Independents

Let's visit Svend Andersen, Geneva

 

In the 80s, after the market for mechanical watches was cleaned up by the quartz watch, the rights for the old names in the Swiss industry were being snapped up for a song by financial interests. It was evident that there was still a strong latent interest in mechanical watches and if this domain was still interesting for financiers betting on making money sometime in the future then there would also be a place for independent watchmakers.

The attempts at that time to organize and support independent watchmakers were not very successful. In 1984 Vincent Calabrese came to Svend Andersen with the idea for a new organization of independent watchmakers that was to become the AHCI, the Académie horlogère des créateurs indépendants or Horological Academy of Independent Creators, and soon the organization was born. Already 3 years later the AHCI had their first stand at the Basel Fair. The AHCI is a loose organization of watchmakers that allows each of its members their full independence while offering support where it is desired.

In his over 30 years of business Svend Andersen's shop has long been one of the career stops for today's watchmakers. Andersen was one of Frank Müller's first employers, where Müller learned the practice of watchmaking after watchmaking school.

Svend Andersen offers very individual watches, as well in the form, as in the function and in the materials. He has several one-of-a-kind complications and others that were first made by him including the secular perpetual calendar, which even takes account of those 3 years every 400 years that aren't leap years! So it will go correctly until the year 2400 without needing manual correction.

A recent visit in his shop found him at the lathe as I arrived, making a fixture for the production of his upcoming new model, the Anderversery 2.

Let's take a look at his present production:

Svend Andersen with his stock of finished watches.

The "Grand Lune", the Big Moon watch, dials in aventurine, above and jade, below, moon disk in mother-of-pearl, white gold case.

The "Grande Jour & Nuit", 24 hour display with minutes on a sub-dial, blue gold dial guilloche in the "tapisserie" pattern, 18k gold case. Blue gold is a special 21k gold and iron alloy that was developed by the Geneva jeweler Ludwig Muller. Because of the iron portion of the metal it can be blued by heat treatment similarly to the bluing of steel screws. The iridescent blue layer thus formed on the highly reflective polished gold surface is very striking.  Below from the back.

The 1884 World Time Watch, to commemorate Sir Sandford Fleming. Sir Sandford Fleming was the inventor of world time, the present system of time zones around the world. This world time system was introduced at the Prime Meridian Conference in 1884. The dial shows the time around the world at a glance. The rotor of this automatic world time watch is engraved in commemoration, seen below.

The "Anderversery" watch is a unique complication that turns a large exterior sub-dial one revolution each year. This complication allows for many interesting variants. One possibility is to have important dates, anniversaries, birthdays, etc., engraved on the disk so they are visible in the center in the corresponding month, a kind of agenda for those appointments that need to be kept once a year. The turning disk can also be painted with miniatures, from, for example in the photo below, scenes of the seasonal work in the vineyards, something very close to the heart of every Swiss Romande. Other motives include a circle of saints or the signs of the zodiac.

 




The "Montre à tact" is a watch that allows telling the time without making the telltale gesture with your arm to look at your watch. At times when it would be untactful to look at your watch the "Tactful watch" is what you need. The first watches of this type where made by Abraham Louis Breguet. Andersen's version of this watch has an opening on the side between the horns that allows seeing the time without turning your wrist. This also leaves the dial mostly free for other ornamentation and Andersen has made many different models of the Montre à tact and also does special customization according to customer wishes.




Some of Svend Andersen's signature work is in the domain of "Eros" watches, watches with automatons in erotic scenes that can be animated either by pressing a button or automatically. These scenes are in general only seen from the back of the watch allowing then to be worn daily. Here I show the dial sides of two "Eros" watches.  From the dial above certainly no-one would suspect more than a simple and beautiful watch.  At the end of this post I show the reverse sides, allowing those who prefer to skip these pictures to do so by simply not scrolling down to the end of the post.

This ends my visit to Svend Andersen's shop on the north bank of the Rhone river in downtown Geneva. I would like to thank Mr. Andersen for his welcome in his shop and hope you have enjoyed the visit too.

Don

.

 .

  .

   .

    .

     .

WARNING:
The following shows images of watches with erotic content.
View at our own discretion.
      .

       .

        .

         .

          .

           .

            .