Alexis Fruhauff would not thoughts going towards the grain. Whereas a lot of the horology trade focuses on high-profile wristwatches, the younger Paris-based expertise has zeroed in on clockmaking. It is a selection that is served him effectively in his budding profession, and in April, he received the distinguished F.P.Journe Young Talent Competition.
Alexis Fruhauff
It is a notable prize that goals to determine and spotlight a single watchmaker whose work displays technical achievement, conventional craftsmanship, and maybe most significantly, the audacity to discover new interpretations of timekeeping. Fruhauff took the win for his Pendule à Seconde, as seen under, a desk clock combining conventional craft with fashionable strategies. With its CHF 50,000 prize and peer recognition, the award has grow to be a confirmed start line for artistic horologists. And for Fruhauff, a graduate of Lycée Diderot in Paris, it is proof that going towards established tendencies will be the appropriate path to comply with.
The F.P.Journe Younger Expertise Competitors was launched in 2015 by François-Paul Journe, with assist from The Hour Glass, and is among the few key prizes awarded to rising watchmakers and college students. The jury consists of Journe himself, in addition to key trade figures akin to Philippe Dufour, Andreas Strehler, and Giulio Papi. The prize is open to college students, apprentices, and self-taught watchmakers aged 18 to 30. Earlier winners embrace Thomas Aubert, the 2024 winner, along with his key-wound Séléne wristwatch, and Norifumi Seki, who introduced a deeply fascinating moon-phase pocket watch. In 2018, the prize was shared between Charles Routhier, Rémy Cools, and Théo Auffret. One other up-and-coming French watchmaker, Auffret, was featured in a story here back in 2021 and shall be a part of a brand new enterprise with the 29-year-old Fruhauff.
In contrast to awards just like the GPHG, the Oscars of the watch world, the F.P.Journe Younger Expertise Competitors casts a broader internet. Fruhauff’s Pendule à Seconde is an ideal instance of this method, combining each historically difficult and fashionable progressive strategies within the off-trend form of a desk clock. As a fan of early Twentieth-century structure, I benefit from the monolithic qualities of the case. To my eyes, there are touches of Frank Lloyd Wright and delicate hints of a Japanese pagoda roof within the cherrywood high. The case itself measures 55 x 32 x 23 cm, and, moreover being an intricate and distinctive piece, it has set Fruhauff on a path of bringing French clockmaking again into the limelight.
The clock itself encompasses a pivoted detent escapement with the misplaced beat and an adjustable pendulum, and was conceived by Fruhauff from a digital clean sheet. This included making his personal watchmaker’s instruments, and the challenge spanned three years. The strong cherry wooden structure pays tribute to the 18th-century period model and supplies and was additionally impressed by the work of watchmakers Antide Janvier and Paul Garnier. To be taught extra concerning the motion particulars, go to the devoted web page of the Young Talent Competition. For now, let’s delve deeper into Fruhauff’s inspiration and his upcoming Paris enterprise in an interview with the younger watchmaker. This interview has been edited for readability.
Thor Svaboe: What obtained you into watchmaking?
Alexis Fruhauff: The rarity of the craft had a powerful affect on me after I was younger. It is not on daily basis that you simply meet a watchmaker. There are only a few colleges and even fewer practitioners. I typically spent my holidays in Prémanon, within the Jura area close to the Swiss border, and Geneva, the place I first obtained entry to look at magazines. I used to be fascinated by the pictures of sophisticated actions as a toddler. There’s one thing magical about elevating each mechanical element in a high-end timepiece. Coming from a household of mechanics, my grandfather in automotive and my father in aeronautics, I naturally felt drawn to mechanics on a a lot smaller scale.
T.S. And why the deal with clocks moderately than wristwear?
A.F. Over time, I turned way more enthusiastic about vintage clocks. French clockmaking as soon as held immense cultural significance. You’ll be able to see that when visiting nice historic estates like Versailles or Fontainebleau. And right this moment, only a few individuals in France are nonetheless training what I’d name Haute Pendulerie Traditionnelle. The clock market is comparatively unknown and way more area of interest than the watch trade; I take pleasure in that problem. I feel it is a disgrace that there are so few actually high-end, conventional, but fashionable clocks accessible for critical horology fans. A clock brings life to a room, an condominium, or a house. It is an object you’ll be able to share with others, respect from a distance, and cherish throughout generations. It is all these qualities that make me love clockmaking.
T.S. Many, if not most, graduate watchmakers begin by spending their first few years in additional coaching, gaining expertise from established makers. You have chosen a bolder route, having acquired the keys to a central Paris location this week, the place you propose to open an atelier this fall with Theo Auffret and the futuristic cool children of SpaceOne. Inform us all about it.
A.F. The workshop is situated at 10 Place des Victoires, previously often called Place Louis XIV. This historic sq. marks the boundary between the first and 2nd arrondissements of Paris. The premises cowl a complete of 183 m², organized as a duplex throughout the third and fourth flooring. On the third flooring, we’ll have the clockmaking space, together with our mild equipment. On the opposite facet of the ground, the SpaceOne space faces the Church of Notre-Dame-des-Victoires. The fourth flooring shall be devoted to Auffret’s Paris workshop and to receiving shoppers, and on the primary flooring, there shall be a devoted SpaceOne showroom.
The structure is good: every entity (SpaceOne, my clockmaking studio, and Auffret Paris) can host shoppers independently with out disturbing the others. If a consumer is coming solely for Auffret Paris, there isn’t any must move by means of the opposite areas. Once we heard {that a} area had grow to be accessible there, we jumped on the alternative. It is a dream location, simply subsequent to the Palais Royal Gardens, close to one of the vital stunning, lined passages in Paris (Galerie Vivienne), near the Louvre, and steps from the Banque de France. The world is steeped in historical past.
To me, Alexis Fruhauff’s daring transfer, along with SpaceOne and Theo Auffret, is one other signal that French watchmaking is on the rise. We even have an unique from the group, and that’s the information that Theo Auffret is within the closing phases of buying the historic model Lépine. This factors to a different classic French model revival on the horizon, including to the explanations for including 10 Place des Victoires to your Paris journey itinerary later this yr. Watch (or clock) this area.
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