111 of 263 Watch Houses Were Founded Since 2000

In 1735, Jehan-Jacques Blancpain entered his name as a watchmaker in the records of Villeret, a village of the Swiss Jura. In 2025, Anissa Bader founded Akhor in Geneva, and Maison Horlogère Palmer was registered in Normandy. Between them lie 290 years and 260 other houses. WATCHESPEDIA has dated each of them against the house’s own account and the independent record to draw a complete map of the watchmaking family tree: by century, by country and by owner.

At a Glance

• 263 watch houses, founded between 1735 and 2025: 290 years of watchmaking history in a single list.
• Switzerland is home to 151 of them, 57% of the total, ahead of France (33) and Germany (21).
• 111 houses were founded in 2000 or later, more than four in ten. The 2010s alone brought 45 new names, more than any other decade in three centuries.
• Geneva leads the cities with 34 houses, followed by La Chaux-de-Fonds (19), Paris (17), and Le Locle and Neuchâtel (11 each).
• 174 houses are independent or family-owned. Swatch Group (13), Richemont (10) and LVMH (9) hold the largest portfolios.

The Eighteenth-Century Founders

Ten houses on our list were born before 1800, and their addresses trace the first map of fine watchmaking: the Swiss Jura, Geneva, Paris and London. Blancpain opens the list in 1735 at Villeret. Favre-Leuba follows in 1737 at Le Locle, where Abraham Favre was first mentioned as an independent watchmaker, and Jaquet Droz in 1738 at La Chaux-de-Fonds, where Pierre Jaquet-Droz devoted the years 1738 to 1747 entirely to clockmaking.

Vacheron Constantin dates its birth to 1755, when the 24-year-old master watchmaker Jean-Marc Vacheron signed on his first apprentice in Geneva. Of the ten founders, it is the oldest with no recorded break in activity. Arnold & Son claims 1764, the year John Arnold was presented to King George III in London. Manufacture Royale draws its 1770 from the workshops Voltaire established at Ferney, and Breguet was founded in Paris in 1775 by Abraham-Louis Breguet. Perrelet takes its 1777 from Abraham-Louis Perrelet, the Le Locle watchmaker credited with the first self-winding watch; L. Leroy dates from 1785, when Basile-Charles Leroy opened his atelier at the Palais-Royal in Paris; and Girard-Perregaux closes the century in Geneva in 1791, with the house of Jean-François Bautte.

Seven of these ten names paused at some point in their history and returned in modern times: Blancpain in 1983, when it joined the company of Jacques Piguet, who brought in Jean-Claude Biver; Arnold & Son and Perrelet in 1995; Jaquet Droz in 2000, within the Swatch Group; L. Leroy in 2004; Manufacture Royale in 2010; and Favre-Leuba in 2011. Each keeps its original founding year, and our table shows the revival beside it.

The Nineteenth Century: Valleys, Workshops and Great Maisons

The nineteenth century gave the list 52 houses, and with them the industrial geography that still defines fine watchmaking. In the Jura, Le Locle and La Chaux-de-Fonds alone account for 13: Gallet (1826), Ulysse Nardin (1846), Omega (1848), Tissot (1853), Vulcain (1858), Zenith (1865), Movado (1881), Zodiac (1882), Eberhard & Co. (1887), Doxa (1889), Angelus (1891), Universal Genève (1894) and White Star (1895). Saint-Imier gave Longines (1832), TAG Heuer, which counts from Edouard Heuer’s workshop of 1860, and Breitling (1884).

Two of these Jura names have returned to the spotlight. Gallet, founded by Julien Gallet at La Chaux-de-Fonds in 1826, celebrates its bicentenary in 2026 with collections manufactured by Breitling, as we reported in Gallet Returns After 200 Years. Universal Genève, born at Le Locle on 18 January 1894 and established in Geneva from 1919, has entered a new chapter under the same ownership, which its managing director describes in our interview with Gregory Bruttin.

