Independents

Akrivia – Geneva Watch Week 2016

 

Akrivia is the newest Swiss independent wachmaker.  During the Geneva Watch Week this year they invited to visit their new shop in the Geneva city.  

My first encounter with Akrivia was 2 years ago when I met Rexhep Rexhepi at BaselWorld and he showed me his tourbillon monopusher chronograph with its excellent finishing.  Here we see this model.  Rexhep is a Swiss trained watchmaker who got his experience at Patek Philippe, as has his brother who has now also joined the company.

After the chrono a two hand tourbillon.  Note the hand grained and blued dial.  Graining is a particular craft that has been more or less lost.  I know of only two people doing graining in the old way of rubbing the piece in a thick mixture of appropriately corned abrasie and olive oil.  When well done this reults in a very uniform graining which can be fine or courser depending on the abrasive used.  This dial is grained quite finely which makes a mat finish which contrasts well with the other features of the dial.  The bluing of the steel dial is not paint, but a chemical treatment with heat similar to that done by Ochs&Jr but, as you can see, with a completely different result.

Here we see a tourbillon bridge, on the right as it comes from the CNC machine with all corners rounded and on the left ready for final finishing and polishing with all the corners pointed and following the forms of the piece.  These are the kind of details that differentiate Haute Horlogerie from simply expensive watches and that can only be done by hand.

At work at the bench.

A small selection of tools.

On the work bench today is a tourbillon regulator.  Note that this movement is still in work and not finished, i.e. the decoration is not yet perfect.  I spite of that Rexhep has permitted me to publish these pictures.

I love it when one can see that the pearlage is done by hand and not by machine.

Placing the dial on the movement.  Note that although the watch is running the troubillon bridge is not screwed down yet.

Upcoming models?

I asked how it looks with the hands. 

Mounting the minutes hand...

adding the seconds...

and finally the hours hand.

Seen in the shop – bluing tools.

Here is where pearlage is done.

Note the quality of the individual parts.  Here we see a pinion under the microscope, all the surfaces are beautifully polished!  Take a close look.  Increadable, and the pinion is all of 1.2mm long !

This little machine is for polishing bevels.

I am always happy when I see that tools are being used daily.  I see a large collection of hand and machine tools in their shop.  (Rexhep tells me that their first milling machine will be delivered in the next months so that they will be less dependent on suppliers and can react more quickly to customer commands.)



Akrivia has decided to enter the market with beautifully finished hand made watches at a difficult time, not only for independents, but for the entire industry.  Rexhep and his teams prouess as watchmakers is without reproach.  Their success will now depend on their prouess in design, customer contact and turning good contacts into sales, a whole new area of competence for these young watchmakers.
Let's wish them much success!