benlee338
680
Top Five Independent Brands?
Jan 03, 2019,16:33 PM
I am curious what you guys here think or is there a general consensus what are your top 5 "Independent" brands? By top notch, I mean widely recognized and highly regarded among the independent watch collectors community, superb ( and sometimes out of this world ) finishing as well as a reputation for making remarkable timepieces and outstanding horological achievement. I am relatively new to Independents and personally only own one independent watch, which is a Frederick III from Lange & Heyne but after checking out other brands, I doubt they can make it to top five.
Off my head and based on what I know ( and not in order of merit ), they are :
1) Grebuey Forsey
2) Romain Gauthier
3) Akrivia
4) Gronefeld
5) F.P. Journe
Did I miss out any? And why is Grebuey Forsey so expensive? They seems to be like the equivalent of RM to the more common watches. I mean like USD180K for a time only watch ( ie Signature One ).
Also, do you consider it important that the watches have fully exclusive in-house movement, or it's ok to adapt from something existing? And whether it makes a difference if the brand take the effort to make their own parts or they just get someone else to do it and only do assembly and finishing? I do realize vertical integration is tough for smaller independent brands to achieve but I know some brands take the time and effort to do this which in my view should be appreciated more.
I am very close to ordering a Gronefeld and are looking closely at Romain Gauthier. I have also checked out Akrivia during a visit to Geneva ( beautiful watches as well ). Only FPJ somehow never sings to me.
Hope to hear from you guys.
Rgds
Ben