In the Vallée de Joux, Jaeger-LeCoultre (1833, Le Sentier) and Audemars Piguet (1875, Le Brassus) set down roots that remain there today. Geneva welcomed Patek Philippe in 1839 and Czapek in 1845. Elsewhere in Switzerland, Chopard was founded in 1860 at Sonvilier, IWC Schaffhausen took shape in Schaffhausen in 1868 under Florentine Ariosto Jones, and Piaget began at La Côte-aux-Fées in 1874; Hanhart followed at Diessenhofen in 1882, Edox at Biel/Bienne in 1884 and Atlantic at Bettlach in 1888. In Saxony, Ferdinand Adolph Lange founded A. Lange & Söhne at Glashütte in 1845, laying the foundations of watchmaking in the town, while Löbner and Ruhla 1929, both dated 1862, carry the names of Berlin and Thuringia.

The century also brought the great Maisons of Paris, New York, Saint Petersburg and Rome into the story: Hermès (1837) and Cartier (1847) in Paris, Tiffany & Co. (1837) in New York, Fabergé (1842) in Saint Petersburg, Boucheron (1858) in Paris and Bvlgari (1884) in Rome, while Panerai was born in Florence in 1860. In Britain, Fears was founded in Bristol in 1846 and Dennison in Birmingham in 1874, by Aaron Lufkin Dennison, co-founder of Waltham; both have since returned, in 2016 and 2024. Beyond Europe, Seiko began in Tokyo’s Ginza district in 1881, and the United States contributed Timex (1854), Bulova (1875), Hamilton (1892) and Gruen (1894). The busiest decade of the century was the 1880s, with 13 new houses.

The Twentieth Century: New Names, New Owners

The twentieth century added 93 houses, and its story is one of ownership as much as of new names. It opened with Oris (1904) in Hölstein, ZRC (1904), founded in Geneva by Edmond Zuccolo and Joseph Rochet, and Rolex, founded in London in 1905 by Hans Wilsdorf and Alfred Davis, followed by Van Cleef & Arpels (1906) and Chanel (1910) in Paris, Rado (1917), Citizen and Mido (1918), Milus (1919) and Tudor (1926), the sister house Hans Wilsdorf created in Geneva. Japan’s second wave arrived with Casio (1946), Orient (1950), Grand Seiko (1960) and Credor (1974).

The middle of the century belongs to sports and tool watches: Squale (1959) in Neuchâtel for divers, Swiss Military Hanowa (1963) at Biel/Bienne, and Porsche Design (1972), whose Chronograph I set the style of the house. France added Herbelin (1947) at Charquemont and Pequignet (1973) at Morteau, two names of the Doubs.

The quartz decades reshaped the landscape. Hublot appeared in 1980 and Swatch in 1983, and the ownership map we know today began to form as houses joined groups. Today the Swatch Group counts 13 houses on our list, Richemont 10 and LVMH 9; LVMH brought TAG Heuer into its fold in 1999, and Citizen added Frederique Constant in 2016.

The same century saw the first modern independents: Christiaan van der Klaauw (1974), Philippe Dufour (1978), Andersen Genève (1980), the Geneva atelier of Svend Andersen, co-founder of the AHCI, Franck Muller (1991), Vianney Halter (1994), Urwerk (1997), Grönefeld (1998) and F.P. Journe (1999). In Glashütte, 1990 brought both the revival of A. Lange & Söhne and the founding of Nomos Glashütte, followed by Glashütte Original in 1994. With 21 new houses, the 1990s were the busiest decade of the century.

The Twenty-First Century: The Age of the Independents

Since 2000, 111 houses have joined the list, more than four in ten, and 57 of them are independent watchmakers’ houses, often signed with their founder’s name. No other period has produced as many: 38 houses in the 2000s, 45 in the 2010s, the busiest decade in three centuries, and already 28 since 2020. Among them: Richard Mille (2001), De Bethune and Kari Voutilainen (2002), Greubel Forsey (2004), MB&F (2005), Laurent Ferrier (2009), Ressence (2010), Akrivia (2012), UNIMATIC (2015), Kurono Tokyo (2019), Kross Studio (2020), Furlan Marri (2021), and Biver and Berneron (2022).

