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John-Mikaël Flaux
Among the independents whose creations I discovered at AHCI in April 2023, Flaux was one of the most surprising.
His Homage to Al-Jazira, displays time with a digital hour disc and a minutes hand. But it also adds two unique features:
- A perforated hour-symbols set in a half-circle show the passing of hours, the arch representing half a day and hour symbols turning white from 6am to 6pm and black from 6pm to 6am.
- An animated sequence every half-hour: the left dragon slowly tilts back, as if it was a lever being pulled back. At the end of this sequence, it springs back to its original position, in a reinterpretation of the traditional watchmaking technique of the retrograde display (the video below helps seeing how it works).
Each watch is completed with a hand-painted back showing the original drawing of the automation conceived by Al-Jazira, as it was presented in one of the rare 13th century surviving copies of his Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices.
Have a nice day!
Credit: John-Mikaël Flaux’s webstie
Bad screenshot of a personal video shot during my visit.
Homage to Al-Jazira display
John-Mikaël Flaux
Among the independents whose creations I discovered at AHCI in April 2023, Flaux was one of the most surprising. His Homage to Al-Jazira , displays time with a digital hour disc and a minutes hand. But it also adds two unique features: A perforated hour-s...
For those that wonder where the new ideas are.
I’m always curious to see new execution, interesting dial side displays. There is a lot going on here, but it does seem to pull together nicely in my opinion. Where is his price point? How is positioning himself? Thanks for sharing.
The price was CHF49,000 before taxes and it was a 10 pieces limited edition.
JMF focuses on artistic mechanics which he explores in different formats from those of the watchmaking tradition. His creations are often automatons and don't necessarily have a time indication or watchmaking complication. But he defines himself as a watc...
Oh wow, that is a strikingly different design from the typical fashion for independent watchmakers.
Good to see and I hope it's well received. The Islamic art is particularly cool and as notable as the horology.
I think it remained fairly confidential and didn't get all the recognition I feel it deserves.
And I completely agree regarding the islamic art. Thanks for looking.
The inspiration came from an Elephant clock designed by Al-Jazira,
so I guess it had to be there. And I personally like it. I see it as a kind of refined and toned down fantasy. I first saw it as an eccentric curiosity, but ended up finding it really nice.
I normally don't go for this kind of thing...
...but the engraving is beautiful, the painting beautiful, the logo is great, etc. Wouldn't be my daily driver but I like it : )
My Pleasure 🙏 he is a very interesting watchmaker
Has a lot of potential to do great things, one of his creations Source: Google Images ...
Thanks for sharing
this is a very interesting execution and good hand-finishing. The price is very reasonable for such level of finishing.
It’s certainly more reasonable than many other independent watches.
But it’s a steel watch and most of the movement is out of sight (the mechanical part of the movement being the tinier and harder to finish), so I would say that the price has to be reasonable (just a personal feeling, I may be wrong of course). Than...