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- [00:00]
A
Foreign.
- [00:08]
B
Watch fans and welcome back to Geneva watch days 2025. From the glass igloo outside the pavilion by Laclaman, we are joined by Gautier Masanov from a very special brand who I'm going to let David pronounce because we've had a little discussion about this off air and I've been relegated.
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C
So.
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B
Yeah, we were warned.
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C
It's a trilobe.
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B
Beautiful. Very good. Not trilobe. Definitely his out again. Okay, Gautier, welcome to the studio.
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A
David, thanks for having me. Great to be here.
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B
It's a real pleasure. How has the week been? We can ask now in retrospect, because everything's closing down. Brands are packing off, they're leaving, it's time to go home. Amazingly, it's been so fast in such a rush. But how's it been for you?
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A
Beta would have been absent, to be honest. We had the chance to have a. We've had a great week. It's been so super busy and we pitched a lot, we explained a lot and that's what we here for. So no, it's. It's a good week. Okay.
- [01:05]
C
I've got two questions to piggyback off that. First is you're still a relatively young brand, obviously getting better and better known, but still relatively young. So my first question is, how does a young brand such as T justify something like Geneva Watch Days?
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B
Where.
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C
Where are you looking to sort of get a return? And what kind of return does that look like?
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A
So, and to take a step back, I think two things. First thing is that I always take that as a comparison. My mother doesn't even know what is Patek Philippe. And she says, Philippe Patek, my God. So, you know, the wear head is quite long still. But we have this vision. Our vision is to construct the French house of high watchmaking. That's a vision over the next decades. That's sort of the long run. And to do so, we're convinced that to be in places like this is quite important. And we have sub to showcase, so that's key for us.
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C
Okay, so the next thing that you said in your previous answer was that you had a lot of things to explain. Sure. What exactly are you explaining? Those two.
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A
As you said, we are seven years old. So in France we say it's ashe de raison, age of maturity. Not sure about that, but we'll see. Perhaps for humans, I'm not sure for a brand we'll see. We are showcasing for this. We have a beautiful soundtrack behind us, piece of shot lobby. That being said, we have the chance here to be. Oh, it's getting closer. I show we're showcasing our first watch, which is fully thought and design in house. That's. That's always the case for us. Obviously, that's everything we do. We do in house, but it's also the first watch which is entirely with a movement, which is entirely conceived in house, prototyped, engineered in house, but also fully machined in house. And that's. That's when I'm thinking house. It means in Paris. And that's. That's major step for us. We've. We've been looking forward to this moment for the last four years, I would say, and, and really happy to showcase that we know new collection. We call it Trende. Yeah, that's his name because it's the name of the. It's the name of the. Of our address in Paris. Actually. It's been our project name for a while and we, we said to ourselves, you know, let's keep it as the name of the collection. So it's a major step for us. It's a integrated bracelet sew watch. As we're entering a crowded space, but with something that we believe is a. Is a real changer, is really our vision of how we want to grow.
- [03:54]
C
Yeah, well, there's a lot to unpack there first. I said it in one of our previous interviews with a French guest. I'm a huge fan of French watchmaking. I think, unfortunately, it hasn't recovered quite as well as Swiss watchmaking after the quartz crisis. A lot's happening. One thing I'll say, and I'll say it again, I keep a running list of every French brand I come across. It's dozens long, so if you'd like it, Happy to share it with you. Anyone listening out there, I'm happy to share it with them as well. More people buying French watches, the better off we are. I want to then combine a couple other things you said into some questions. So I did not know that your goal was to become the French house of hierology. I think that's fantastic. I will say, though, the first watches that came out that I saw years ago now, your French design is iconic, but it can be very quirky. It's different, and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. And I will say, those first watches, they didn't quite hit with me. And it seems to me like what you have done is sort of asked yourselves, okay, what is it that makes it tribal nose? And you've extrapolated those to something that is much more mainstream, but still very specific. So I'm hoping what we can do is. Pass me the watch, Rob, and then you can explain the design from start to how we got to this one.
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A
Yeah, no, absolutely. And I join you in the fact that I'm convinced that you need to first really master the rules. So it takes time to understand the rules for seven years. So I think we have a good understanding of it, and then you can play with it. So here you have this.
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B
Right? While David is studying, as he does very intently, I'd just like to apologize.
