THE SINGLE MEN - Masters of the Incredible and the Beautiful - A Film By Philip Selkirk

you you you know you cannot be the best at everything when it comes to movements we've worked with persons that we felt we're experts in certain categories and we worked from with the team of bondic low touch specialists of astronomical watches I wish more the big brands with or connect their links or the independents we want to to reach out to the best possible watchmakers that can be our internal that can be independent some deal and cliff in our pal talked about it it's just about transparency minimal we've been working with them with variable I don't believe you lose any legitimacy by being transparent but the way you walk and the kundalini bus if the client doesn't say anything because he doesn't want it to be communicated then so be it that's because of the different project names even my fellow employees do not necessarily know who the customer is today's a sympathy there are even collaborations they help us to many think it is really great menses even if it's been complicated for George Daniels and Omega to speak together in the end there was a relationship which was recognized by a worldwide audience yes well what both when we develop something and it shouldn't be made public we normally choose a comic or a fictional characters name sometimes they want something new maybe they will need two or three years to develop and yet I find it as fun tech Lau they find it already and within one year they can bring a new model you you can always learn from an artist and an artist can always get help from a tire that is how it should work but it should never be competition the accident if the status of being independent and humane is very important to me but there's no formula for that that formula formula is to work together as a group your mouth at the same time maintaining one's individuality and whole a group of independence it might be difficult to work with but it's also very enriching Ness a pet would see presentati song confess you said only that fish swims in the direction and in the speed of the current so being independent means you're not a dead fish you go right or left of the current or you go back against the code are you swim with the current but then you can swim much faster than it so I think independency is a mental freedom play as I'm not actually from this world never visited a watchmaking school I have my own liberties I remain faithful to these and thus they swim against the current the resources are getting strong law virology and the materials which one uses in order to build her ology are the prime instruments which connect people to each other for me the most important element of Independence and what is to have this human connection see because the minority usual to get Kosciusko independence is practically like a religion it is something you have when you are done with that you keep as you grow up in the field so from a song it's wanting to go your own path in life without being subjected to Authority show me more come on over the cutter and every independents have a certain turbulent genius vision attribute necessary to launch something issues suppose say I think it's absolutely necessary that the independence continue to exist as we are in a world where they have less and less space they've gambled with their lives some cases with years and years and years of their lives to make watch their revenues because they didn't just go to work at a big brand where you'd have very cushy existence I'm sure it exists these people that you have some yeah yeah one with with guts I'm sure you have but I didn't find them yet same prefer what they do is stronger than what's rational they just say I'll do it of course there are always critics who doubt mr. delegate but then what's even better there are those who say you're right it's amazing Wow let's go wow thank you what they want they can explore any number of styles and they are not any way restricted by the marketplace they don't have to worry about a marketing department as long as your watch makers are all the same working in their own little world we're a bit autistic closed onto ourselves she won she deaf I don't consider myself a watchmaker I'm a free man no be philosopher who seeks the truth Keisha I believe myself on Schedule II they tend to be happy people they tend to be content and I think that's because they work with their hands they do something they love and they're always solving problems watchmakers always have some sort of difficulty pop up and they always have to think of a way to overcome it if it are there then the joy to give birth to something into getting going realizing I said wow it works the way I thought it would this is my name and this is my life I've been constructing combining considering implementing that's I want to do from morning until night America balances out sawdust via occasionally we run into opposition out there understanding it the sister karate allows for drum Tisa Hilton this is precisely the challenge taking hurdles and leaving them behind Barbara stop it there comes a good example is a very big complication of the Louie alizée Piguet the called the colonists appearance a customer did not ask me to make the most complicated watch I only noticed afterwards that it was it would always meet and under helped thus far the real challenge was that a watch can do everything together over the student I then figured out the watch has investor 1116 components but was whatever the people think of the do it is whether or not it's the most complicated watch in the newpsies not my expertise completed this is the sleek nifty minor competence bring new ideas they bring visions they bring sometimes disruption we need to be disruptive and they are building a kind of tissue and I wish they would be ten times more of these artists and they are building a tissue on which some big brand can build them their future has come tonight a an idea arises you transfer it and that's your multi versions and then people come and say now you've invented something for me