Baselworld 2009 - Confrérie Horlogère

The Confrérie Horlogère was born in April 2008 from the idea of Mathias Buttet, the founder and CEO of BNB Concept, one of the leaders in the creation of complicated watch movements.
Seven horological craftspeople were given the chance to put their passion to work and create their own masterpieces that will be produced in limited series.  These craftspeople receive the full support of BNB concept so that they can really produce the watches of their dreams.

The first 7 companions of the Confrérie Horlogère are
- David Rodriguez       watchmaker
- Brigitte Carneiro     watchmaker
- Ken Koshiyama         watchmaker
- Ranieri Illicher      watchmaker
- Sabitry Montandon     watchmaker
- Clara Bise            watchmaker
- Gabriel Salgado de Arce  engraver

At this point in time, barely 1 year after the founding, several projects are well enough advanced that they can be shown.

The engraving work of Gabriel Salgado de Arce I have already shown in the posting above.  For once I have chosen not to use my own photos as without the help of a microscope the full beauty of this work can not be appreciated.  Rest assured, I have seen this work with my own eyes, but decided that my photographic means were just not enough and have used the press photos for this work.
Here the link to my post  click here


David Rodriguez is a watchmaker of Peruvian heritage who is confined to a wheel chair.  His work below incites visions of his homeland on the dial side and his efforts to overcome the limits of his broken body on the movement side.






Ranieri Illicher is a watchmaker of Italien heritage.  His watch, a carillion repeater, also refers to his homeland with an engraved bridge in the form of Italy.
The chimes are among the best sounding I have ever heard.





The Pulsion tourbillon chronograph is a watch that was designed by the entire group.  It includes a flying tourbillon without ball bearings and a column wheel chronograph.





Mathias Buttet's contibution to the Confrérie Horlogère is the "La Clef du temps", "The key of time".  Based on the fact of life that we all know that we experience time as passing at different speeds even though we are willing to believe that the astronomical events that determine time do not change their speeds.  Thus it must be the gods who are playing with the time.  The watch La Clef du temps lets us play at being a god too.  A lever allows changing from the normal time to have the hands advance twice as fast or half as fast, as we wish to experience the moment.  Unfortunately I seem to have no picture, a good reason to make them another visit soon.  I will be interesed to see the work of the other confréres too.
Don