Philippe Dufour

For more than three decades, from his workshop in Le Sentier, Dufour has been creating watches steeped in the traditions of the Vallée de Joux. His three lines – Grande et Petite Sonnerie, Duality and Simplicity – offer a window into his distilled vision of traditional watchmaking that has found favour around the world.

Dufour’s influence on independent watchmaking cannot be overstated. He wasn’t just one of the first to produce under his own name, but his watches, produced in small numbers, have been some of the most sought after. While initially he found a dedicated following for his watches in Japan, a watch culture known for refined finishing details, his popularity has since proliferated worldwide. His influence on watchmaking today can be felt on brands as diverse as Grand Seiko and Rexhep Rexhepi.

Every piece that bears Dufour’s name is one of a very limited number of watches that the watchmaker has produced entirely by hand. Highly finished, his offering ranges from the mechanically straightforward Simplicity to the Duality, which features Dufour’s proprietary double escapement. Then there is the Grande et Petite Sonnerie, a watch with a chiming complication that was not seen in wristwatches before Dufour created it as his way of announcing his new independent brand.

Since 2020, when Dufour announced a special 22-piece edition of the Simplicity to celebrate the line’s 20th year, the watchmaker’s production has been exceedingly finite. As a result, the watches he has already crafted have become ever more sought after.

Our appreciation for Dufour is longstanding. We were not only the first online retailer to offer a Simplicity for sale, but the Grand et Petit Sonnerie which we sold for $7.63m still holds the record for the highest sale price achieved for a watch by an independent maker. As one of the first independent brands, his story is crucial to the period of watchmaking we are most interested in. We have spent time studying his philosophy as well as his craft, having handled more than 10 of Dufour’s timepieces over the years.