founders I myself see it differently I come up with an idea for instance from some combination OB Nazi own Street and I go didn't read you but I completed the Golden Bridge I sensed a new era evolving the watch was an immediate success right from the beginning it was really something special and after 60s I made something really silly I put a clock into a bottle the bottle clock open media door to Patek Philip because they saw what make like this then he could record it could be useful for them you can spend them years at the work bench making watch and then how do you know it's even going to work how do you know and say I don't want it to fit once you do the exercise and improve upon it well then you begin to understand the system and how it works it's something extremely subtle to written and the interest that I developed at a certain level I start building a new watch with every watch I gained more experience for them you can't mess around you have to know what you are doing you have a responsibility and the feeling it's it's I can't describe but it's very strong say the community it's a community of passionate people in this room there is an emotion to horology it's the motor the motor there they want to do it well very fair they want to do it better and their way while maintaining the same pre-existing code of the tradition or pannonica this disease digital tradition when room oft vindicates toda Jota today when you make a watch you must sustain the history of watchmaking in itself the object should be an expression of the thoughts what it could stand for today so this must contain this photo salty / ticket out colossus hoid tibideaux concurrent assaulted us mystery novel your maken some say we're making a complicated watch but complications going to take Bobby throw them all in how for a long time this has been the philosophy escaped a complicated watches yes they're perpetual calendars minute repetitions etc etc it will chuck everything in there and make it square and then sell it this is kind of a copy and paste in me let's take a technology that's around and put it in there yes that's all does it for me it's more important to get a new idea and turn this into reality with classical mechanics classical mythology the tradition that doesn't go to the future is just a museum tradition the tradition must stay alive if you want to blaze your own Trail you have to know what went on before otherwise you're just going to repeat it so there's very very close relationship between the independent watchmakers we see today and the great watchmakers of the past well that's why this obsession my conclusion is that consequently it's because we are nostalgic a mechanical watch is eternity in a box in the 1970s something occurred in the watch industry called aborts revolution the quartz is a fantastic incredible genius invention of technology a quartz watch with inexpensive extremely accurate began to be produced on millions here hey we're all going to what I think was going to quote all because they all believe that the future is technology everybody said the mechanical wart is out finish that nobody want anymore mechanical warts it was a period which was not easy there was no more ology bear in mind that mechanical watch me he was almost extinct therefore in 1984 we founded the Academy Vince and also we had a good contact to collectors customers came collectors came we want a mechanical wats Concord tick-tock tick-tock they wanted a dude did not want to have the quartz waltzes and so we started with to the idea of the Academy independent artisans the likes of members of the HCI are few and far between did he Demick that I say the idea interested me because corresponds to my philosophy of humanity then we're all individuals but in a group we're also something interesting we have watchmakers and we do watches we are not businessman sir just making watches together we are being stronger and it's rather like a frame which supports us it's really not so much about the technical prowess one may have the ability to to assemble the timepiece it really has to do with a different vision that one has for how they want to leave their lives it's a very very difficult path to follow it's easier to be in a great big machine than to stand alone and what these gentlemen do is they have you know different dreams Josefa siege I'm a Janelle a deep stay I'm not sure if I would have developed the deep space if I hadn't been a member of the Academy it don't fit for me in my sleepy but my dreams are more clear than when I'm in my real workspace from blondie the deep space was a part of my dreams please it that father you don't feel well I still think like I talked about the motivation behind the Academy it's Genesis and what keeps it going I think it's still to provide space in the marketplace for a certain type of watchmaker Citroen Panetta sitting puts a window a door into the independence world of Neurology it is quite particular here you discover other mindsets by new ways of working in different motivations it lends itself a space by which we can change explore our differences and our common ground it's a platform we've been supporting for the past two decades now starting with Philip before who was perhaps back twenty years ago one of the leading proponents of in and watch makers I still work with with outlets in Singapore yeah yes the idea of the Academy is from the old Romans because they could do an assembly where they wanted in Europe to discuss how to do the world one morning we all received a letter from Josh Daniels handwritten letter I want to join your group so say now we are on the right way and technology can be part of a certain future but the real future is art art is eternal the quartz watch will have obsolescence and the mechanical watch will have eternity geologists fill the garden near the decadence equally over the years we have seen inventions in terms of style technique and renovation and thus was we are witnessing a horological revolution we put the Kailua Unilever to Sharla jail yay quizzical there's been a moment of the consciousness for this