Basel 2008 Report: Pierre DeRoche
By: Marcus Hanke (registered) Friday, April 18th, 2008 - Photo Nav: View All 16 photo(s)Basel 2008 Report: Pierre DeRoche
Text and pictures: Marcus Hanke
Surrounded by brands offering private labelled watches, Russian
Poljots and some other brands trying to sell Chinese Venus copies as genuine Swiss movements, in a small booth we found our this year's PursitSPro discovery: Pierre deRoche.
I was highly surprised by the unique complications and movements seen here, and of course, I kept asking myself: "Where do these people get the movements from?" This question was quickly answered, after I had the pleasure to meet Monsieur Pierre Dubois, the company's CEO. He simply stated: "My brothers are making the movements for me.", which left me even more puzzled. I think I have at least some overview of the business, and I would certainly have known it when some "brothers" started the series production of a self-winding co-axial chronograph in his garage ... Everything became clear when Monsieur Dubois explained his family relations to me, which also explained why the name "Dubois" sounded so familiar to me:
Being the only one of his family not involved with watchmaking, Pierre Dubois studied economics and became a banker. But, sooner or later, nobody can evade his family genes, and so Pierre - devoid of any practical watchmaking experience, but full with business knowledge - decided to found his own watch brand. And now his brothers enters the scene, since Jean-Philippe and Pascal Dubois are the CEOs of Dubois Dépraz, one of the mast famous and competent developer of complications for the watch industry. In fact, all our Basel reports would have been considerably shorter, without the efforts of Dubois Dépraz.
Normally, the bid company is only a supplier of most big names in the watch industry, but in this special case, It stays in the family. this is the secret of Pierre DeRoche's unique watches and complications. This brand is certainly worth to keep an eye on!
Here we have the Grandcliff Countdown, a modular flyback chronograph with central 60 minutes counter and a coutndown bezel.
I was highly surprised by the unique complications and movements seen here, and of course, I kept asking myself: "Where do these people get the movements from?" This question was quickly answered, after I had the pleasure to meet Monsieur Pierre Dubois, the company's CEO. He simply stated: "My brothers are making the movements for me.", which left me even more puzzled. I think I have at least some overview of the business, and I would certainly have known it when some "brothers" started the series production of a self-winding co-axial chronograph in his garage ... Everything became clear when Monsieur Dubois explained his family relations to me, which also explained why the name "Dubois" sounded so familiar to me:
Being the only one of his family not involved with watchmaking, Pierre Dubois studied economics and became a banker. But, sooner or later, nobody can evade his family genes, and so Pierre - devoid of any practical watchmaking experience, but full with business knowledge - decided to found his own watch brand. And now his brothers enters the scene, since Jean-Philippe and Pascal Dubois are the CEOs of Dubois Dépraz, one of the mast famous and competent developer of complications for the watch industry. In fact, all our Basel reports would have been considerably shorter, without the efforts of Dubois Dépraz.
Normally, the bid company is only a supplier of most big names in the watch industry, but in this special case, It stays in the family. this is the secret of Pierre DeRoche's unique watches and complications. This brand is certainly worth to keep an eye on!
Here we have the Grandcliff Countdown, a modular flyback chronograph with central 60 minutes counter and a coutndown bezel.
As in most Pierre DeRoche watches, the base movements is an ETA 2892A2.
Not only its strong design, but also the co-centric chronograph, with stop second,- 60 minutes- and 12 hours-hands together in one subdial, powered by a most unique microrotor selfwinding movement, makes the Splitrock Big Numbers a real specialty.
The Grandcliff Retro Hours chronograph has a 60 minutes-counter and a retrograde 12 hours-counter at 6., as well as a big date at 12.
A truly special watch, albeit really difficult to read the time from, is the Grandcliff Double Retrograde "Skyscrapers". The strange name is due to the steel pillars that raise the numerals over the dial.
Finally, there is also something for the Ladies, a bit more conventional, though: Shiny Pebbles is the name of the series, apparently due to the Galucha (stingray) straps.
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