Code41

CODE41 describes itself not as a brand in the traditional sense but as a community project: the aim is to gather watch enthusiasts around a genuine watchmaking venture and help it become reality, with those members becoming what the brand calls 'Creators' — active participants in the design and direction of each new watch rather than passive buyers waiting for a finished product to be unveiled. Founded in Lausanne in 2016 by Claudio D'Amore — born in Switzerland to Italian parents and a graduate of ECAL, the Lausanne design school, with prior experience at TAG Heuer and Montblanc — the project launched under the working name The Goldgena Project before becoming CODE41, debuting its first watches, the Anomaly-01 and Anomaly-02, via a Kickstarter campaign that raised CHF 543,150.

From the outset, CODE41 built its identity around a single radical commitment: complete openness about how a watch is actually made and priced. The brand created its own TTO label — Total Transparency on Origin — publishing the true cost price, distributor margins, and retailer margins that the wider watch industry has traditionally kept as closely guarded secrets, and explaining candidly that the Swiss Made label itself often misleads consumers, since a great many components sold under that designation are manufactured well outside Switzerland. By selling entirely direct-to-consumer online, bypassing the traditional retail network's markups (which the brand notes can run as high as 50%), CODE41 has positioned itself to offer genuinely Swiss-manufactured mechanical watches at roughly 30 to 50 percent below what an equivalent piece would cost through a conventional boutique — a disruption that has, by the brand's own admission, not endeared it to more traditional corners of the watch trade. That community-first approach now numbers roughly half a million engaged members, weighing in on everything from complication choices and design details to component options and even the possibility of assembling their own watch by hand in a dedicated workshop session.

The collection has expanded steadily since the founding Anomaly references. The Anomaly-01 and Anomaly-02 — CODE41's original, most accessible models, powered respectively by a Miyota 82S7 and a Swiss Sellita movement — sold in such numbers that the brand eventually announced the end of their production once the final units, capped at 2,500, were sold. The Anomaly Evolution followed as a further generation, offered in 38mm and 41.5mm sizes with a Sellita SW200-1 movement assembled in Switzerland. The DAY41, launched January 2020, marked a turning point for the brand: a unisex mechanical watch built around the Swiss STP6-15 movement (26 jewels, 28,800 vibrations per hour, 44-hour power reserve) that sold out its first edition within a week and recorded more than €2 million in pre-order sales within days of launch. The X41, launched in 2019 and relaunched in sapphire-case versions in 2022, is described by CODE41 as its first genuinely community-designed manufacture movement and the clearest embodiment of the brand's disruptive intent: an avant-garde, exclusive peripheral-weight architecture with bridges conceived as a mechanical sculpture rather than a conventional automatic layout, priced from roughly USD 14,250.

The NB24, launched in 2021, is CODE41's chronograph line and a deeply personal dedication: named for Nigel Bailly, a young Belgian racing driver left paraplegic by an accident at age 14, whose lifelong dream of competing in the 24 Hours of Le Mans he achieved in June 2021 as CODE41's first brand ambassador. The NB24's movement, developed with the Swiss specialist Concepto (base architecture derived from the ETA/Valjoux 7750 but modified so extensively that essentially only the 48-hour power reserve and 4Hz frequency remain from the original), incorporates a peripheral rotor visible from the dial side — a rare and technically demanding feature at any price point, let alone one this accessible — alongside an open-worked chronograph display with rotating discs for elapsed minutes and running seconds rather than conventional subdial hands. Offered in Grade 5 titanium or CODE41's own high-density aeronautical AeroCarbon, the NB24 spans multiple dial colourways and both case materials, with pricing from roughly USD 10,560.

The Moon INCEPTION, the brand's first moonphase watch, marked CODE41's move into more classical complications while retaining its community-driven design process, its steel case, sapphire crystal, and exclusive oscillating weight developed in collaboration with the movement specialist AJS Production SA — celebrated with an unusually theatrical launch that saw fifteen-metre rockets installed in public squares across several world capital cities, with founder Claudio D'Amore explaining the stunt simply: 'If we're going to invade public space with advertising, we might as well go all in.' More recent projects have pushed further still into serious haute horlogerie territory, including the T360 Tourbillon and the Mecascape Sublimation One, a hybrid piece functioning simultaneously as a pocket watch and a desk clock — signalling CODE41's continued ambition to bring genuinely complex watchmaking within reach of its community, on its own transparent terms.