loss we decided to revive the craftsmanship to make it long-lasting this process is evolved gradually to make progress which is very good is it Sevilla some people using a watch others accessories you know and somebody they are using for a time I think this is a piece of art you know just a bicycle is what happened in the early 2000s with watchmaking south so it's a bit like the 70s and we had Led Zeppelin Jimi Hendrix and everyone knew there was magic what happens those humus and the watchmakers of today drugged as well in any case the market responded favorably and again is an amazing moment magic Yoshi's wooly dummy inside the the actual time that it takes to create something new is more valuable to me than what I have produced in these times it's idea tava also I saw I find it all kicked off as a kind of art project back then I would never have thought that it could turn into such an international business we simply have the idea to make a special watch something contemporary something which reflects it was actually happening right now it was like a dream so who plough or we get is it new technology and the witches you know today it is not that old system we're nowhere near inventing everything I get really annoyed when people say that it's like what you think the human imagination has a limit on it you know go back to bed go to sleep wake up when we become be for me the time is not the issue so in my workshop I don't push to make more I don't push to make faster I push to make better one of the things the the independents have done with a watch industry if they showed everyone else there are no I have my own correct there and I put the step very very very high it's it's why my project are recognized and you have to be there not here you cannot because you you're good you know one could argue that you know the quartz crisis was important to participate the whole Swiss watch industry into recognizing that they're not just selling an instrument anymore they're selling objects of prestige they're imparting artistic and technical know-how none of my watches are automatic because people they rediscover the fact to win Dwight you have to to to feed your watch if you don't read it you know if we will stop and they lost this with automatic watches and especially the quartz watches they like to hear the key key when you want to hear we're all in love with this little thing that goes tick-tock it has a soul heart when I say didn't dig leek for a long time people were only focusing on the exterior for watch the most important part of the watch the heart of the watch here's the inside the mechanics the dip was going to plan nickel deeper on our chest and RFP solon to click so fortunately one has had the thought of going back to traditional watch begging by saying we'll pull this through heist eg Woma Hadid you all at the same time high watch making remained someone backward but we considered totally unnecessary want a systematic stance is a for the Compton signals fancy Kia just imagine there comes a twenty seven-year-old nobody like me opaque nobody knows him he presents his work and says this is the ultimate thing people thought if a chap of twenty seven comes up with this how can it truly be anything special there but anyone could have developed this side Kapow it took time to make people understand also because no one else would have ventured to deal with such topics there is acceptance for this now but back then no way the Aqsa tons waited I stopped at a motel super hot left are they are feeling dismay opens my fulfillment is more than just a running watch and if Eunice it's the finishing toast fits in certain special features for instance you'll abide having another interesting complication I feel mister it's not meant merely to display only the time downside so under it said I see it expresses more I was tricked it's just a goblin it's amazing what kind of solutions they come up with uh-huh what a wealth of interpretation sanctum on my fabulous Holly air don't under and how small replied Paul gabber shows me a screw and I say excuse me I really only see your hand even though I can see very well and he says there's the screw your screw I can't see any screw Oh what there's a joy for me it has always been paramount to have the case a hundred percent Swiss made first of all you have to finish your watch I don't know if there is one watch that is Swiss my watch is a hundred percent Swiss made 100 percent we have to respect Swiss made and Swiss made tells us that the movement must be Swiss and a croissant and that 60 percent of all the components must be Swiss make everything comes in our area so I'm very proud of that but that 60 percent the value has to come from Switzerland and assembling in Switzerland for me it's not enough almost every watchmaker at some point in their life Ellen love with things mechanical soon as a boy I took everything apart anything I could put my hands on at some point with a watch my father said no this you won't take apart so I had to start imagining what it must look like inside cities complex as all episode this way I basically had to train my imagination for the mechanics yep yeah Koko's you doesn't understanding the beauty of watchmaking the sophistication of horological mechanics Iranians do you want ultra when we take a look at watches that seem very complicated we believe the technical solution should always be very simple science all these twin detective and olive and the our indicates the minutes for an hour then the next hour follows the hours that are not needed at the moment orbits of hearts somewhere else and do something else and then when they're needed again they're back in the right place it's instance its similarity in plots it's an indication it's getting people to know that yeah you can have your classic flat round watch with a beautiful movement inside but you can also read the time in a crazy three-dimensional machine where when you put it on your wrist you're actually wondering how you're gonna read the time on that piece of thought it takes time to convince colleagues at the hand does