Théo Auffret’s childhood passion for watchmaking was honed by his time at the Lycée Polyvalent Edgar Faure in Morteau, eastern France, a famed technical school that has produced names such as Remy Cools and Cyril Brivet-Naudot. He spent a couple of years as an apprentice to the Paris-based restorer Denis Coperchot before becoming an apprentice to watchmaker Jean-Baptiste Viot. Here, he learnt a very traditional style of watchmaking, as the workshop is famously devoid of any modern technology. He learnt to conceptualise and design watches by hand-drawing, as Viot continues to do to this day.
His education instilled in him an appreciation for the watch and clockmaking of past centuries. Auffret said to us, “Watchmaking in the late 18th and early 19th centuries was centred around England, France, Germany, and, to an extent, the Netherlands. Paris was known for trendier lifestyle watches, while London was the centre for a more technical craft. If you’re a French student passionate about watchmaking, you’re going to learn the craft through the lens of this history of watch and clockmaking. This was considered the best era of watchmaking”.
This respect for the past is evident in the Tourbillon à Paris, a watch he started sketching by hand and working on while still at Viot’s workshop. “I have tried to keep the best of the past, but also the benefits of modern technologies,” Auffret says. The watch that resulted from this effort, he entered into the F.P. Journe Young Talent Competition, winning the top prize in 2018, when Auffret was 23. It was the first piece to bear his name on the dial. He would later re-finish the watch and sell it as his first piece.
The 38mm case, crafted from sterling silver, stands 12mm tall. It is entirely classical in its execution. The high-polished bezel is rounded, while the flat midcase is satinated, as are the long, straight lugs that originate from it. They curve down, with a bevel that becomes more pronounced as the lugs terminate in a bulbous, rounded end. The lugs are drilled through, another reference to the past. The stepped caseback is polished in profile and satinated on the rim around the sapphire crystal. Interestingly, at the request of the original buyer, the watchmaker supplied an additional crystal for the watch face, attached to a satinated bezel.
The dial side puts much of the mechanics of the manual-wind calibre on display. It’s regulator-style layout means only the arched minute hand traverses the entire watch face, indicating the minutes on a drilled outer chapter. This chapter is attached to the base plate with screws visible at quarter hours. Also, on this chapter, at 6 o’clock, is a plaque with ‘Auffret’ hand engraved on it. This is absent from the prototype – it stands to reason that it was included in this piece that was presented for consideration for the Young Talent Competition.
The register at 4 o’clock, closest to the wearer, indicates the hour of the day. Made from silver in this piece as well as the prototype, it features a brushed chapter with faceted gold hour markers; the double width ones at the quarter hours feature a fluted detail that visually differentiates them. Between 7 and 8 o’clock and 2 and 3 o’clock positions are two flat head screws that secure the register to the baseplate. Like the minutes hand, the hour hand has a square base with a tear-drop shaped tip. Peeking from under this register are the golden wheels of the gear train that govern the time indication. The centre of this register has a frosted finish.
On a marginally higher plane is the one-minute tourbillon, secured by a large, finger style bridge. The three-armed carriage is finished by hand and features laterally mounted cylindrical weights. In the serially produced variants, be they the first five subscription series, or the 14 watches that are scheduled to be produced, these were replaced by more traditional, flat weights. In the 00, unlike in the prototype, the tourbillon aperture features a partial chapter, screwed onto the outer chapter on the dial. It lends the one-minute tourbillon another degree of time-telling functionality, acting as the seconds hand.
The top half of the dial side is dominated by the golden mainspring barrel, out of which the calibre extracts 40 hours of reserve. It is secured by another large finger-style bridge. The baseplate, as well as the bridges, wear charbonnage finishing typical of French, and Auffret’s, watchmaking.
On the movement side are visible the wheels of the going train, as well as those linked to the mainspring barrel and the keyless works. The bridges wear frosted finishing in a dark grey shade, contrasting them against the charbonnage of the baseplate. The edges of the baseplate, that line up perfectly together, like a yin to a yang, as well as those of the bridges, feature sharp anglage. The wheels of the going train, with their sharp inward angles done by hand, are a treat for those who look closer. A plaque with “No. 00", hand-engraved in a stylised Italic font, is at the 6 o’clock position.
The watch comes with a beautiful, hand-crafted, grained wooden presentation box and a selection of straps, secured by a silver buckle with hand-hammered detailing. In addition, it comes with a hand-written note of gratitude from the watchmaker to the original buyer of the piece, talking about a particular example and what it meant to his journey as a young independent. Also included is a hand drawing of the watch, with the original owner’s name and serial number, by artist Maiwen Nénez.