The youngest houses on our list are Akhor, founded in Geneva in 2025 by Anissa Bader, and Maison Horlogère Palmer, registered at Bretteville-sur-Odon, in Normandy, in June 2025. They follow six houses founded in 2024: 5280 Watch Company, Alto, Gagà Laboratorio, Pragma, Stollenwurm and Taos.

The Timeline: 39 Landmark Houses

Where the Houses Were Born, and Who Owns Them Today

Switzerland leads with 151 houses, followed by France (33), Germany (21), the United States (14), Japan (10), Italy (9), the United Kingdom (8), Russia (4), Belgium (2) and the Netherlands (2), with one house each in Canada, Denmark, Finland, Isle of Man, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Norway, Qatar and Sweden: 19 countries and territories in all. Geneva alone is home to 34 houses, La Chaux-de-Fonds to 19, Biel/Bienne to 9 and Glashütte to 5.

Ownership tells a second story. 174 houses are independent or family-owned, from Patek Philippe, held by the Stern family, to Audemars Piguet, still owned by the Audemars and Piguet families, and most of the young independents. Among the groups, the Swatch Group holds 13 houses on our list, Richemont 10, LVMH 9 and Citizen 6, followed by the Riba Watch family group with 4; the Seiko Group, Breitling’s owner Partners Group, Rolex’s Hans Wilsdorf Foundation and the POINTtec group have 3 each, and the Sowind Group, the Festina Group, which brought back Perrelet and L. Leroy, and CDMLEC have 2 each.

For readers in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the list holds one house founded in the Gulf itself, Beda’a, created in Qatar in 2016 and owned by the ALBIDAA group, and one house with a Saudi co-founder: Furlan Marri, founded in Geneva in 2021 by Andrea Furlan and Hamad Al Marri. To compare what the most sought-after references cost in Riyadh, Dubai and the other Gulf capitals, see our Gulf Luxury Price Index; for the houses most searched in the Kingdom, our selection of the best watch brands in Saudi Arabia.

How We Dated Each House

A founding year is less simple than it looks: a workshop opens, a name is registered, a brand pauses and returns. Our rule is the same for every house. The year shown is the founding year the house claims on its official website, checked against at least one independent source, Wikipedia or a reference publication. Where a house paused and returned, the table shows the revival year beside the founding year. For 10 houses only one of the two sources could be found; their year is kept and marked accordingly in our working file.

Five houses call for a note. Raketa appears in 1961, the year the Raketa brand was born; the manufacture traces its history to the imperial lapidary works founded at Peterhof by Peter the Great in 1721. Montblanc appears in 1997, the year it entered watchmaking; the house itself dates from 1906 in Hamburg, as a maker of writing instruments. TAG Heuer appears in 1860, the year Edouard Heuer opened his workshop in Saint-Imier; the TAG Heuer name dates from 1985. Graham appears in 1995, the year Eric Loth founded the company at La Chaux-de-Fonds; 1695 refers to George Graham, the London watchmaker whose name it bears. Chanel appears in 1910, the year Gabrielle Chanel opened her first boutique on rue Cambon; its watchmaking began in 1987 with the Première.

Grand Seiko and Credor are counted separately, as Seiko presents them as distinct brands. Lines that belong to another house, such as G-Shock within Casio, Minerva within Montblanc or MAD Edition within MB&F, are counted with their parent house. Each date carries a confidence level in our working file: 189 high, 63 medium and 11 low, the low ones being houses whose own account and the independent record differ, or rest on a single source. We will update them as houses open more of their archives. Survey completed in October 2026.

All 263 Houses, A to Z