
on the other hand, costs some 200,000 dollars,
but then practically all its watches have complicated
movements. The most expensive was a
minute-repeater with a flying tourbillon. Moreover,
in addition to the traditional gold or platinum,
Horus offers cases made from the latest, and
sometimes unprecedented, alloys and materials.
These are from the company’s Aviatex subsidiary,
specialised in materials and coating for aerospace
and medical equipment. Aviatex was Grossman’s
first enterprise as an aircraft engineer, before he
reconverted into luxury goods.
The high-stake watch inspired by Monte Carlo.
29
watch around no 009 spring-summer 2010 |

MARKETMARKETM
A custom-made watch by Golay Spierer might well contain a discontinued calibre, like this restored Venus chronograph
movement.
Enthusiastic customers. What kind of person
chooses a bespoke watch and why “A custommade
article gives you the unique pleasure of conceiving
something yourself instead of having to
accept an object designed by someone else,” reckons
Christophe Golay, observing that the watchmaking
industry started out by making unique
pieces either as the work of independent watchmakers
or for the dignitaries of the time. The
watches made by Abraham-Louis Breguet for the
crowned heads of Europe spring to mind.
According to André Grossmann, there is today a
strong trend towards personalisation. “Often people
who can afford expensive watches already
have their clothes, shoes, houses or yachts custom-made.
They naturally want their watches
made to measure as well.” However there are
degrees of customisation. Out of the 25 pieces produced
by Horus in 2009, only three were entirely to
the customer’s design. The others were personalised
versions of one of the three showcase
30
| watch around no 009 spring-summer 2010

MARKETMARKETM
models created by Horus. “People often need
some guidelines. That is why we provide examples
of what we can do,” Grossman explains.
The typical Horus customer Around 70% of them
already have a collection of watches from the
major brands and are looking for something a bit
more exclusive. The others want to associate their
watch with their yacht, their car, their family or anything
else that they value. “For this reason a personal
engraving is very popular,” André Grossmann
says. In general, the customer enjoys a much
closer relationship with the bespoke watchmaker
than with a brand. Christophe Golay has undertaken
only three projects without meeting the
future owner of the watch. Horus takes charge of
the entire process from the design and production
to the delivery and after-sales service. “We have
no middlemen,” says André Grossmann. “Our contact
points are our three shops in Monaco, Abu
Dhabi and Montreux, which was opened in
November 2009, and we are planning more shops.
Often I go and visit the customer. In most cases we
deliver the watch personally wherever the customer
wants it, and usually within six to eight
weeks.” The service is as personal as the product.
Compromise in limited editions. Notwithstanding
the success of the bespoke-watch scheme, it
remains a niche sector. Horus sells between 20
and 30 pieces a year with a planned increase to
100 within five years. Golay Spierer produces an
average of around 15 watches a year. Both have a
similar strategy – to provide personalised limited
editions in addition to the custom-made watch. The
idea is to increase production volumes and to
attract customers for less expensive watches. Late
last year Golay Spierer therefore launched the
Legend Racer model in partnership with Ange Barde,
four times European Ferrari Challenge champion.
The three models in titanium, black PVD-coated titanium
or pink gold, come in limited editions of 88
watches each. The chronograph buttons are shaped
like accelerator pedals, the crown like the cap of a fuel
tank, the hands like the spokes of the steering wheel
and the caseback like the wheel hubs. Twenty
watches have been delivered and 40 more are in production.
For its part, Horus is introducing limited editions
of its three showcase models. The eight
watches of each model, available only in the Horus
outlets, are glamourised by the Italian Formula One
driver, Giancarlo Fisichella, the brand’s new “ambassador”.
Such watches are both relatively exclusive
and relatively affordable, with prices starting at around
25,000 dollars and a sales target of 300 pieces.
With this approach, the two companies are becoming
more like the traditional brands, which on their
side are trying to personalise their products or
make them more exclusive through limited editions,
anniversary and other commemorative
watches or by allowing the customer to choose
certain features of the product as in the Vacheron
Constantin Quai de l’Ile watch. Watches offering
such artistic embellishments as enamelling or
engraving are natural candidates for personalisation
as are certain astronomical complications. The
times of sunrise and sunset, star charts or the
equation of time have to be set to a location determined
by the owner of the watch.
Thus the traditional branded watch and the madeto-measure
piece meet halfway in the continuum
between the standard product and the unique
watch. It’s a compromise, perhaps, that allows a
greater number of watch enthusiasts to believe
they are masters of their times. •
32
| watch around no 009 spring-summer 2010