THE ART OF INVENTION

For anyone who has been paying attention to horological goings-on, one independent whose name has been cropping up with increasing frequency is that of Greubel Forsey. Founded by two watchmakers, Frenchman Robert Greubel and Stephen Forsey from England, in 2004, this unlikely duo has since taken the world of horology by storm with their creations that bring together the best of the past and future of fine watchmaking.

“When I first met Robert Greubel, I could not speak French and he could not speak much English,” Forsey recalls of their initial meeting in 1992. “But we were both watchmakers and we both wanted to discover something new that we could add to the history of watchmaking. This laid the foundations for what would eventually become Greubel Forsey.”

Greubel Forsey then went on to make its horological debut at Baselworld in 2004 with its Double Tourbillon 30° Vision, a timepiece that seamlessly combined traditional watchmaking with contemporary design through its high-quality finishing and unique architecture. Forsey explains that the idea behind the Double Tourbillon 30° Vision was to improve the revered tourbillon; something that may be seen by purists as heretical especially coming from an upstart independent.

“When we came up with the idea for this timepiece in 1999, we weren’t even thinking about making a brand. We were only looking to make a wristwatch tourbillon as accurate as a pocket watch tourbillon,” recounts Forsey. The solution to this historic dilemma was to create a multi-axis tourbillon system, which ultimately led to the creation of the Double Tourbillon 30° Vision.

This combination of intricate mechanics and eye-catching architecture led Greubel Forsey to adopt its signature tagline, the ‘Art of Invention’. This philosophy dictates that Greubel Forsey forges a path of melding new innovations with traditional fine watchmaking instead of emulating the work of predecessors. Guided by this doctrine, Greubel Forsey has since gone on to earn numerous awards, including the Prix Gaïa in 2009, the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève in 2010, and the Locle International Chronometry Competition in 2011.

Among Greubel Forsey’s inventions, one timepiece that deserves special mention is the Art Piece 1, created in collaboration with micro-sculptor Willard Wigan. This English-born artist does, as his title suggests, minuscule sculptures on the scale of microns under a microscope. To achieve this feat, Wigan enters a very literal Zen-like state where he drastically slows down his pulse and guides his scalpel between heartbeats.

“When I first heard of Wigan, I thought he must either be a genius or completely mad. I only believed it when I saw him demonstrate his craft in person before my very own eyes,” Forsey shares. “Perhaps there is some madness in him, but I think you need that to be a genius who takes things further and create something new.”

However, this passion for pushing the boundaries of design and innovation is not without cost. Every single Greubel Forsey timepiece has had countless man-hours put into its existence by the best artisans in Switzerland. Such are the rigorous standards that Greubel Forsey’s Manufacture, which employs 100 watchmakers, produces only 100 timepieces annually.

To understand the exacting nature of their work, one needs not look further than Greubel Forsey’s 2015 GMT Black, which features a mind-bogglingly complex GMT function as well as an unusual ‘bulge’ in the case to accommodate a portion of the movement. The difficulty of creating an asymmetric case of this nature is all the more exacerbated by the need to ensure that it performs identically in terms of durability and water-resistance when compared to normal round cases. “We’re fortunate that we have two very talented casemakers working with us in La Chaux-de-Fonds,” Forsey says, before adding with a laugh: “There’s a running joke that they hate us for designing our cases in such a way.”

However, there are other aspects of the production process that don’t go as smoothly for Greubel Forsey. As uncertainty grips the luxury market due to economic woes across the world, watchmakers, big and small, are scrambling to obtain essential resources to safeguard their supply chains. Here, size does indeed matter as the big groups are able to flex their muscles to absorb skilled talent and vertically integrate important component manufactures into their organisations. As a result, smaller or independent watchmakers find themselves with an increasingly scarce pool of resources to eke out a living with.

“We’ve had to take drastic action in response to this because components such as dials are such a critical resource,” Forsey states. “So we acquired a minority shareholding in a small dial manufacture to secure our supply chain and ensure we can continue to focus the majority of our resources on innovation.”

Even as independent watchmakers tread on thin ice at home, they are also highly vulnerable to crises abroad as they lack the vast cash reserves of the larger groups to insulate themselves from geopolitical and socioeconomic shocks. One such calamity was the 2008 global financial crisis, which saw many independent watchmakers go belly up as entire markets across the world shut down. During this time, Greubel Forsey saw the United States – one of its three key markets after Europe and Asia – shut its doors to them for over six months.

“There are ‘experts’ who claim that the high end market is never affected by economic crises because consumers in this segment have loads of money,” Forsey remarks. “I disagree, because these people didn’t get rich by not caring about money in the first place. They know very well how to count their pennies.”

It was here that Greubel Forsey’s ‘slow and steady wins the race’ game plan paid dividends. Never one to compromise on quality, Greubel Forsey dedicated much of its limited resources into ensuring that its global networks of retailers and media entities were built on solid foundations. While time-consuming and costly to establish, these wide and deep networks allowed Greubel Forsey to endure the 2008 economic meltdown with an enviable degree of grace.

“If we had focused all of our attention in the United States, we may very well have been forced to shut down,” says Forsey. “But we weren’t overexposed in any one market and were able to divert our attention to Europe and Asia to steer around this economic turmoil. Of course, this was easier said than done because a crisis of such magnitude is not something you can resolve with a push of a button.”

In fact, during this time, rather than cut back on production like many of its peers, Greubel Forsey expanded its team in 2009 and 2010. “The worst thing we could have done after the 2008 financial crisis was to stop our R&D,” asserts Forsey. “If we had done so, we would essentially have been cutting our own throats because, by the time markets begin to recover  two to three years later, we would have had no new product.”

Going forward, it is Forsey’s intention to build on its winning game plan to sustain the company. In the wake of increasing geopolitical unrest and the rise of the smartwatch, he believes that this is the best strategy for the survival of the independent watchmaker.

“Fine watchmaking is about culture, art and tradition. If we, as watchmakers, can continue to capture the emotion and imagination of the collectors through our creations, we will continue to endure.”