Epos

Epos traces its roots to 1925, when James Aubert founded James Aubert SA in the Vallée de Joux and devoted himself to chronographs and minute repeaters, handing his knowledge to his son-in-law Jean Fillon, who became Epos's leading watchmaker and the source of in-house complications such as a jumping hour and a regulator modification. The brand itself dates to 1983, when Peter Hofer and his wife Erna founded Montres EPOS SA at the height of the quartz crisis, betting on mechanical watches and working closely with Fillon for twenty years. In 2002 the Chonge-Forster family took over, with Ursula Forster, from a Swiss watchmaking family, as president and her husband Tamdi, a longtime Swiss watch industry executive, as CEO, broadening the range and expanding internationally under the slogan Artistry in Watchmaking.

Epos uses only Swiss mechanical movements, chiefly from ETA (including Unitas, Valjoux, and Peseux) and Sellita, which its watchmakers transform with special functions and decoration, often finished by hand with Côtes de Genève and blued screws. Components are made in workshops in the Jura Mountains and the Vallée de Joux, the watches are assembled in Lengnau, and nearly every model carries a crystal caseback. The brand's proudest in-house innovations are the vertical big date, the 24-hour indicator, and an oversized jumping hour, and its stated mission is sophisticated mechanical watches with interesting functions at affordable prices.

The Artistry collection holds the in-house complications. Moon phase watches with Epos's big-moon modification include the 3440 BM, the 3439 BM North Star with a luminescent North Star, the 3439 BM V-Style, and the 3439 BM Classic, alongside the 3391 MP with a blue sky dial. The 3435 Verso 1 LE and Verso 2 LE are limited half-skeleton watches with the in-house Verso modification and a pulsometer on the back, the second with a three-part dial, and the hand-wound 3429 SK LE is a limited skeleton that doubles as a pocket watch and a table watch. Other models include the 3405 JH with an in-house jumping hour, the 3404 BD hand-wound big date, the 3383 Vertical BD with a vertical big date, the 3400 GMT LE with a reverse 24-hour indication as its second time zone, and the 3390 24H with a 24-hour modification in the Emotion-style case. At the summit is the 3373 5-MIN Repeater LE, limited to 200 pieces: its five-minute repeater at five o'clock chimes the hour and the number of five-minute periods since the hour, inside a 42.5mm skeletonised watch on a decorated ETA 2892 base.

The Sport collection centres on the 3504 Diver in three forms — the standard diver, a titanium version water-resistant to 500 metres with a helium release valve, and a COSC-certified black PVD titanium limited edition of 300 pieces — and on the 3441 Diver, with ceramic bezel and helium valve, offered plain, as the weekday 3441 DD, and as the automatic skeleton 3441 SK. It also includes the 3438 diver, the 3365 automatic chronograph, the ladies' 4413 Diver, and the 3506 dress-sport watch, available plain, as the 3506 OH with an open balance wheel at 12 o'clock, and as the 3506 SK with a skeleton movement. The Timeless collection offers the cushion-shaped 3511; the 3501 with its black 3501 SK skeleton and weekday 3501 DD variants; the larger 3401; the slim 3420 and 3420 SK; the ultra-thin hand-wound 3408; the 3402 DD with asymmetrical weekday; the 3500 SK LE hand-wound skeleton limited edition; and the Emotion-case 3390 and 3390 SK, plus ladies' watches in the 4432, 4390, 4390 SK, 4390 Diamond, and 4390 North Star Diamond, and the 4314 OH Diamond with a butterfly-shaped open balance wheel and a mother-of-pearl dial set with diamonds.

The Pocket Watches collection spans six chain-equipped models: the fully skeletonised 2166 SK, 2121 SK (with small seconds at six), and 2089 SK at 49.5mm, the 42mm 2004 SK and 2003 SK, and the 42mm 2003 with a see-through back and decorated movement. A ladies' quartz range, the 8000, 8002, and 8003 lines in steel, rose, and yellow PVD cases from 21.5 × 24.8mm to 34mm, forms the entry point. Prices run from US$890 for the Epos 8000 quartz to US$19,360 for the 3373 5-MIN Repeater LE; apart from that single repeater, the mechanical models are generally priced between roughly US$1,600 and US$4,100. All are quoted in US dollars, and the repeater's page notes that its price includes US customs and taxes.