Romain Gauthier

Founded in 2005, Romain Gauthier is a high-end watch brand based in the Vallée de Joux, Switzerland, led by its passionate founder Romain Gauthier.

Gauthier marries the savoir-faire that he has developed living, studying and working in his native Vallée de Joux – the heart of fine Swiss watchmaking – with a no-compromise approach to haute horlogerie to create exceptional timepieces that have been hailed for their eye-catching designs, innovative micro-mechanics and extremely high level of hand-finishing.

The exclusivity of Romain Gauthier’s Swiss-made timepieces is ensured by the very small numbers in which they are created – about 60 pieces per year.

The Romain Gauthier collections

Heritage collection: Romain Gauthier channels his profound grasp of traditional Swiss watchmaking savoir-faire into creating majestic timepieces for the discerning connoisseur. The bedrock on which Romain Gauthier has built his company, these elegant creations boast intricately engineered, exceptionally finished in-house movements in sumptuous cases crafted from the noble metals of gold and platinum.

Freedom collection: Expressing a daring vision of high-end watchmaking, Romain Gauthier combines high-tech materials and cutting-edge finishes to create timepieces exuding an edgy charisma. Behind the contemporary aesthetics still lies traditional haute horlogerie. Technical in nature, casual in style, free in spirit, these creations speak to those marching to the beat of their own drum.

Exception collection: Romain Gauthier’s passion for art and culture shines through with these exquisite masterpieces showcasing inspired craftsmanship performed by the most talented artisans. Lit up by virtuoso displays of decorative arts, these dazzling creations capture the aesthete’s admiring attention. Showing the time may be secondary, but powering the indications are beautifully hand-finished mechanics that are a further feast for the eyes.

Manufacture Romain Gauthier

Romain Gauthier’s ability to create exquisite timepieces is in large part thanks to his watchmaking production facility, or manufacture, that he has steadily built up since founding his eponymous brand in 2005. Today, Manufacture Romain Gauthier occupies 700m2 (8,000 sqft) premises in Le Sentier, Switzerland and features technical, logistic and production departments as well as watchmaking and decoration ateliers.

This fully-equipped manufacture blends time-honoured watchmaking tools with cutting-edge production methods, including a state-of-the-art CNC machine park. It allows Romain Gauthier to design, produce, decorate, assemble, regulate and test in house all movements for the brand’s timepieces.

The tools and machinery of the manufacture would mean little without the talented team of professionals that Romain Gauthier has put together. Each member brings their unique savoir-faire to the creative process and each one leaves their own signature on the finished timepiece.

Lathe operators machine the complex components that Romain has designed, working classic and modern materials with consummate skill. Experts display their grasp of hardening, polishing and tempering as well as burnishing to makepieces shiny, strong and durable.

The artisans of the anglage atelier devote hours to filing the angles between the flanks and surfaces of bridges into eye-catching bevels that are then hand-polished using gentian wood from the local Risoud forest. Decoration specialists embellish movements with artful finishes like spotting, snailing, circular graining and Geneva waves.And in keeping with tradition, each movement is painstakingly assembled and regulated from A to Z by the same watchmaker. Indeed, Romain Gauthier watchmakers master the full gamut of horological skills, including counting the hairspring, flame-bluing the hands and hand-assembling the pallet lever.

Throughout, stringent quality control checks are performed during and between operations, and Romain himself inspects each finished timepiece under magnification. While this savoir-faire ensures that quality is uncompromised and precision is impressive, it also imbues Romain Gauthier timepieces with a rare beauty and unique soul.

Biography

Romain Gauthier was born in 1975 in Le Sentier, in the picturesque Vallée de Joux, at the heart of fine Swiss watchmaking. It was there that he developed a passion for traditional haute horlogerie blended with clean, contemporary design and innovative micro-engineering. After studying precision-mechanics, Romain gained a diploma as a constructor of precision machinery. In 1997, he started his first job as machine programmer/operator and over the following years, Romain managed and grew the department into one of the best – equipped and most efficient production facilities in Europe.

Determined to create his own watch brand, Romain completed an MBA in 2002. His final thesis – passed with distinction – was the business plan for Montres Romain Gauthier. He then began work on the timepieces themselves. In 2005, after three years of working in secret, Romain launched his brand in Baselworld 2007 with the Prestige HM, featuring his own in-house manufacture movement. The Prestige HMS followed in 2012 and Logical One in 2013.

In 2013, Romain Gauthier received great acclaim for launching‘Logical one’ featuring a multi-patented flat chain-and-fusee style constant force system with ruby chain links, ergonomic push button winding system, dial-side visible balance, mainspring barrel with sapphire inserts, and power reserve indicator.

This piece, a consummate demonstration of Romain Gauthier’s ability to respect tradition while striving to innovate, was awarded the prize for Best Men’s Complications Watch at the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève later that year.

In 2014, Romain Gauthier launched ‘Logical one Secret’ which took the union of art and horology to a new level. It features a fully integrated cover serving as a canvas for arts and crafts such as gem-setting, miniature painting, engraving and enamelling. Pressing a discreet case band pusher lifts the cover to reveal the intricate complexity of Logical one’s award-winning constant force movement.

Equipped with advanced machines and automatic lathes and employing a highly skilled workforce, Romain Gauthier’s headquarters in Le Sentier is a manufacture in the truest sense of the word. Virtually every high-quality horological component can be produced there. It also allows every Romain Gauthier timepiece to be developed, produced, assembled and regulated entirely in house.

Official website: http://www.montres-rg.com