Time Æon Foundation

Throughout their career,  Robert Greubel and Stephen Forsey have noted the inexorable loss of know-how and skills in traditional mechanical watchmaking. Far from resigning themselves, they decide to react, with other watchmakers sharing the same observation and the same values ​​- Philippe Dufour, Vianney Halter and Felix Baumgartner among others - as part of the Time Æon Foundation.

A commitment to safeguarding watchmaking excellence and preserving the world's watchmaking heritage. An ambitious program has been put in place within the foundation. It seeks to perpetuate the know-how of watchmaking excellence and to promote their transmission to future generations, if possible by encouraging vocations among young watchmakers. A very important aspect is the support and training of future independent watchmakers wishing to promote watchmaking excellence. The Time Æon Foundation is open to the public, as evidenced by the various projects Naissance d’une montre (Fr. Birth of a watch). Development continues; today, several new actors have joined the adventure, most recently Dominique Renaud.

The Time Æon Foundation, its role:

• Sustain the know-how of watchmaking excellence and promote their transmission.

• List and catalog the know-how in perdition.

• Participate in safeguarding the world's watchmaking heritage.

• To further open the public's gaze to the world of watchmaking and to diversify the approach.

• Awaken vocations.

• Support the training of future independent watchmakers wishing to promote watchmaking excellence.

Naissance d’une montre 1: co-creation of P. Dufour, Greubel Forsey and M. Boulanger

After the dazzling success of the Naissance d’une montre and it's mind-blowing sale (HKD 11,296,000) at Christie's auction in Hong Kong on May 30, 2016, the Time Æon Foundation continues its mission . With the aim of perpetuating the know-how of watchmaking excellence and promoting its transmission, the foundation presents two new projects under the name of Naissance d’une montre 2 and Naissance d’une montre 3.

Naissance d’une montre 2: Time Æon Foundation sponsors and oversees the watchmaking adventure of Dominique Buser and Cyrano Devanthey, with the support of watchmakers Robert Greubel, Stephen Forsey and Felix Baumgartner, all part of the Time Æon Foundation family, as well as watch designer Martin Frei.

The watch will be made according to traditional methods of hand-made. This adventure is primarily human because it tells the story of ancestral know-how handed down for centuries from "master to student". It is not a question of creating an old-fashioned watch, but of perpetuating a know-how which, if it has its roots in the past, is absolutely contemporary. The know-how of mechanical watchmaking is indeed a "living matter" that continues to grow and renew itself over generations.

Creating a watch in the tradition of the hand-made, with the help of old machines, is to free oneself from the industrial constraints and thus to find a total freedom of creation. When one embarks on this path, one can not speak of "product" anymore, but of an authentic work, which has a soul, that of its creators.

This watch will have a completely atypical reversed movement. The case of exceptional design is a major challenge; not devoid of a traditional handmade execution, its design and design touch the limits of the possible. On the dial side, with the hours and minutes in the center, we find the constant force barrel system with its differential, a large arm with unusual shapes and four arms. Bottom side, a great indication of the power reserve.

Naissance d’une montre 2 is a unique edition. It will be made in one single piece, and will be auctioned when the project is successful.

Naissance d’une montre 3

Time Æon Foundation joins forces with Ferdinand Berthoud for a new adventure under the name of Naissance d’une montre 3. Sharing the same values, their perpetual quest for the transmission of knowledge and training brings together the two entities around the same mission.

Their reflection is based on the production of a hand made Chronomètre, highlighting the spirit of internal training, so dear to the hearts of Karl-Friedrich Scheufele, Robert Greubel and Stephen Forsey. Karl-Friedrich Scheufele will appoint in a number of departments of the Chopard group a person responsible for acquiring know-how necessary for the implementation of the project and for transmitting it internally.

The beginnings of the project have been initiated, it will be a question of retranscribing the spirit and the creativity of works Ferdinand Berthoud which marked history in the XVIIIe century, in the soul of a watch-time bracelet impressed of tradition. Supported by the Time Æon Foundation, the realization of this three-needle watch involves the integration of conventional mechanical tools, which require very specific training. This transfer of know-how of excellence contributes to the safeguarding of the professions and skills directly related to the world's watchmaking heritage.

Together, they guarantee the follow-up, the good order and the excellence prescribed by the Time Æon Foundation charter, ensuring, among other things, the transmission of know-how on several levels, notably in the design of the movement, according to the rules of manufacture. traditional and well-made, as well as at the level of decoration.

The Naissance d’une montre 3 is above all the story of a meeting between the past and the future, a story that seeks to spread the know-how that will give birth to the vocations of tomorrow.

The Time Æon Foundation is delighted to welcome Dominique Renaud, founder of Dominique Renaud, into it's family. A new project is looming on the horizon, it is about the co-creation of a special escapement watch, perfectly in keeping with the spirit of the foundation. The Time Æon Foundation will communicate regularly on the next steps of this co-creation signed Greubel Forsey and Dominique Renaud.

In line with its mission to safeguard the know-how and gestures of the watchmaking tradition, the Time Æon Foundation regularly organizes workshops devoted to the decoration of mechanical watch movement parts. They are mainly animated by the watchmaker Michel Boulanger, and sometimes by Philippe Dufour, an independent watchmaker of great renown, both of whom participated in the first Naissance d’une montre (FR: Birth of a watch) project.

Trainees, students in watchmaking school, but also watchmakers eager to acquire the basics of the traditional decoration "handmade" have the opportunity to learn the demanding techniques of this art.

They begin to polish flanks, to chamfer, to polish the bow of the molding of the screw's chamber, to chase the stone and then to polish the bow with its molding, with the scrambled lines underneath. the driving of pins or the decoration of steel parts.

At the end of the workshop, each trainee is awarded a Time Æon Foundation diploma signed by Robert Greubel and Stephen Forsey.

For more information, please visit timeaeon.org