Defining a New Era of French Watchmaking

Today, if you ask nearly anyone, “What’s the epicenter of watchmaking?” the answer will resoundingly be, “Switzerland,” but you might be surprised to learn its neighbor to the west is largely responsible for the birth of modern watchmaking as we know it. In France, the earliest clocks date back to the Middle Ages, primarily used by clergymen. Fast forward a few hundred years, you’ll find the first “wearable clocks” emerging in France by the end of the 1400s. 

Over the next couple hundred years, watchmaking became an increasingly thriving industry in France. However, the horological community experienced its first disruption in 1685. That year, King Louis XIV revoked of the Edict of Nantes, which had granted the minority Calvinist Protestants of France, also known as Huguenots, substantial rights in the nation, which was predominantly Catholic at the time. As a result of the revocation, there was a mass exodus of Huguenots from France across the border to Switzerland, many of whom were—you guessed it—watchmakers. 

Still, the real golden age of French watchmaking came in the 1700s in conjunction with another major moment for the country: the Age of Enlightenment. During this time, Paris became the heart of the watchmaking industry. Here, in the Île de la Cité (one of two natural islands in the Seine River right in the center of the City of Light), is the Place Dauphone, a public square on the western end of the island opposite the iconic Notre-Dame Cathedrale. In the late 18th century, this area was home to the workshops of three prominent watchmakers: Abraham-Louis Breguet, Ferdinand Berthoud, and Jean-Antoine Lepine. 

This golden age was ultimately short lived. By the onset of the French Revolution in 1789, Lepine was nearly 70 and had retired, Berthoud continued producing some clocks and marine chronometers but also shifted his focus to his publication of Histoire de la Mesure du Temps, and Breguet had fled to Switzerland to avoid execution for his affiliation with revolutionary leader Jean-Paul Marat. 

By now you might be catching onto the trend of French watchmakers making their way across the Swiss border. This pilgrimage from France to Switzerland has largely contributed to the success of the Swiss watch industry as we know it today. Even now, it’s estimated that approximately 25% of the current workforce is made up of French nationals who cross the border to work in the Swiss watchmaking industry. 

Yet, in recent years, there seems to be a notable resurgence of French brands bringing the craft and recognition back to the country. When you think of French brands, some big names might come to mind—Cartier, F.P. Journe, Hermes, Louis Vuitton, Van Cleef & Arpels, and, of course, Breguet. However, each of these brands, while French founded or French owned, is in fact “Swiss Made.” So, who’s responsible for this French watchmaking renaissance? The answer is independents and microbrands, and we sat down with five of them to learn more about their contribution to the rise of French watchmaking in the current market. 

The most tenured of the brands we tapped is Yema, which was founded back in 1948. Historically, it’s one of the best known watch brands in France and is now in its third generation of family leadership. Located in the small town of Morteau nestled in the iconic watchmaking region of the Jura Mountains just minutes from the Swiss border, Yema neighbors one of the largest watchmaking schools in France: the Lycee Edgar Faure. 

“The irony is that about 80% of the graduates from that school immediately go to Switzerland to find their first job,” shares Antoine Fraisse, the head of Yema’s PR, Digital Marketing, and International Sales. “They build their experience, and then we see many of them return to France later in their careers to workshops like ours.” 

While Fraisse couldn’t note a definitive reason they see folks in the industry return back to their French roots, he did point out some key differences between the Swiss and French watchmaking industries that could be influential. 

“The Swiss watchmaking industry is very competitive, particularly today” Fraisse explains. “Now, so many Swiss brands have become public or managed under the umbrella of large groups—the stakes are high. Whereas in France, most of the brands are independently owned like Yema. We have a very tightknit community. We go out together, we discuss ideas. It’s not competitive, it’s collaborative.” 

“I would also say French watchmaking is more driven by design and aesthetics rather than complex functionality,” Fraisse continues. “That helps us to keep our costs down and our watches to be priced more accessibly. We still manufacture a majority of things in-house,” he clarifies, “then whatever we outsource is all within a radius of 50 miles from our headquarters, so we keep quality, style, and price in mind for our collectors.”

Although Yema traces its roots back more than 75 years, the brand notably experienced a bit of a revival in 2018. This era, perhaps, marks this resurgence of French watchmaking. Between 2017 and 2019, we saw the launch of three of the most prominent French brands on the market: Baltic, Depancel, and Serica. 

Baltic was founded by three French watch enthusiasts and friends, with Etienne Malec taking the lead on the project since its inception. The company began on Kickstarter back in 2017 with two models and a goal of 60,000 Euros, but it ended up notching over half a million thanks to overwhelming enthusiasm from the collector community for the brand’s designs and vision. 

“A focus on design is definitely a strength of French watchmaking,” affirms Remi Martin, Sales Manager at Baltic. “Rather than focusing solely on the technical aspects, French brands often focus on form first and then adapt the technical aspects to work around the design. Shapes, materials, and textures play a huge role,” he continues. “The goal is always to end up with something new by experimenting as much as possible. I think that the French have this little extra flair, that je-ne-sais-quoi. To be true to its identity, a French brand needs to be daring, without being ostentatious. That balance is what makes French brands so different.” 

