Jean Khatchadourian
Jean Khatchadourian is a French watchmaker, the son of a cabinetmaker who instilled in him an early appreciation for craftsmanship. He completed a baccalaureate in industrial mechanics and went on to study robotics, but found the industrial world missing the sensitive, artistic dimension he was after; discovering watchmaking gave him what he calls the 'perfect fusion' of technical rigour and creative expression. That revelation led him to Lycée Edgar Faure in Morteau, where apprenticeships spanning monumental watchmaking, prototyping, and servicing for major watch brands — alongside a CAP in 2023 and a Brevet des Métiers d'Art in 2025 — refined his understanding of movement, time, and gesture.
Maison Khatchadourian is his own creative venture, based in a workshop in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, guided by what he calls a pursuit of absolute coherence: nothing left to chance, every choice intentional. He describes watchmaking as as much an art as a tool, and develops complications that lean toward artistic expression rather than purely utilitarian logic, each watch conceived as a singular work for collectors drawn to meaning and mechanical authenticity over function alone.
His debut watch, the Grand Large, was designed and built across the final two years of his studies at Edgar Faure, inspired by the world of yachting. At six o'clock, a whale's tail stands for calm and a reminder to slow down; the hour display draws on the throttle levers of vintage boats, evoking the idea of taking control of one's own course; and the minute markers take the shape of a ship's helm. The case alternates finishes to highlight its flowing curves, while more traditionally profiled hands bridge classical watchmaking with the dial's contemporary language, and the movement itself, hand-angled with a file and finished in ceramic lacquer, traces a wave-like motion accentuated by fine blue outlines.
Built on a base ETA 6498, entirely re-machined and modified by hand, the Grand Large carries 56 hours of reserve and the required 24-hour day/night indication with a semi-instantaneous jumping hour, finished with hand-applied lacquer, hand-bevelling, graining, and black-polished screws, cased in black rhodium or rose gold and rated to 100 metres of water resistance on a ballistic rubber strap. The subscription edition is limited to 16 pieces in total — 10 in stainless steel and 6 in rose gold — entirely Swiss manufactured.