Master watchmaker Dominique Loiseau has died at the age of 64, according to a statement from watch brand Girard-Perregaux.
Swiss/French Loiseau has been credited for not only resrtoring timepieces from the past but also being behind some of today’s most complicated watches.
Reports suggest Loiseau had had some health issues for a while. In a statement released yesterday, the management and employees of Girard-Perregaux and Kering expressed their deep sorrow at the news of Loiseau’s sudden death. The statement said that they wanted to "express their deepest condolences to his family and relatives".
It added: "Dominique was a special person, a visionary who had the genius of creating and crafting masterpieces and, at the same time, to be himself a special ‘mechanism ‘ of the beautiful circle of watchmakers and all people working in our industry. The watch world has lost today one of his most talented sons that has inspired, awed and revolutionised".
Not only did the watchmaker have an eponymous brand Loiseau, within which he produced the the complicated automatic Loiseau 1f4, but he had also been working with Girard-Perregaux since 2012 on various projects. The watchmaker also previously worked with brands including Blancpain, Omega and Jaquet Droz. Loiseau worked behind the scenes for many leading watch brands and among his numerous accomplishments are listed the complex Rose des Temps table clock, pocket watches Renaissance and Capriccio, the six Montres des Sables, which was a series of pocket watches each with a different complication, the Alpha-Omega and the Blancpain 1735,
Loiseau has been praised for being not only technically innovative but also creative over the course of his impressive career.