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A
For the bizarre panpipe music that you.
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B
Might be able to hear in a bite. Do you know what it is? So this is the first time this has happened during the event. I actually got up and left the studio while David and Gautier were talking, because I was like, what the hell is that? Has some crazy person come by with a. With a bagpipe or something? No, it's a. It's a boat on the lake. And so I was thinking, I'm gonna go out there, I'm gonna take the thing off, whoever it is. I'm gonna throw it into the lake.
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A
It's already in the lake.
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B
But it's already in the lake. It's 100 meters away. It must be so loud. It's deafening. So apologies for the creepy circus music.
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A
That you can hear in the background.
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C
But, you know, we're live.
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A
Yeah, we're live.
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B
We're live. It's what happens. And this is a crazy circus itself.
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A
David, what do you think?
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C
So, Rob, have you seen this before up close?
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B
This one?
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C
No, I've seen this one. So I want to get your thoughts because. So Rob's a trained watchmaker. So the front, I love. I love how it feels. The back. So, Rob, I want you to. When you turn it over, I want you to.
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B
All right, let's have a look. Okay.
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A
Well, firstly, titanium steel, but quite thin, so it has a light feeling.
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B
It's crazy. That's so light. With a bracelet as well. So I've not seen the back yet. I'm shielding it for myself so the big reveal can be seen live on air. We know the brand's beautiful, beautiful layout and the iconic way of displaying the time. It's a wonderful, serene thing to look at with the way that the seconds wheel is rotating right there. Here comes the. Oh, by the way, look at the bracelet. Look at that. We love creative bracelet design.
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A
Tapir with brass.
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C
Feels great.
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B
That is lovely. Nice little engraved logo there on the clasp on the butterfly here.
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C
We go.
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B
No way.
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A
Oh, wow.
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B
Wow.
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A
Chapeau. A lot of love in there. A lot of sweat as well.
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B
You never seen a bridge like that?
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C
I've never seen anything. It is. That is not in any way what I expected when I turned it around.
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A
For us, it's very important that the, you know, or to match our vision, we need to have a watch that is identifiable 10 meters away, but the movement needs to be identifiable 10 meters away as well. So a lot of love in there. A lot of really high end watchmaking. The way that all the bridges are, you know, diamond polished, even the sinks of the rubies and of the screws are concave and diamond polished. So it's a very unique way of doing it. The joy we had, of course, is to manufacture or sell these components as well in parex, so to decorate them, to assemble them and to have them more. But I believe what is cool with this watch is that not only it's a cool watch, cool movement, but it's also a very strong and reliable watch. We have very good chronometry, it's very stable, It's a good one.
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C
And if I. What price has this launched at?
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A
So this is launched at €17,000 fathom euros.
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C
Yeah. Schooling, taxes and look, you haven't seen this watch. I encourage everyone to check this out. I want to go back to the design language and the evolution because one of the things I remember from the earlier watches, definitely a different way of telling time. And it was very clear what the hour, minutes and seconds were. And here you've done the same thing. You've split them all up. Kurt, so how did you get from the early design language and then distill that down to what we're seeing on the dial here?
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A
Well, I'd say that, you know, in order to construct a house, you need to have several legs, several collections. And so, you know, it's like children. You have. You can have different children, different personalities. You love them all. You have a preferred one. Depends on the moment of your life, maybe. But this is also, you know, watch of maturity, I would say. So more will come, of course, in the future. But what is cool is that when you look at them, you see that they're brothers and sisters, but they really have their own personalities.
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C
That.
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A
This one would be my favorite trend of the moment, obviously.
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C
Okay, okay. So is there any. What's the word? Is this going to be sort of the direction that you're going to go in the future? Because I guess what I'm getting at with French watchmaking I, obviously, part of me wants to have these phenomenal things where people can say, okay, this is what we're capable of in country. The other part of me also wants some of this to be accessible so people could try it for themselves completely. So how does that line up to your product philosophy?
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A
Yeah, no, it's a key element for us to say that we are able to make watches that are beautiful, that are made in house with the help of partners and Swiss partners for some elements in that watch, obviously, and we thank them again for the support, but at the price, that makes sense.
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C
So that.
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A
That's very important for us to maintain also our design language very clear and to put all of. In all the details. I mean, it goes down to the clasp, it goes down to the crown. Everything has been really pushed, I think.