not necessarily move to the right it takes time to show that a hand doesn't have to move at all while the clock does this is also an indication of time that's see I don't care if the hands rotate or the clock the main thing is what does a child yeah like there is this notion that my god I can manipulate these little wheels and gears I can make them with certain tools and then what grows out of that is the idea that you can express something your own desires your thoughts your feelings you can in fact be an artist the populace Papa young was only later during the creation and the design process that this shape developed cashed out the top death when I gave the bridge a certain aesthetic the butterfly evolved and thus the name of the watch was born of the nom de huantar there was this new wave of interest in independent watchmaker a key person behind this dynamic is Vianney halter VI halter created the van T quad it's a perpetual calendar with multiple time indications it shed new light as to the possibilities of what contemporary watchmaking candy you spend a lot of money in a watch by a mechanical watch coffee disposal I get innocent when I first started with the Academy I exhibited my work but the watches proved to be too complicated for walk-in clients therefore it became necessary to reach out to collectors in a different level after I started I want to keep it small I don't I want to remain independent and I was starting to get scared but now there's too much orders I started to refuse orders and I didn't take any retailers I had all our class in Singapore and that's it our responsibility is to inspire people to want to own that dream watch Affairs we have a great network of very passionate collectors here who are also very interested in in engaging in this process there are some people who find security in brands and there are some who themselves as collectors also have a highly independent spirit minor wound dishonest as my watches are not display goods they are usually tailor-made for the client each one of them expresses a wish it's not only about the watch but personal contact with me is vital say the buyer wants to get to know the man behind the watch he wants to see who makes it and comprehends his desire I'm there for most of my clients are direct Kia : LEM Siddons it's not only because they want to spend their money buying a watch much rather it's to share the energy of becoming an adventurer and explore and to discover this certain object and to experience the emotion emotion ah bleeps enjoy only my own clocks then someone comes to me and says oh I like that I want this is usually that's the right person person but we are not talking of inanimate objects behind them there are the people who make them the fans the ones who are crazy for them and the collectors that's Easter Eve 90 Phyllis efficient machine sky of a philosophical machine and shows us where we stand in our lives well that shows what is that let me stop it there's something curious there's also a great element of experimentation and watchmaking you have to test out things you have to know they work a watchmaker is an artist who is also a scientist he's also an engineer he's also an architect there are a lot of skills go into making up a watchmaker finale more open subsequently we realize that the public at large has little knowledge watchmaking it would therefore be interesting to provide the key access this world cynically copass room we are planning and to do small school you know because it's very difficult now today to to find the watchmaker I think we will face a problem in a couple of years you know because now we have all generation and slowly slowly we are trying to get in a young generation permissive society for me a mission is to make watches with which the consumer can experience the time it that will realize the beauty of the mechanics it does not only want to see to in front and check what time it is in the Victor he is also interested to see inside the watch from the other side these people are not looking at mass production the total production of the independent is probably less than any other what run you would become on the market most independent watchmakers there are notable exceptions can't afford spaghetti because the latest Edsel nerd watches see over make fizzy let me go Nick if you want to work with certain machines you realize they are very expensive so you have to sell more watches and then you need more publicity in order to be more visible in the market etc etc except Allah accepted our specially with the last model simplicity I could take the way like everybody call a movement maker and make it for you with your name on it and you sell you make fast money but they would have destroyed what I try to beat so I said now is that by the way many artists don't have the skills to be a manager many small craftsmen succeed in making towards me watches I simply can't understand why they never have any money the motors assist in betting they're not doing it necessarily just to make money ski they're doing it also to push boundaries thought-out slow to get an order each new product the effort is very high to make breakthroughs take some time off sanitize you must have reality marketing can help you to promote the reality can help you to design or to to to to make the reality look better when you're talking about a great independent watchmaker you are talking about an artist with a style not a brand we are two different because we have crop makers we have a watchmakers and we have a different philosophies and we have so many different cultures a bride has nothing to do with watchmaker if somebody wants to do a brand he cannot be watching here but I think that it's end of the day would be a big hassle he cannot be artists it's another job I don't want to play the game like some brands pushing and burying names left now I cannot afford it and I said watch is big enough to make his own job because a watchmaker a genius with his hands genius with his art how can you build a brand it's another game it's very difficult I think number two it's dangerous