Independents

I remember passing up on a Micro Rotor some years ago as, for me, when buying from a small independent manufacture the 'person' behind the brand assumes much greater importance. I have been lucky to have spent time with many of our esteemed both young and established smaller watchmakers over the years and have formed friendships with a few irrespective of whether I have ended up buying one of their watches. And I truly believe that this is an important part of the dynamic and responsibility of us as collectors that we can see ourselves as advocates for pieces and watchmakers even where we may not be an owner of their watch but rather because of the joy of getting to know the individuals and better understanding what they do and their vision behind their 'brand'. I derive joy as much from this process as I do from owning a piece in some certain ways. 

However, with Romain, it was evident very early that I truly appreciated both the individual and the product. I am not in a position to make purchasing decisions of this price without careful thought but when Romain kindly shared the very first renderings of the C6 I knew this was the right time for me to get on board.

This watch was ready for me in September when I was due to spend time with Romain and his team in the Valley de Joux but I declined the opportunity to pick it up then as our meeting had been agreed as a moment of sharing news and catching up on developments and progress within the manufacture and I wanted us to focus on that. Similarly when Romain was in Hong Kong in November, I arranged a small intimate dinner with a group of collectors and I preferred to defer collection again as I did not wish to distract from the pleasurable moment of sitting around a dinner table with a small Q&A session with Romain for potential new collectors. 

However, finally I am in Switzerland and yesterday we met up in Lausanne for a very pleasurable lunch at the Beau-Rivage where we could indeed focus on 'my' moment and the collection of my C6! I shall not go in to the technical details as they have been covered here in previous postings but rather take the opportunity to simply thank all of the team at Romain Gauthier, Romain himself and to express my delight at being able to add this to my collection of haute horology sports watches. please forgive the quality of the phone pictures but I wanted to share and memorialise the moment!

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