The international auctions that took place last year made it possible to observe a phenomenon that continues to grow in the contemporary watchmaking market: the rise of the independent watchmaker.

While Rolex, Patek Philippe, Richard Mille and Audemars Piguet dominate the market and have further strengthened their leadership in 2022, there is a growing interest in independents.

Their names are Maximilian Büsser, Denis Flageolet, Konstantin Chaykin, Vianney Halter and Bart and Tim Grönefeld, and they embody the revival of independent watchmaking.

In recent years, their watches have been increasingly in demand. However, faced with the growing success of their name and brand, they remain faithful to their principles and do not increase the volume of their production.

Favouring creativity over profitability is a conscious choice that they fully assert. However, on the secondary market, the prices of their timepieces continue to rise!

What if the “right time” to buy a timepiece signed by these mechanical geniuses was now?

Panorama on 5 watchmakers to follow closely in 2023!

MB&F

Will MB&F be the star of 2023? One thing is certain, the brand founded by Maximilien Büsser has already been elected “Watchmaker of the Year” by winning the Aiguille d’or 2022 last November, the most prestigious trophy of the Geneva Watchmaking Grand Prix.

In less than 20 years, MB&F, short for Maximilian Büsser & Friends, has become one of the finest names in contemporary watchmaking. The very first watchmaking conceptual laboratory dedicated to the design and manufacture of small series of “radical” watches, MB&F was founded in 2005 by the former CEO of Harry Winston. The idea? To forget about profitability and focus on creativity. Revisiting the great principles of 19th century watchmaking, MB&F creates watch pieces with subversive designs. Moreover, Maximilien Büsser claims that watchmaking takes the form of mechanical art, and designs machines under his label whose function is to symbolise time rather than to tell the time.

The brand was created in 2005, but it was in 2007 that it launched its first model: Horological Machine N° 1.

If you look at MB&F through the prism of “Collection Potential”, it is an extremely attractive label for any lover of fine watchmaking. On the one hand, because the brand is constantly innovating. Since its creation, MB&F has developed more than 20 calibres… A remarkable performance! Few brands invest so much in research and development and produce so many inventions over this period of time!

On the other hand, rarity is a constitutive element of MB&F: each model is produced in limited series, ranging from a few dozen pieces to more than a hundred.

If each model is produced in small series, MB&F’s annual production has been constantly decreasing for several years! This is a daring decision that goes against the grain of the profitability imperatives that govern the watch industry. Ten years ago, MB&F announced that it was producing 285 pieces per year (2013), ten years later, the brand announced that it had reduced its annual production to 218 pieces (2019) and now claims its desire “not to grow”.

A development strategy that may seem curious, but is perfectly in line with the values of its founder. Favouring pleasure over profitability is a business model that works and is bearing fruit, because since its existence MB&F has never been so much in demand on the secondary market!

However, although MB&F entered the collectible watch market very quickly, the brand is still appreciated by a very discerning clientele composed almost exclusively of connoisseurs and design enthusiasts.

In 2011, thanks to Christie’s auction house, the brand was presented for the first time at auction. The following year, Sotheby’s included its pieces in its watch sales. Since 2015, MB&F has been represented at the most important international auctions and has recorded steadily increasing sales results. In France, it is still particularly rare to see pieces in auction rooms, only Artcurial has so far dared to offer MB&F in its sales selection.

Although MB&F is an ultra-strong brand in the making in the collection sector, prices are still very “accessible”. Depending on the piece, whether it is a robot or a wristwatch, it is possible to acquire a piece from €12,000, and prices can rise to €620,000, the absolute record obtained at auction for a unique piece, the Panda model, sold in 2021 (Christie’s, lot 38, Only Watch, 6 November 2021).

Among the brand’s most extravagant models is the Horological Machine N°9, one of which recently sold for nearly €113,000 at auction (Christie’s, lot 2366, 24 May 2022); or the famous Sherman robot, a very playful collector’s item, made in collaboration with the house of L’Epée, a historical clock maker since 1839! One of the last pieces presented at auction was sold for €15,600. (Artcurial, lot 620, 20 July 2021)

DE BETHUNE

In a state of mind quite similar to MB&F, De Bethune has made a place for itself in the very closed circle of independent watchmaking.

