Taos

TAOS was born from the meeting of Olivier Gaud and Olivier and Dominique Vaucher, directors of the renowned Geneva Métiers d'Arts workshop Atelier Olivier Vaucher, forty-six years old and home to more than 40 collaborators spanning over 15 distinct crafts. Gaud's own path to watchmaking ran through seven years at Christie's in Geneva examining thousands of watches, a pivotal mentorship under Philippe Cantin, a former collaborator of Svend Andersen, and roles at both Cartier and Vacheron Constantin, before he founded OLIGO in 2021 — also featured in this catalogue — and, around the same time, began envisioning TAOS with the Vauchers.

The house frames itself as 'a work of art on the wrist,' built around three stated pillars — excellence, openness, and independent freedom — with every watch made by Swiss artisans in micro-quantities at a Geneva workshop genuinely open to visitors who want to meet the makers themselves. Every TAOS watch runs the same movement, the self-winding VOP318, developed exclusively for the brand by Télôs Watch in La Chaux-de-Fonds. Its brief was genuinely distinctive: the movement's bridges were designed from the outset as a canvas for elaborate hand engraving, their dimensions, shapes, and cutouts built around the engraver's chisel rather than decoration being adapted afterward to an existing calibre. It runs double-barrel winding shown in parallel, an invisible oscillating weight concealed within the case, roughly 72 hours of reserve, 4Hz, and 26 rubies, all hand-decorated at Atelier Olivier Vaucher; cases are entirely designed, machined, and finished by Geneva's Geesco.

The Genèse model, inspired by the earth's geological strata, sets the tone: an 18-karat white gold dial combining engraving beneath enamel, deliberately under-fired enamel left unfinished to preserve the raw texture of its grain, and stone marquetry in black jade and blue agate, its more than 130 individual stone cuts hand-fitted across matte, polished, and textured finishes. The movement itself carries a new geometric decoration created specifically for this piece, its engraving alone taking between 100 and 150 hours of hand work on raw brass. Housed in a 38mm case, 10mm thick, with 3 ATM of water resistance and a hand-stitched grey Nubuck strap, it is priced at 150,000 Swiss francs.

Beyond Genèse, the same shared movement carries an entirely different decorative identity in each further piece. Odonata, priced at 200,000 francs, layers hand engraving, paillonné enamel, diamonds, mother-of-pearl, and plique-à-jour enamel — a technique reminiscent of a miniature stained-glass window — into a surreal, half-floral, half-insect microcosm. Tuxedo, at 140,000 francs, renders the texture of formal eveningwear in layered enamel and silver foil, its movement given an entirely separate decoration of its own, the Entrelacs calibre, requiring more than 150 hours of hand engraving in the spirit of weaving. Envol Bleu sets engraved, enamelled feathers and a diamond-ringed silver rosace against a blue ground. The collection continues through Gala, Dentelle, Savile Row, Sequins, Envol Rouge, Floréal, Ondes, Kaleidoscope, Euphorie, and Broderies, each one built on the same VOP318 movement and given its own distinct combination of engraving, enamelling, marquetry, or gem-setting by Atelier Olivier Vaucher.