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C
And so speaking of design language, which is extremely prevalent on the front, on the back, and it's hard if you haven't. If you're not able to look at this, but essentially you have almost. And this may be me misinterpreting it, but you've almost hidden all of the gear train completely. So. Okay, so. So. So why did you do that?
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A
We're hiding the battery on the quartz under it.
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C
Okay.
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A
No, that was a joke.
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C
That's okay. Yeah, Yeah, a little French humor there.
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A
Sorry. It makes French people love, not the rest of the world. I'm sorry. No, it's because we really wanted to have the balance screen standing on itself, be really magnified on it. There's some sort of a huge plain or huge landscape that allows it to pop up. And the rest, we wanted to take everything under one concentrated space, but to have a beautiful bridge above that with, you know, the Settineman Topavi, the Anglage and so on. And so it makes. It makes a very special way of seeing a movement. And we like to do things differently. I'm not going to do a better movement in terms of finishings and so on. Dance. But actually, what I can do is to do subtle, cool finishings, but very different in terms of architecture.
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C
I like that philosophy a lot. And one thing. Can't believe it. One thing I had noticed is that. And obviously I don't want to get into too much of the engineering here, but the rotor is almost. Okay. All right, well, let's do it then. So one other French joke I will share. So we were talking before. There was a saying in French that it's like someone will come up to you and say, okay, that works in practice. But now tell me how it works in theory. The French are very. Just love the math behind it. And what I'm struck with in speaking with you, that actually you started in math but then move into very tangible things. And that's just a side note to say I'm not surprised he wants to talk about the engineering here. But one thing I've noticed is that the rotor is almost empty. And from an efficiency point of view, that must be very difficult. So are we talking about a different material or what are we talking.
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A
We're using this one tungsten that we coat with rose gold after Warhols and that we decorate first, of course. So it's actually. It's actually a watch that is super well winding again, because the thing is that it's empty. Counterintuitively. The more empty it's on the inside, of course, the more torque you'll get. The point of inertia is moved back.
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C
Exactly, exactly.
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A
So you have actually a watch that winds really, really well.
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C
Interesting. Wow.
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A
And you can see the movement. You know, you're not hiding half of the movement all the time. You're actually adding maybe 10 versions of.
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C
You could. You can see the hidden movement that you have tried the expose. No, it's. It's a bit of a. The watch is very contradictory.
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A
But, yeah, that's. You're hiding. You. You can see the hiding part.
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C
Yeah, that's. It is hiding in plain sight. We're going to keep going. We're going to keep going with this. No, I. Look, this is one of those watches that I saw in the. In the cases.
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A
Yeah.
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C
I love French design. I said, okay, this is the Trilob. It's French. I don't think you can actually fully appreciate until you hold it and until you. You turn it over. The turning around really is surprise for me.
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A
And then you have. Dude. Right?
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C
And then. And then you should go try it.
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B
You definitely should. On the note of having to get these watches on your wrist because it is worthwhile. Where can people find you? Where can they see? Where can they. Can they visit you directly? Can they find you in retailers?
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A
Of course. Of course. So, obviously, we love to welcome our clients at our workshop. We are in the heart of Paris, so they take appointments and we receive them with a coffee in the morning or with a wee. With a whiskey in the Canon. Okay. So we love to do that. We can bring them to the facility where we do the machining of the components. And otherwise, of course, we have about 30 points of sales around the globe. Very cool.
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C
Partners.
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A
Be it in Asia. The Gulf region, the US and Europe, and so very strong support from them on that.
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C
I don't usually do this, but if you're listening to this show and you're looking for a brand to carry, call them this. Honestly, I'm biased. Yes. Just you. But it is. Might be the surprise of the show for me.
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A
Thank you.
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C
Most unexpected thing I've seen so far. So give him a call.
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B
Well, David, this is your last interview and then you're about to jet off on a high note. Yeah. What a way to end it. Say goodbye to the crowd, go and give the camera a wave.
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C
Au revoir, tout monde. Thank you for joining us. Have a great time.
- [15:15]
B
Brilliant. Thank you so much. Gautier. Thank you for joining us. The watch is incredible. The movement is absolutely stunning. We'll be talking about that for days to come, I'm sure. Thanks you to all of you for watching Listening Follow Like Share subscribe we'll be back very soon with more content.