Atelier de Chronométrie

The seed was sown in 2014 in a coffee shop in central Barcelona — the unlikely birthplace of one of independent watchmaking's most charming ateliers. Founded in 2015 by a trio of passionate individuals: Santiago Martínez (vintage watch dealer, Patek Philippe specialist, co-founder of Mim and Croket Vintage Watches in Barcelona); Moebius Rassmann (master watchmaker with 20+ years of restoration expertise); and Montse Gimeno (marketing, administration, communications). The name is deliberately in French — 'Spanish and independent watchmaking don't match,' says Gimeno. 'Our customers are worldwide.' The philosophy is a return to a lost, purely manual watchmaking: no CNC machines, cases and lug soldering fabricated entirely by hand, Cotes de Geneve stripes applied on a bespoke hand-operated machine built in-house at a strict 90-degree angle, and every component finished to the highest standard, even those invisible from the outside — a practice the team describes simply as 'thinking with our hands.'

For its first eight years, AdC built its reputation on rebuilt vintage Omega and Venus ébauches, reworked far beyond their original specification: the AdC1 (2015 debut) became Spain's first Observatoire de Besançon-certified chronometer; the AdC4 (2017) introduced the house's first cloisonné enamel dial; the AdC6 and AdC7 (2019) were commissioned for Shellman Tokyo; the AdC8 (2020), a split-seconds chronograph, became a GPHG finalist; and the AdC17 (a Venus 179-based split-seconds chronograph) continued the vintage-movement tradition. Then, in 2023, the atelier introduced its first true in-house calibre, the M284 — developed with independent watchmaker Luca Soprana of Ateliers 7H38 (the workshop behind Jacob & Co.'s wildest Astronomia creations) and named, fittingly, after the atelier's own street address: Mallorca 284, Barcelona. Modelled on 1940s Vallée de Joux ébauches once supplied to houses like Audemars Piguet, the hand-wound M284 (19 jewels, 18,000vph, 38-hour reserve) updates that vintage architecture with modern amagnetic ARCAP bridges, debuting inside the Calatrava-style AdC22 (37.5mm, from €60,000).

The M284 quickly became the platform for AdC's most ambitious work: the AdC30, created for Only Watch 2023, paired the calibre — finished in a special hand-applied frosting rather than the AdC22's Cotes de Geneve — with a stepped-lug grey-gold case and the atelier's first fully handmade sandwich dial; the AdC33 partnered with The Lavish Attic, the Hong Kong collective and Urwerk/H. Moser distributor, on a limited edition offered with white Grand Feu enamel dials bearing ancient Chinese characters, cased in a proprietary Gray Gold alloy. Further milestones followed the same restless spirit: the AdC21OW, created for Only Watch, raised funds for Duchenne muscular dystrophy research. Every single AdC watch, whether built on a vintage ébauche or the in-house M284, remains a special order — no two ever alike — upholding a founding conviction that handcrafting is less a manufacturing method than, in the atelier's own words, 'a deep and magical connexion between mind and hands.'