The name of watchmaking hothouse Renaud & Papi has been fading from the memories of younger enthusiasts since it was absorbed into Audemars Piguet in the 1990s. But its oversized influence lives on through its alumni: co-founders Giulio Papi, who became technical director of Audemars Piguet ; Dominique Renaud, who worked in France after selling his share of Renaud & Papi to AP in 2000 as a consultant before later returning to Switzerland to build his own independent horological research laboratory Dominique Renaud SA; along with living legends of watchmaking such as The Netherlands’ Grönefeld brothers, Robert Greubel and Stephen Forsey of Greubel Forsey fame; Andreas Strehler, Christophe Claret and Peter Speake-Marin.
Mr Renaud has kept a low profile over the past quarter of a century, preferring to advance watchmaking from the shadows rather than have his name on the dial of over-hyped timekeepers.
It was back in Switzerland running his research lab where Mr Renaud first met a young watchmaker, Julien Tixier, now aged 30, and some sort of alchemy led them collaborating on two unique watches: the DRT Tempus Fugit, a GPHG finalist in 2022 that was a runner up to the Krayon Anywhere for the Calendar & Astronomy gong, and a simplified perpetual calendar for Furlan Marri in 2023.
This was the experience and mentality Mr Renaud brought to a meeting last year with Michel Nieto, a former CEO for Richemont-owned Baume & Mercier and an effervescent yin to his more owlish yang. The pair spoke non-stop for three hours, Mr Nieto tells WatchPro, as a stream of ideas from the master horologist turned into the genesis of a business idea in Mr Nieto’s mind.
With Mr Tixier already eager, a technical, design and commercial team was rounded out with watchmaker Sébastien Rousseau, technician-constructor Alexandre Bugnon, and entrepreneur and investor Jean-Luc Errant as president and Mr Nieto as CEO.
Together, at last, they were going to put the name of grand master and apprentice, Renaud and Tixier, on a dial and above the door of a new Renaud Tixier manufacture in Nyon.
Although his own dial name suggested Mr Renaud was coming out from behind the curtain, it was not a move designed to bring fame and fortune with grand complications and avante-garde designs. He had turned down many such proposals before.
What captured his imagination was a mission to improve and perfect watchmaking through almost imperceptible refinements to centuries-old techniques. “Dominique had a vision for a better micro rotor that would have more efficient energy capture and delivery,” Mr Nieto reveals.
Mr Renaud’s idea may have been grounded in physics, but its execution has been put to work in a truly beautiful first timepiece, named Monday, which is launched today. Its aesthetic is built around the new micro rotor in the RTVI2023 movement that, despite a single main spring barrel, has the capability of generating power that will keep the watch purring for up to 60 hours.
This is the science bit, but it is more like performance art. Renaud Papi says its micro-rotor is like a dancer who spots a certain point in the room as they pirouette, whipping their trailing leg around to catch up with every revolution and generating energy for the next spin in perfect time to the music.
“The ‘dancer’ takes centre stage in this horological performance. Its natural elasticity is echoed by the unusual architecture of the bridges – light and arched like catapults – stretched over the micro-rotor, gear train, and the balance wheel,” the company explains.
With its greatest asset providing the power, Renaud Tixier opted to keep the Monday watch’s understated and classical except for a minor flourish at 9 o’clock where a small aperture reveals the micro-rotor and gears. A small seconds counter at 4 o’clock balances the design on a dark brown sunray dial with golden accents.
We were not looking for a ‘wow’ moment with the dial,” Mr Nieto says. “We wanted an elegantly simple and pure timepiece blending traditional aesthetics and cutting-edge horology,” he adds.
Renaud Tixier aims to sell 62 watches this year. This will be in partnership with retailers, including Perpetuel Gallery in the Middle East, but the company does not intend to supply watches that will be held in stock before selling. “Retailers need to have customers for each watch before we supply them,” Mr Nieto explains.
With the Monday watch now born, Renaud Tixier is working on six more horological “concepts”, likely to be named after the remaining days of the week, which are all geared towards improving the engineering of mechanical movements, Mr Nieto explains without elaborating.
The first of these new concepts is expected to land in 2026.
