Naissance d’une Montre

Vintage and contemporary watches reached new heights this spring as Phillips in Association with Bacs & Russo’s The Geneva Watch Auction: XXIII set no fewer than 43 world records and achieved the highest-grossing auction sale total ever of CHF 74.8 million, confirming the continued strength and growing breadth of the international watch market in a challenging global geopolitical context.

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.

Naissance d’une Montre 4 – Le Carrousel marks a decisive moment in the history of the project carried by the Time Æon Foundation and supported by Greubel Forsey: the announcement of Bonniksen, a new independent watchmaking house founded in 2026 in La Chaux-de-Fonds by Maximin Chapuis and Jason Chevrolat.

The Geneva 10th anniversary auction will feature the one-of-a-kind, handmade Naissance d’Une Montre III in stainless steel and Napoleon Bonaparte’s historic Louis Berthoud Marine Chronometer No. 52