Sylvain Pinaud

Sylvain Pinaud grew up at his father's workbench, and that early apprenticeship set the course of his life: he trained formally at the Morteau watchmaking school across the French border, then spent years honing his craft in discreet ateliers and major watch manufactures before deciding, in 2018, to practice on his own terms. He set up a complete workshop in Sainte-Croix, in the Swiss Jura — a town with genuine watchmaking and mechanical-music pedigree — fitted with lathes, milling machines, control instruments, and century-old tools capable of producing components from scratch or hand-decorating a movement before assembly. His stated philosophy is watchmaking that is 'independent, relevant, and sincere, at the crossroads of art and science' — a craftsman first, in his own words, in a universe where hand and mind agree to give their best, deliberately apart from soulless assembly-line production.

That philosophy produced the Origine, Pinaud's homage to horology's most beautiful historical achievements filtered through his own hand. Hand-wound, beating at 21,600vph with 22 jewels and 55 hours of reserve, it centers on an in-house free-sprung balance and escapement — a 13.2mm balance wheel of variable inertia paired with a Phillips terminal curve balance-spring for genuinely precise regulation — inside a 40mm, 11mm-thick stainless steel case chosen deliberately over precious metal for its strength and lightness on the wrist. Its silvered dial, underlined by a polished steel cartouche, plays on contrast and fine finishing to achieve, in Pinaud's words, perfect readability alongside the movement's own visual presence; only traditional materials are used throughout, chosen to guarantee longevity across centuries rather than seasons. True to his bespoke ethos, material and finish combinations can be personalized on request.

His technical high point to date is the Monopoussoir Chronograph — the piece that won him the title of 'Un des Meilleurs Ouvriers de France' (One of France's Best Craftsmen), an extraordinarily rare national distinction awarded only once every several years across every trade in the country, and a genuine mark of the highest craft recognition in France. Hand-wound with 45 hours of reserve, its single-pusher column-wheel chronograph with horizontal clutch drives a semi-instantaneous 45-minute counter, its layout inspired directly by the architecture of marine chronometers and its large chronometer balance beating calmly at 2.5Hz, visible through an opening in the caseback. Housed in a 42mm grade 5 titanium case (also offered in 18k gold) beneath a peripheral glass that lets the movement be admired from an unusual angle, every element is hand-finished to the highest bienfacture: circled and bevelled wheels, black-polished and bevelled steel components, and silvered dials individually grained and bevelled by hand. From a single bench in Sainte-Croix, working almost entirely alone, Sylvain Pinaud produces perhaps ten watches a year — each one, in his own description, the product of an intense process of creation, craftsmanship, and a great deal of dreaming.