ROMAIN GAUTHIER
Romain Gauthier founded his workshop in 2005 in Le Sentier, at the centre of the Vallée de Joux, after training as a micro-engineer and working in precision component manufacturing. The company machines, finishes and assembles its own components, an unusual degree of independence for a workshop producing fewer than a hundred watches a year.
Logical One
Introduced in 2013, the Logical One addresses the loss of power that every mainspring suffers as it unwinds. A chain runs over a snail-shaped cam rather than a conical fusée, keeping the mechanism flat enough for a wristwatch while delivering constant force to the escapement, a reworking of an eighteenth-century idea into a form the wrist can carry.
Engineering and Hand
The Insight Micro-Rotor places its winding mass in the plane of the movement and exposes the bridges, gear teeth and jewels as the design itself. Every component is finished by hand to a standard the machining alone could not reach, and the balance between industrial precision and manual work defines the house.