those are the four modes or the independence will always have an audience who's one for more or less strong as there are millions of people who stand in line for a mainstream brand the mark lends to what the big brands do clean pendants is actually almost a kind of marketing exercise those people who want something different with their second or third or fourth watch may be ready to look at an independent the normal people they will not come out to buying one of the independent watches so most of this thermal collector I have some people really they know everything maybe sometimes they are more they know more than us the postage and Apollo I think the independents are not controllable they do the work and say I have a new project no idea if it's stupid or genius something like that jessabelle very often the artisan they make it going right by doing adjustment by hand when you repair 150-year who will know which adjustment you made nobody look problem heraclea our academy require knife ow the real problem with the academy and why they don't sell as they would like is because a retailer doesn't find the product attractive enough activity they are scared that there is no real after sales yeah so the guy who he going to repair it in 2164 he will struggle like crazy he's easy it's important for the academy to organize and after-sales which is more solid do like a deal the skills come from their interpretation from their eyes their hands on it oh good so it's up Oscar scene because if you have a watch made by for instance viene harder and he doesn't have the time to repair it because he's busy with another job but it very quickly loses credence for us is very important to have after safe service you have around 55 people now working in the workshop ultra-modern so the service the complimentary for the sale that is why we need standards because if he take Ruru and it takes one 500 sold away the next guy he will not know that you've any other decent when I see Clark's that I sold I often need some time to figure out how they actually work I skip Montreal's logistic I'd nurture there's material there qualifies very well that in tyres a metal that is not sit take you're only good but I wanted it anyway it's tantalum voice it's before it's a Miller case with this it takes maybe three or four times as many tools they simply crack or go Bryce tonight I would have to ask one of our technicians what the exact problem is in any case they tell me don't ever come with such ideas again sergeant in video though watchmakers tend to be people who jealously guard what they're working on but they will always have a few friends when watch making community within the Academy that they will speak to about what they're doing and if something works after three or four years of experimentation they'll probably call up a friend who is another watchmaker and say I finally done it you know Eureka so people are friendly with one another but they also work in their own little quiet way not always letting people know what they're doing the Academy itself all the members are supportive of each other but basically there is a brotherhood among watchmakers it's very difficult to be a watchmaker Caniff is shown a new Nepenthe the youngest wave i need my independence a penny pin also from the AHCI however say is a boy I think the Academy is a good platform for young watchmakers to start off to stop these were done it's important to highlight new talents garnet leo when we feature the gifted because it conveys a very interesting message Japan is one print I am scared what is happening to watch making with all the technology there is a risk that one day it will be no more artisans I always work on to adapt it needs new a new block so see they kept BAM so now it's up to the ones who say I have an idea I'm going to add one more chapter to the story of her algae one stone mores outside our company here in the way I'm talking about Dubai it's very difficult you know so they need our support we're reaching a level of development and expertise and creativity where sometimes we'll sell a motion for a watch that is no longer a watch which is a piece of art promoting this platform is a project of passion more than anything else the sink on debate or paint colloid 2d the these watch makers are artisans as well as thinkers they are selenium primarily they wish to Louvre establish something so Amity surplice drives them to produce independent objects nobody is Allah who they spare no means Academy to show nor effort about trying to spread this traditions with the busy closets you only base and ascribe Naruto does Len was Erica learning must always remain in the foreground with otherwise then they have the feeling like yesterday and I started now with kind of thicker than I have no more challenges for the mayor and then time standstill that blighted side stand yeah yeah knowledge virology is not made for one individual only it's there for the whole of society now we're here long live the independent watchmakers just do what you like just try to transform your daily job into a passion and try to make your passion give you a living if you say to them are you're an artist they say no I'm a watchmaker it's as if the designation master watch maker is more important than anything it's marvelous what I can do to make watches a pleasure when I make watches and I never going to please somebody and I'm lucky because old amount of human relation I made through my watches this is just incredible the process the actual process is what is beautiful this is AA meeting or at least --less but you cannot buy but new pleasure with a privilege no idea really it's wonderful sisterly you

Channel: JessicaTimezone

Views: 91,305

Keywords: Svend Andersen, Vincent Calabrese, Philippe Dufour, Paul Gerber, Vianney Halter, Francois-Paul Journe, FP Journe, Jean-Claude Biver, Nicolas Bos, Marie Vallanet-Delhom, Laurent Picciotto, Michael Tay, Abdulhamied Ahmed Seddiqi, Chronopassion, The Hour Glass, Seddiqi & Sons

Id: thAKJnp0ntU

Length: 39min 4sec (2344 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 20 2016