Who was the first great Independent?
Pplater and I exchanged an email in which he agreed that Dufour was the First Groundbreaking Independent, and the one who paved the road for Kari and others... but he also wondered which lesser known or even unknown watchmaker paved the road for Dufour. I...
I'd say the Duo Rolf SCHNYDER/ Mr OESCHLIN
To me, Mr Schnyder and Mr Oeschlin paved the way to the further Independants, since the 80ies. Not paved, but let's better say showed the way. Innovation and sometimes Revolution are the Independants Favourite Playground, but before this, or first of all,...
I am not sure that I would consider them in the true sense of the "independent" although
UN is an independent company. Either way, you are absolutely correct about their innovative and ground breaking work. I would add their use of automatons in their striker pieces. That is why I have been a strong believer and supporter of UN and wish to se...
This is a very intriguing post. How far back in history should we look?
If we look far back enough, many of those independents have become full-fledged large-scale manufacturers. This is a very intriguing post and I look forward to learning more about these interesting independents.
Good question...
Breguet was just another horloger - albeit kinda good at it - but he wasn't different in status to plenty of others of the period, or to plenty of others that went before or came after. We're opposing an independent to something - in this case to the larg...
Founders of AHCI:
Svend Andersen and Vincent Calabrese. They brought "fortune, fame and everything that goes with it" to other independents cen@jkt
agree
There have been watchmakers, making watches and not belonging to a large brand for numerous years of course. I agree that the founders of the AHCI are the first 'real' independents as they founded the Academy... and the rest is history ;-)
I'd add Paul Gerber to the short list.
I believe that many of the independents owe at least a nod to the founders of the AHCI and the pioneers in the modern watch renaissance. Many of the early independents spent much of their time doing work for the manufactures in anonymity, solving problems...
The well known ones
...in the modern time, besides George Daniels, et. al., should also include Franck Muller, who was already quite famous before Dufour broke the ground. The huge commercial success of Franck Muller certainly did not set a discouraging example for other ind...
In chronological order - Daniels, F. Muller and Dufour
Daniels for being one of the first, if not the first, of the late 20th century. Franck Muller for showing the world that an AHCI member could afford a chateau, Ferrari and a lot more. Dufour for doing only a few things very well and for a long, long time....
What about Gerald Genta?
He designed watches for many of the great houses, and many of them are still in production: the Nautilus range from Patek, the Ingenieur from IWC and the Royal Oak from AP, to name but a few. This wave of design from the mid-70's is so influential that ma...
Daniels
In the snece that we use the term now I think George Daniels deserves the title as he did/does not make watches independently of a factory, but perfected _all_ the steps necessary to make _all_ the pieces of his watches. I know of no one else who has real...
Thank you for replies
All very interesting! Seems that Daniels' name comes up most definitively... then Muller, who I would NEVER have thought of... The UN guys? Hmmm. I also would never have thought of them. Journe? Definitively? A pre-cursor to Dufour? Does not sound right.....
That's not quite how I see Daniels
To me he is less of a watchmaker than a sage of watchmaking. I guess I see his research and writings as so influential, and his output of watches so small(<25 I think), that the one dominates the other in my conception of him. A
What is a independent? thats the question
if you want to know who was the first great independent than you have to clarify what is independent watchmaker? is it a one man show, a little company or one of the big brands today? the founders of the brands were also independents in this time. where c...
When the dog is the receptionist....
Really Really? The strictest definition is when the wife is the Public Relations, Marketing, Logistics, Financial, and Catering Departments. And the family dog is the Receptionist. Check out Vyskocil, Habring, BLU (Lederer), Daniel Roth (the man and not t...
I think of an Independent as
ONE MAN doing the dreaming.... A single human vision, not open to a committee. I think of an Independent as a man (not a company) in a VERY small atelier... looking after the most infinitesimal details of his timepieces, and doing a great deal of the work...
Just wanted to add
(if anyone's still reading this thread) an independent could also be a tiny tiny operation and produce watches NOT larger than life... just nice pieces with an individual's touch... whaddo-I-know?