Founded in 2002 in the Swiss Jura, De Bethune is an outsider claiming to be a futuristic and experimental watchmaker that does not incorporate “any economic thinking”. Behind this audacious – almost insolent – brand is one man: Denis Flageollet. This French master watchmaker, son, grandson and great-grandson of a watchmaker, is today considered one of the most creative personalities in independent watchmaking. Before taking the plunge with De Bethune, Denis Flageollet and François-Paul Journe founded the THA factory, which specialised in the development of calibres and movements for brands such as Cartier, Ulysse Nardin and even Breguet.

Because living in the shadow of the major watchmaking brands was no longer enough, Denis Flageollet founded his own manufacture in the early 2000s.  With a business model completely at odds with all the patterns and codes of the watch industry, and a production limited to 500 pieces per year, De Bethune will find its audience and quickly become a very nice reference for a few initiated collectors. 2011 is the year of consecration, De Bethune receives the Aiguille d’Or, the highest award given during the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève and a wider public of watch lovers and collectors discovers the brand on this occasion. Benefiting from a strong brand image and sustained demand, De Bethune will enter the auction market in 2014. For 5 years, the brand will be regularly – but timidly – represented in auctions, but 2019 will be the year of the price explosion! The brand’s value is skyrocketing and its prices are doubling and sometimes even tripling!

Today, prices generally oscillate between €20,000 and €180,000 depending on the model and complications.

As an example, recently, it was possible to acquire an extremely sober timepiece with power reserve, in black titanium and coming from a special series of 10 pieces for €23,000 (Phillips, lot 989, sale of 29 November 2022). A result that encourages acquisition and demonstrates that independent watchmaking, however elitist, is sometimes more accessible than the latest Daytona!

Prices are higher for the brand’s iconic pieces, such as the DB28, De Bethune’s most famous model, the one with which the brand became known to the general public in 2011. For Denis Flageollet, the model is “so iconic as to be a pillar of our collections” and easily fetches around €150,000 (Christies, lot 70, “The Dubai Edit”, sale on 26 October 2022). 

To date, the record auction price is €226,000 for a single blued titanium piece (Phillips, lot 205, 8 May 2022), a result that matches the prices achieved by some legendary manufacturers.  

GRÖNEFELD

If Bart and Tim Grönefeld call themselves “the watchmaker brothers”, it is because watchmaking is a family affair for them. Sons and grandsons of watchmakers, their name has been inseparable from Dutch watchmaking since the beginning of the 20th century. Their grandfather, Gerhard Louis Grönefeld, opened his first workshop in Oldenzaal in the Netherlands. When he died in 1974, his son Sief took over the shop and workshop. Bart and Tim took over from their father Sief in the early 2000s. They are the third generation, and today they continue to keep the brand alive by propelling it into a new modernity. While they develop watches that incorporate the principles of old watchmaking, they claim an attraction for complexity and challenge, and like to say that “simplicity does not attract them”.

In 2011, their talent was recognised for the first time by the Fondation du Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève, and rewarded with the Prix Spécial du Jury.

Since then, they have accumulated nearly 10 prizes and awards, including the prize for the best chronograph watch awarded in November 2022 once again by the Geneva Watchmaking Grand Prix.

Among the most prized watches, the “1941Remontoir” model – a name chosen simply in reference to the year of their father’s birth – is the brand’s most emblematic model, as it is with this watch that the two brothers won the first Temporis Awards in 2016. The specificity of this watch: removable lugs fixed with titanium screws. A model created in a limited edition, only 188 pieces, and declined in various precious metals that was already valued at more than €30,000 in 2019 if we go by the result recorded by Sotheby’s (lot 121, sale 24 March 2019).

Over the past four years, this family-owned brand has established itself on the auction market. To date, the record price is held by the “Decennium Tourbillon” model, for a platinum piece produced in only 10 pieces and sold this year for over €185,000 by Phillips (lot 134, sale 11 June 2022).

Still very confidential, this brand remains little known to the general public. Indeed, Grönefeld watches are only available on a waiting list…. Since the brand produces no more than 70 pieces per year! 

Today, the average waiting time for a watch is about 3 / 4 years. 

KONSTANTIN CHAYKIN

His name has been making the market go wild for less than 18 months: Konstantin Chaykin. Straight from Russia, this 47-year-old self-taught watchmaker is establishing himself as the coolest name in independent watchmaking. A member of the Académie Horlogère des Créateurs indépendants, he is one of the most talented watch designers of his generation.

