Christophe Claret, the unsung hero makes some noise

A world-first from Christophe Claret is something the community of watch aficionados could almost take for granted. After all, exceptional timepieces are very much “business as usual” at the Claret workshops. And yet for many years, Christophe Claret was the unsung hero, working in the shadow of the big-name brands. He developed the grande complication movements to which others laid claim, respecting the conspiracy of silence whereby no self-respecting Manufacture ever calls on outside skills. All that changed in 2009 with the launch, under the Christophe Claret name, of the Dual Tow, a commemorative piece to mark the 20th anniversary of the Claret workshops. “I didn’t set out with the idea of starting my own brand,” recalls Christophe Claret at this year’s Baselworld. “But the economy was struggling and orders weren’t coming in as usual. This was the solution I found.”

Double production

The Dual Tow left no-one indifferent. This was the watch that was meant to be, given the reception it enjoyed. It also paved the way for other equally complex creations bearing the master watchmaker’s signature: X-Trem 1, 21 Blackjack, 21 Baccara, Adagio, to name but them. True to his highly personal approach to fine watchmaking, this year Christophe Claret came to Basel with Kantharos, a monopusher chrono striking on cathedral gong, with a constant-force mechanism and fully integrated automatic movement. “Many sports use sound to signal the beginning of a competition. Boxing is one. Track events and horse racing are others. What could be more logical than to hear precisely when the chronograph starts and stops timing. Kantharos was built around this idea.”

Yet there is more riding on Kantharos than just another world-first. As the master watchmaker explains, “with a price tag of CHF 100,000 – our lowest price and a very competitive positioning considering the level of complexity – Kantharos is intended to open up new markets and double production for us. Right now, collectors are turning more to watches which are closer to the CHF 100,000 bracket than CHF 300,000. And until now, the average price of my watches came in around the CHF 250,000 mark.” Christophe Claret, who last year produced 130 watches under his own name, aims to make around a hundred Kantharos in 2013, which will virtually double volume for the brand.

Not that the company has any intention of ending deliveries of its movements to third parties. “These two activities each represent half our turnover and we want to keep them going side by side. The last time the watch segment was in turmoil, there came a point when I’d lost half my 25 customers. Now I’m winning new ones, in particular from Swatch Group. It’s a simple equation. At the Manufacture, we have the capacity to produce five new watches a year but the Christophe Claret brand can only take on two. We would be silly to saw the branch we’re comfortably sitting on.”

Cutting-edge machines

And the master watchmaker is no stranger to comfort. Manufacture Christophe Claret, which employs around a hundred people, is known to maintain a high level of production technology. It is the only watch manufacturer to have a 16-axis CNC machine at its disposal, and the first to have introduced laser-cutting, which is fifteen times faster than conventional EDM systems. Not content to innovate in watch mechanisms, Christophe Claret also designs machines specifically to fulfil his requirements. Machines that others envy. Patek Philippe has bought 46 machining centres developed according to Christophe Claret’s ideas.

“We’re now able to produce 80% of the parts for our watches ourselves,” Christophe Claret says. “There are thirty different professions working within the Manufacture. I’ve never wanted to be dependent on outside suppliers, or be held up in my own production because others are late delivering. At the end of the day, when you have an ambition, you have to give yourself the means to achieve it!” As Kantharos again proves. ■