Artisans De Genève – high-tech solutions meet classic watchmaking

By: Aleksandar Mladenovic

Since 2005 Artisans de Genève have offered unique watches created according to the customers' specific demands and needs. When you touch on the subject of modified watches many purists raise their eyebrows. Many picture a black PVD-treated Rolex Submariner. Artisans de Genève on the other hand put a little extra effort into their watches. Here we are not talking about just simple modifications, we are talking real watchmaking. Eqotime takes a closer look here at the company and their creations! 

The guiding word at the watchmakers in the workshop located in Geneva is quite simply passion. Passion for watchmaking and for constantly fulfilling their customers' wishes and visions. All projects are carried out on request from customers and the lead time for a personalised watch is usually between 6-8 weeks.  
Based on the customer's idea Artisans de Genève present a couple of different proposals for the design. After that you enter a prototype phase where the different components of the watch are worked on. When the prototype is approved comes the final phase where every step is watched over by the watchmakers and the watch goes through a quality control to secure a perfect end product.  

Tributes to icons

As a customer you have the choice of starting from an existing creation and refining it according to your own taste or you can start completely from scratch. Something that has appealed to quite a few famous and watch-interested customers. Or how about legends like John McEnroe, Lenny Kravitz, Spike Lee and Juan Pablo Montoya?  

Over the years they have created both tributes to historical models such as the “Albino” Daytona, a legendary reference that is said to have been made in only 5 examples. Or why not a modern version of the Rolex Milgauss 1019? Among the really thoroughly worked models there is “Tribute to 6240 Tropical”. An hommage where they have recreated the sought-after “tropical” chronograph registers on a Daytona by sending the dials to the Bahamas to age and patinate in the same way as the 40 year old originals.  

La Montoya –  When an F1 legend gets to choose himself

The Formula 1 legend Juan Pablo Montoya needs no closer introduction. After 3 wins in the race “24 Hours of Daytona” on the iconic track Daytona International Speedway the chronograph from Rolex became one of his absolute favourites. Yes, the Rolex Daytona is named after this track. 

After two years of development “La Montoya” was born. At the base we find a Rolex Daytona with reference number 116520 which has been given a skeletonised dial, a crystal ring in “forged carbon”, a case with brushed and sandblasted lugs and chronograph registers with a subtle nod to Juan Pablo's origin, Colombia. 

Beyond the aesthetics on the front of the watch the movement has gone through a series of different modifications. At the base we thus have Rolex's calibre 4130. They have taken the movement apart and reworked the components through different finishing techniques such as “bevelling” and “angling”. This process has taken hundreds of hours and it is probably here that the difference between Artisans de Genève and other companies that modify watches becomes quite clear.  
The rotor has also been replaced with one in 22 carat grey gold. Naturally they have chosen to replace the case back with a transparent one in sapphire crystal to proudly show off the end result. 

La Blausee – From automatic to hand-wound

Like La Montoya, La Blausee is a skeletonised version of the Daytona. Here, however, they have taken it a step further when it comes to the movement and they have turned the automatic movement into a hand-wound one. The customer who ordered the modification wanted to honour the early Daytonas that were driven by hand-wound movements, most often the legendary chronograph movement Valjoux 72. 

This project was also a time-consuming one and a challenge for the Artisans. After about 2 years of development they had succeeded and the new watch had a power reserve of 72h 

Beyond the skeletonised dial they have created a ceramic bezel insert and finished the movement by hand 

Pirlo – skeletonised Submariner with elements of forged carbon

Andrea Pirlo's skeletonised Submariner is one of my personal favourites. Here they have taken the (in my eyes) relatively boring and bland modern reference 114060 and created something that really catches my attention.  
A skeletonised dial with indices and hands in rose gold, a fierce finish on the movement's components and a bezel insert in “forged carbon”. Yum.  

As the icing on the cake and a final personal touch the rotor is in gold engraved with “Il Maestro 1995-2017″ 

6240 Tropical – From Bahamas with love

Tribute to 6240 Tropical also shows how much care and thought Artisans de Genève put into their creations. 
This one is a flirt with a reference that among collectors often develops a so-called “tropical” effect. Simply explained, the black chronograph registers have changed colour over the years from black to brown. A defect that often commands a big premium among collectors. 

What you need to bear in mind is that this process is something that often takes a very long time, so what they needed to do in this case was to find a solution to speed up this process but still reach a good and even result. 

What they do to achieve this tropical effect is thus to send the dials to the Bahamas to age. As a customer you have two options. Either you choose to let the dial be exposed to the weather for 5 weeks if you want a darker tone or 7 weeks for a lighter end result. 

Beyond the dial they have replaced the crystal ring from steel with one with a bakelite insert, something that was commonly found on early Rolex models such as the Daytona and GMT-Master but which are very fragile and these therefore also command a high premium in collector circles today if they are intact. 

They have also replaced the sapphire crystal with a plexiglass and polished the watch's indices in a slightly more vintage-inspired way.  

The movement is modified here too but not to the same degree as on the other models we have touched on earlier in the article. But of course the Artisans' signature is found there in the form of a 22 carat gold rotor.  

Summary

Modified and personalised watches are a watershed. Purists avoid it like the plague while others see a charm in it. And that is how it will always be. 

I think, however, that it is important to distinguish between the different players in the niche. The projects Artisans de Genève do are really top class, both from a watchmaking perspective and in terms of innovation and design. They are highly regarded even among their competitors in the niche, which says a lot about how strong their brand is.  

I strongly recommend that if you are interested in their projects you check out their YouTube channel where you get a better insight into the people behind the watches and the different steps the watches go through.