Excellence and Passion in High Horology

 Founded by a team of watchmaking experts in design, management, engineering, manufacturing and sales, each of whom is passionate about excellence in their field, Artime arises at the apex of the horological hierarchy. The brand’s very first creation is making its mark on the world of watchmaking art, both technically and visually. Its six founding members together prove that passion, values, and experience remain at the core of haute horology, and the warmth of human relationships transforms creation.  Guided by a team spirit and deeply shared values and affinities, they aim for perfection in the watchmaking gesture. 

Fabrice Deschanel previously managed Audemars Piguet (Renaud&Papi) for more than 25 years and was on the board of Audemars Piguet for more than a decade. He built the second part of his career as Managing Director of Greubel Forsey. Mastering both horological architecture and its links with the brand’s identity, he is a Director at Artime Creation.

Claude Emmenegger is the team’s designer. Besides twice holding the position of Creative Director at Audemars Piguet, he also headed the design and development departments at Movado and Gucci Timepieces. In 2005, he founded his own firm in La Chaux-de-Fonds, soon establishing himself as an expert in watch design and, with his team, collaborating with more than fifty brands. Throughout his career, he has imagined and created numerous exceptional watch models, winning awards in Switzerland and abroad.

Stéphane Maturel was previously responsible for the technical department and development operations of the high complications manufacture Audemars Piguet (Renaud&Papi). There, he was instrumental in the most inventive and ambitious watchmaking creations of the 2010s. He then joined TAG Heuer where he took on a pivotal role at the core of the brand’s processes. Today, as a watchmaker-analyst and process design specialist at Artime, he is the guarantor of his colleagues’ vision, seeing its execution through as the team’s feasibility lead and chief problem solver.

Didier Bretin is the Watchmaker of the Artime team. He started his career at Breguet. His career continued at Audemars Piguet, where he specialized as a Builder and met Fabrice Deschanel. A stint at Philippe Dufour allowed him to perfect his skills and it was at Greubel-Forsey that he had the privilege of making timepieces in their entirety and bringing a new vision to the art of watchmaking. He has already had the chance to co-sign the watch of a high end watch brand.

Emmanuel Jutier has held various positions related to product marketing and sales management, enabled him to accumulate unparalleled experience within the Swatch Group, the Manufacture F.P.Journe and finally at Greubel Forsey. He has contributed to the growth of these major independent brands on an international level. He brings an innate sense of storytelling, a love of fine watchmaking and a knowledge of the main players in the market as well as close relations with collectors, which will enable Artime to approach these key groups within the community.

Manuel Thomas, a watchmaker and micro-mechanic by training, also comes from the ranks of the Audemars Piguet (Renaud and Papi) watchmaking establishment. An entrepreneur at heart, Manuel has founded several companies in the luxury watchmaking sector. He brings to the team a strategic industrial vision for Artime.

Their inaugural model ART01 expresses all the principles that Artime has made its own: to touch the most demanding customers in the heart, unambiguously, in all transparency, with a juxtaposition of materials, spatial volumes, innovative concepts and finishes of an exceptional level. This timepiece comprises an ethereal-seeming caliber in white gold, a tourbillon with a double balance spring and an ergonomic function selector, intimately embedded in a case where titanium and transparent sapphire commingle. An initial limited series of twenty ART01 watches in titanium lays out Artime’s principles for contemporary fine watchmaking in clear and ultra-modern terms.

About the Collection:

The ART01is currently the brand’s only wristwatch and features a case alternating between transparent sapphire and titanium. Its round shape with monobloc lugs houses a white gold movement with a three-dimensional code, equipped with a one-minute tourbillon regulator and controlled by a function selector. It is 42 mm in diameter, 11.4 mm high and mounted on a black grained calfskin strap with a titanium folding clasp.

The tourbillon cage, between an upper and lower bridge, is of an entirely new shape. It is built without the pillars that usually connect the upper and lower parts, freeing the space necessary for the regulating organ. Here, the cage forms a three-dimensional whole whose visual signature – a fundamental differentiating element for any watchmaker – is a three-armed shape, each stem flaring out like a stylized flower.