Felipe Pikullik

Felipe Pikullik is a Berlin-born independent watchmaker whose journey from childhood curiosity to working atelier is one of the more compelling personal stories in the emerging generation of German independents. Born in 1994 in Berlin, he developed an early fascination with mechanics at the bench — by age thirteen he was already disassembling and reassembling watches, drawn not only to how they functioned but to how they were made, and to the idea that something so small could hold such complexity and meaning. That obsession led him to Glashütte in 2013, where he undertook formal watchmaking training and entered the discipline's most demanding tradition. His professional formation followed in two significant directions: first under master watchmaker Rolf Lang, in what Pikullik describes as a traditional master-student relationship shaped by patience, discipline, and a deep respect for the craft — 'where every detail matters and nothing exists without purpose'; and then at Kudoke, the respected Glashütte-based independent studio of Stefan Kudoke, where he discovered the art of skeletonisation — learning to remove material from a movement while preserving its structural integrity, and developing a sensitivity for form, proportion, and structure that became the foundation of his own design language. He launched his brand as an independent in 2017, producing the Prius Collection — five fully skeletonised timepieces — from the quiet space of his own kitchen, alongside a nine-to-five job. Each piece was shaped not by resources but by determination and a clear personal vision. He has since taken on the role of mentor himself, teaching the next generation of watchmakers and passing on what he calls 'a way of thinking about watchmaking' rather than just its techniques.

The collection is organised across three lines. The FP Skeleton series — FPSK22 through FPSK25 — is the heart of the atelier's identity, expressing Pikullik's longest-running investigation into skeletonised movement architecture. Each annual edition of the FPSK has evolved the relationship between openness and structure, complexity and clarity: where the FPSK22 established the initial identity and the FPSK23 explored contrast and the interaction of light with depth, the FPSK24 studied transparency and proportion as a purely composed structure, and the FPSK25 — the current edition and the most refined — brings structure, depth, and hand finishing into what Pikullik describes as 'perfect balance.' The movement is not hidden in these pieces but revealed, 'transformed into a composition where structure, depth, and craftsmanship become visible at every level.'

The Complicated Collection houses the Serie Universum and the Mondphase I. The Mondphase I (2023) is the most celebrated piece in the portfolio — a three-dimensional moon phase complication rooted in Pikullik's personal fascination with astronomy, transforming the moon display from a flat, iconographic element into a volumetric presence with genuine depth. The watch was nominated for the Grand Prix d'Horlogerie de Genève in 2023, a milestone that Pikullik describes not as an endpoint but as recognition of a journey that had only just begun. The Mondphase II (2025) took this architecture further: the movement was developed from the dial side upward, revealing its mechanics openly, 'turning timekeeping into something visible, almost alive.' The Core Collection comprises the Sternenhimmel ('starry sky') — the watch that first brought Pikullik to wider attention in 2021, inspired by the quiet vastness of the night sky and described as a reminder of perspective and stillness; the HTH (Homage to Harrison); and the Klassik.

The most significant milestone in the atelier's 2026 chapter is the introduction of the FPA1 calibre — a movement developed largely within the atelier itself, including a hand-crafted balance wheel produced by Pikullik and his team in-house. The balance wheel is one of the most demanding components in watchmaking to produce by hand: a precision part whose every dimension affects the regulation of the watch, whose surfaces must be finished to a standard far above what tolerances strictly demand, and whose production in a small atelier requires a mastery of the lathe, the angle grinder, and the polishing lap that takes years to achieve. 'It is a deliberate choice to begin with the most challenging elements,' Pikullik states, 'because mastering complexity creates the foundation for true independence.' The FPA1 is framed not as a product but as the beginning of a direction — the first step toward a future in which every component of a Felipe Pikullik watch is made within the atelier itself, by the maker's own hands. Progress at Felipe Pikullik is measured not in collections but in independence.