For Baltic, it is always about the balancing act—negotiating form and function, boldness and subtlety, past and present. “We try our best to blend tradition and modernity to make something that feels new but also familiar at the time,” explains Martin. Take, for instance the brand’s MR Classic collection, which features iconic Breguet numerals as a homage to one of the legends in French watchmaking. Instead of painting them on the dial in the traditional method, the brand opted to make them applied and oversized for a more contemporary look. 

Like Baltic, Depancel also got off the ground thanks to a Kickstarter campaign back in 2018. Its founder, Clement Meynier, came to watchmaking with a colorful background and inventive approach. Early in his career, he worked as a nuclear researcher at the illustrious CERN, later moving to fashion and watches. Meynier also has a personal passion for cars, which inspired the name Depancel, pulling from famous French car manufacturers Delage, Panhard, and Facel Vega. In that spirit, the aesthetic of vintage French cars largely informs the design of the brand’s timepieces. 

“A defining characteristic of French brands is a strong design code,” asserts Meynier. “For me, it’s automotive culture, motorsports, and the beauty of mechanics, but each French brand I see really has their own aesthetic identity. What I think really connects us is the creativity and drive of the entrepreneurial spirit,” he suggests. “So many brands have been popping up and growing in France alongside me and Depancel—there’s a lot of passion and momentum in the French watch community right now.” 

While Meynier, like his French counterparts, takes great pride in the design of his timepieces drawing from the spirit of the region, he admits that the technical side of things is more challenging. 

“We try to make and assemble as much of our watches as possible in France,” shares Meynier, “but we don’t have any movements made in France yet. I see changes starting slowly. While movement parts are still produced primarily in Switzerland or Asia, some movement assembly and finishing is starting to happen in France, which is a trend in the right direction.” 

On the coattails of Depancel came Serica in 2019. That year, founders Jerome Burgert and Gabriel Vachette came together with the pervasive entrepreneurial French spirit. “You know the rebel, the daring creative, maybe that’s the French way,” jests Burgert, “but behind our creations is more than just the French way. We also put a lot of who we are into our watches.”

Although it took him several decades, living on several continents, and reinventing himself several times from a tailor to a bartender to a photographer to a journalist and eventually an entrepreneur, Burgert’s dream to create watches goes back to his childhood. 

“I’ve been drawing watches since I was a kid,” recalls Burgert. “A cowboy had his gun, a samurai had his sword, and James Bond had his watch—he was my hero. So, I began imagining my perfect watch. I remember watches making me happy from a very early age—they appealed to me in a very strong way.”

Eventually, Burgert met Vachette and made that child’s dream come true. The pair founded Serica with a very simple idea, unsurprisingly focused on design. For them, design inspiration comes from a very specific period of watchmaking: the early 1940s to the late 1960s. 

“When I helped to found Serica, I didn’t just want to create another watch on the market—I wanted to create a design that was just as good as the designs that made me fall in love with watches in the first place,” confesses Burgert. “For me the watches from this period of the 40s to the 60s had this form of sophistication that was unmatched, but they were also able to perform their jobs. They were mechanical instruments, but they had personality—there was thought put into the shape, the proportion, so they were also objects of beauty. They were versatile, and they were balanced.” That rugged elegance is what Serica aims to achieve in all its watches. 

For the last stop on our tour of influential French watchmakers, we sat down with Guillaume Laidet, founder of SpaceOne as well as the man behind the revival of the Swiss brands Nivada Grenchen and Vulcain. SpaceOne, launched in 2023, draws inspiration from the 1960s but with a totally different approach to the era, honing in on the space race. While design is clearly at the forefront of SpaceOne’s ultra futuristic creations, technical innovation also plays a big role. The brand aims to offer an alternative to notoriously inaccessible high horology watches by developing complicated space-age timekeepers with affordable price tags. 

“I think French collectors have really been missing something in the market, missing representation of good French watches, especially ones with a technical angle,” suggests Laidet. “My co-founder Theo Auffret was one of the only watchmakers in Paris making complications like tourbillons, and I knew this is what French watchmaking needed. So, he designed the movement for our first model, the Argon, with a jumping hour function in just nine parts.”

Like Meynier of Depancel detailed, SpaceOne’s movement components are manufactured in Switzerland but assembled in France. “The biggest issue we have in the watchmaking industry in France is that all the component suppliers have disappeared,” confirms Laidet. “The problem is the cost of labor—it’s very expensive labor, and it would be a big investment for someone to build from the ground up—you would need to guarantee a lot of volume to see a return on that investment. To start from scratch, someone would need an investor with a lot of money, and then there would always be competition of more established suppliers in Switzerland and better prices in Asia. So, it would be a lot of risk, I’m not sure if I see this coming back to the region unless perhaps the French government got involved to back and incentivize something.” 

That said, thanks to Auffret at the helm of movements for SpaceOne, the brand has received equal respect to its Swiss counterparts when it comes to technical innovation. 

“What makes SpaceOne stand out among French watch brands is Theo,” shares Laidet. “He was one of three winners in the FHH and F.P. Journe sponsored Young Talent Competition back in 2018, so he’s earned the respect of the Swiss watchmaking community. I think we’re mixing the best of the best—the robustness of Swiss movements and the French creativity.”