Eugène Kim

Eugène Kim is a self-taught South Korean watchmaker whose emergence marks a significant moment for Korean independent horology — a scene still small enough that a single ambitious debut can meaningfully shift the conversation around what is possible outside the established Swiss and Japanese centres of watchmaking. Kim has described his own path into the craft in the plainest possible terms, framing himself on social media simply as a self-taught watchmaker who didn't — and couldn't — follow the conventional route into the trade, instead building his skills independently outside any formal apprenticeship or manufacture training programme. That description places him alongside a small but growing cohort of Korean watchmakers, including Minhoon Yoo and Kwanghun Hyun of 3hands_studio, working largely in isolation from established watchmaking infrastructure yet drawing increasing international attention for the ambition and technical seriousness of their independently-produced work.

Kim's flagship creation, and the piece that has drawn the most attention to his name internationally, is the Vertixphere X1 — a collaboration with Tayeb Boussalia, the architect-turned-watch-designer behind the British independent Radcliffe Watch Co., known for the dramatically domed Le Dôme collection. Oracle Time described the Vertixphere X1 as arguably Korea's first true haute horology watch, a 'specs monster with indie charm.' The watch is built around the in-house EKTB Calibre 01 — a hand-wound movement jointly credited to Kim and Boussalia (the calibre name itself an abbreviation of their combined initials) — featuring a hyperactive retrograde seconds display, open-worked bridges, a vertical escapement, and an exceptional power reserve of 144 hours (six full days) from a double mainspring barrel. The case is machined from Titanium Grade 23 (an aerospace-grade titanium alloy also used by Blancpain, among very few other watchmakers), measuring 40mm in diameter and 13.2mm in height, with the crown positioned unconventionally at 12 o'clock for manual winding. A full sapphire dome crystal covers the dial, offering wide-angle visibility of the movement's open architecture and the dramatic angled perspective the design was built around. Water resistance is rated to 30 metres. The Vertixphere X1 is limited to just 30 pieces at a price of USD 35,000, offered for pre-order directly through Eugene Kim's own website — a striking debut price point for an entirely independent Korean watchmaking name, reflecting both the technical ambition of the piece and the extremely limited production run.

The official technical sheet fills in details that make the EKTB-01 even more remarkable for a debut calibre. The movement's base plate and bridges are machined from titanium — a material choice almost unheard of for movement architecture outside a handful of ultra-high-end Swiss ateliers, echoing the Grade 23 titanium of the case — and the calibre carries 45 jewels while running at a full 28,800 vph (4 Hz), making its six-day autonomy from the double barrel all the more impressive, since high-frequency movements consume energy far faster than slow-beat ones. The time display sits off-centre to clear the stage for the vertically mounted balance and escapement, the openworked dial is finished by hand, the hands are heat-blued steel, and a power-reserve indicator is tucked onto the movement side where the wearer alone consults it. Kim presents the project on his own site simply as 'Chapter 1' — the first instalment of a longer story — and by the end of 2025 the Vertixphere X1 was being featured in international best-of round-ups with open anticipation about where the brand goes next. For a self-taught watchmaker operating outside every traditional watchmaking infrastructure, delivering a titanium-movement, six-day, vertical-escapement debut is less a first watch than a declaration of intent — and it positions Kim, alongside his few Korean peers, at the front of a national watchmaking scene being willed into existence one atelier at a time.