The best evidence of his anti-conformist creativity are his “Wristmons”, a collection of fun watches with colorful dials featuring the faces of characters we love, like minions, a Halloween pumpkin or the evil Joker! Offering provocative watches featuring American blockbuster heroes, it is above all another vision of Haute Horlogerie that Konstantin Chaykin proposes.

Although he launched into watchmaking in 2003 with the ambition of one day creating the first Russian watch with a tourbillon regulator, Konstantin Chaykin initially devoted himself for years to the repair of table clocks and wristwatches.

In 2017, he developed the “Wristmons” collection, all models of which are now particularly popular and sought after. The particularity of his watches lies in an ingenious mechanism that allows you to read the time through the rotation of the character’s eyes.

Producing only 100 watches per year, Konstantin Chaykin is a rare signature and his “Wristmons” are very rarely available on the secondary market. Until 2021, the very rare pieces that did come up for auction typically sold for between €12,500 and €45,000 (Christie’s, lot 2259, May 27, 2019).

But in 2021, Christie’s auction house recorded a record price of nearly €300,000 for a unique piece sold at the Only Watch sale (lot 31, November 6, 2021). This model, named “Tourbillon Martien”, is the first watch equipped with a tourbillon regulator that works in synchronization with the planet Mars. In concrete terms, this means that it is equipped with a new system for measuring time: one Martian minute is equivalent to 61.65 Earth seconds. This watch is an unprecedented extravagance, but above all it is brilliantly inventive!

If Konstantin Chaykin’s pieces are rare, they are paradoxically “accessible”. Thus, it is possible – for the moment! – to acquire extremely original models on the second market, such as the “Joker Pumpkin” for less than €30,000 (exactly €29,000 at Phillips, lot 39, on June 11, 2022).

However, the latest auction results attest that the market for Konstantin Chaykin’s “Wristmons” is exploding. The best example: the “Minion” model, which was only produced in 38 pieces and sold for €13,800 on the first market, is now selling for over €40,000 on the second market. The only piece presented at auction to date was sold for €41,000 by the Ineichen auction house (lot 5, August 30, 2022).

VIANNEY HALTER

Since 1994, Vianney Halter has been able to impose his name on the independent watchmaking market and make a name for himself in this market. It all began in Paris in the early 1980s, when this French watchmaker opened his first workshop. Initially devoted to the restoration of antique clocks and pocket watches, he quickly put his talents at the service of the great names in watchmaking by developing complications and prototypes under the THA label with François-Paul Journe and Denis Flageollet.

In 1989, he founded his own manufacture, “La Manufacture Janvier”, in reference to the French watchmaker and astronomer Antide Janvier. Active in the second half of the 18th century, the work of Antide Janvier deeply inspired Vianney Halter’s philosophy and creative approach. Designing a watch in an artisanal way, but in a futuristic style, is probably what best defines his very personal style. Passionate about science fiction, it is in the world of Jules Verne that Vianney Halter draws his first inspirations.

In 1998, Vianney Halter produced his very first watch, “Antiqua”, an evocative name that perfectly reflects his approach. This model, which he defines as a “relic of the future”, became the founding piece of his “Futur Antérieur” collection, which is intended to illustrate “what the future could be like as we imagined it at the end of the 19th century”. For 25 years, Vianney Halter has been producing watches with a clearly identifiable design and a very retro-futuristic spirit. Since 2000, Vianney Halter has been a member of the AHCI, the Académie Horlogère des Créateurs Indépendants, and in 2011 he was named “Best Watchmaker-Designer” by the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève.

Vianney Halter’s watches are highly rated on the collector’s market and their value has increased considerably over the last 5 years. Depending on the model, some pieces have increased in value by up to 450%, such as the “Antiqua” model. This emblematic Vianney Halter model, which was still available for barely €50,000 at auction in 2015, is now selling for around €225,000, like the one sold by Christie’s from the collection of a major European collector (lot 169, sale of 10 May 2021)

However, watches without complication are still relatively affordable. Among the latest pieces presented at auction and interesting for their “collection potential”, we note one model: “Classic”, a special edition in pink gold limited to 250 pieces, sold for €50,000 (Sotheby’s, lot 13, 9 December 2022). 

Some pieces are even more accessible, like the model that Vianney Halter made in collaboration with the German luxury brand Goldpfeil in 2001. A white gold watch with jumping hours and phases of the moon, produced in a limited edition of 108 pieces, the last of which was sold at public auction for €35,321.