The avant-garde luxury master watch brand, known for blending innovation with tradition, offers latest collection that comes in yellow and pink gold and costs Dh 220,OOO.
Most people prefer to walk on the beaten track in whatever they do, more so where luxury goods are concerned because they don‘t want to take chances, especially where serious money is involved. This is especially true where high-end watches are concerned. People are willing to try out new designs and movements as long as they are being created by established watch companies with decades and sometimes even generations of experience behind them. Yet, there are a few brave hearts, who are willing to throw tradition and caution to the winds, take chances and carve their own road and win.
HAUTLENCE, an avant-garde luxury master watch brand created in September 2004 by Swiss Renaud De Retz, Guillaume Tetu and François Quentin is one such company. It is the newest kid on the block in the very traditional world of Swiss watch making and is a very modernist take on watches. The trio decided that there was not enough innovation (in mechanism and design) in the watch industry, so they innovated themselves. The hour hand has a jump movement, while the minute hand is more traditional, while still discontinuous and the watches have an open-view 3D design, all using the best parts. It is no wonder then that the brand has been recognized as one of the most innovative brands of the new generation creating and developing its own patented master timepieces. Renaud de Retz, CEO, HAUTLENCE, told Emirates Business: At the very beginning of HAUTLENCE, few people were telling us that we should not think watches differently as it has been done for the past decades with the hands centered, and that‘s it. Some of these people one or two years after came back to see us, they were wearing a HAUTLENCE watch on their wrist and told us that it was amazing the effect of this watch to other people and even to the wearer as a ‘personal appropriation‘ object of desire.
Even though the HAUTLENCE watches have become a must-have item for the young and uber-trendy, they only come in limited editions of 88 models and if you want to own one of the watches from the HL latest collection that come in yellow and pink gold you should be prepared to shell out Dh220,000. Retz said: The inspiration for creating this limited edition collection HL is the old locomotive as we are always looking at what other industries have developed or are still developing; as we feel that some other industries have evolved more than the watch making industry for the past decades. These timepieces are built around the manufacture‘s own caliber and supported by the hand winding mechanical movement. These timepieces have indigenously created jumping hours and retrograde minutes. The back of these uniquely numbered timepieces with a specific identification plate has a 43.5mm case band held by four screws. Besides their decorative aspect, great technical prowess is applied to improve the mechanics, the quality of the assembly and protection of the surface. The hand stitched alligator straps which are cut from high-quality skins are shaped around a metallic insert to assure excellent hold and integration of the horns. Each watch comes with an individual certificate guaranteeing perfect functioning of the numbered kinetic sculpture. The watches are water resistant up to 30 meters. De Retz continued: It is the encounter of strong ideas about new approaches to time display and the exploration of mechanical conceptions that can be associated with time display that gives shape to a HAUTLENCE watch. The watch is built around the caliber. The features of the watch, as well as the desires of the brand‘s creators, made for a strong case for the company to develop its own movement. The technical elements are exposed and the technique is perfectly visible; the overall design is very minimal. The different levels of the display elements give a unique, in-depth view. Beyond aesthetic research and casing, the company applies its watch making creativity in the mechanism; the pathway to new concepts in reading time. The variety of components for a complication watch such as this requires the mastery of a large number of skills and techniques, applied to the movement parts and the components of the dial and case. Our desire for excellence has led us to make use of the best sources for each component. To accomplish this, we have not subcontracted all industrial responsibility for our project. On the contrary, we have integrated production management, expertise in choosing sources, specification and order provisions and component flow. We are also responsible for quality control right up to the final assembly. Each qualified watchmaker, chosen for his or her outstanding skills, assembles and adjusts the pieces one by one.
