When Axel Leuenberger and his three companions decided to launch a new watchmaking company, they had a fairly clear idea of their goal: to create timepieces that were ‘beyond products’. Leuenberger, the CEO of Vanguart watches founded in 2017, is rather laidback when describing his integral role at the company: ‘I jump between various roles; I try to glue everything together’, he supplies.
Axel Leuenberger, Co-Founder & CEO of Vanguart
Meanwhile, the products all start life in the mind of Chief Technical Officer Jérémy Freléchox, who also handles the technical aspects of Vanguart’s watch movements. Both Leuenberger and Freléchox share a common former employer: Audemars Piguet Renaud Papi, where the former served as a mechanical designer in the Research and Development department and as an assistant to Papi himself, while the latter undertook the coveted position of Head of Movement Creation Projects.
Jérémy Freléchox, Co-Founder & CTO of Vanguart
Meanwhile, Thierry Fischer serves as the company’s Creative Director. In terms of design, Fischer has a fairly futuristic outlook – something to bear in mind as we take a closer look at the fledgling watchmaker’s creations. The final piece of the Vanguart puzzle is Chairman Mehmet Koruturk, who is primarily involved in marketing and sales.
Thierry Fischer, Co-Founder & Creative Director of Vanguart
When we meet for our interview with Vanguart CEO Axel Leuenberger, he is wearing one of the brand’s distinctive models on his wrist: the Vanguart ‘Orb’ in titanium. That said, it’s never too difficult to recognise a Vanguart, as not only do they have a unique design, but also, there are only two watch collections, making it one of the smallest and most streamlined portfolios in the independent watchmaking sector. The collections are the ‘Blackhole’, launched in 2021, or the simply named ‘Orb’ launched earlier this year. Currently, the former line comprises three models, each of which is limited to eight pieces each. Meanwhile, the ‘Orb’ line consists of two models, which remain unlimited.
Even in its formative years, Vanguart has demonstrated a commitment to vertical integration, handling nearly every aspect of production in-house, also decorating its highly complex titanium components in-house. That said, the brand does outsource some of the less complex finishing because of its limited capacity, allowing Vanguart to keep its focus on the more extreme ones.
Ernad Turkanovic – Master Finisher at Vanguart
One of the Master Finishers with over 20 years of experience.
Additionally, the brand is steadily growing, aiming to expand its team to 15 members by 2025. This includes two designers, three technical experts, two finishers, three watchmakers and two master finishers, reflecting its dedication to both craftsmanship and innovation. The principal goal of Vanguart, however, is to ensure that its highly complicated watches ‘introduce new technical and experiential ways to engage with time’ – and with that in mind, let’s get to know the watches in more detail.
The ‘Blackhole’ collection is for the more futuristically inclined, if you will, not least due to its remarkably sleek and fluid appearance. While the majority of mechanical Swiss watches inevitably leave various screws and pins visible – some very iconic models even make this an integral part of their design – the ‘Blackhole’ watch seamlessly flows across the wrist, despite its complex case shape. Elegantly sweeping lines and complex geometries unite to create one distinctive look.
Vanguart Black Hole Tourbillon
Available in white- or rose-gold as well as titanium, the microblasted exoskeleton cases with polished bevels employ microblasted fuselage for a smooth, almost other-wordly aesthetic. The Vanguart team actually went through over 100 shapes before settling on this cohesive shape. Each 43 mm (diagonally, at least) watch is accompanied by a flexible quick-changing anthracite, white, or mint-coloured straps in rubber or leather.
The complex dial, on the other hand, tells a different story. The ‘Blackhole’ houses a flying tourbillon, created entirely in-house by the Vanguart team – no small feat for a horology house’s first ever watch. While more ‘traditional’ tourbillon watches tend to locate the mechanism at 6 o’clock with the hours and minutes displayed centrally, the ‘Blackhole’ subverts horological norms by placing the flying tourbillon in the very centre of the watch’s steeped, vortex-like dial. By the way – the tourbillon consists of 88 pieces, yet weighs a mere 0.225 grams.
This leaves the hours and minutes to work around the complex mechanism in the form of a three-tier ‘automaton’ dial using linear time display, aiming to mimic the gravitational waves and curvature of the space-time continuum. Automatons are something that Creative Director Thierry Fischer in particular has long been drawn to – and it’s evidently an area he has expertise in. From the outer edge to the centre, the discs display the hours, tenths of minutes, and minutes. The discs move either clockwise or counterclockwise depending on the time, creating a dynamic and engaging visual effect. The discs are semi-instantaneous, taking between 200 and 500 milliseconds to change.
The hand-painted hours, minutes, and half-minutes appear upon an easy-to-read concentric dial, either in anthracite PVD for the titanium edition or silver PVD for the more traditional precious metal models. The time can be adjusted by the wearer using a high-precision ‘joystick’-like setter that advances and reverses with a simple twist for intuitive adjustments. At the opposite end of the timepiece, Vanguart balance out the case with a power reserve display, of which the wearer can track its solid 42 hours of power. Finally, at 4 o’clock, there’s a ‘reverse scroll indicator for countdown’. When you use the joystick to adjust the time on the Vanguart Black Hole Tourbillon, small windows show red to indicate the time direction. You can also set a countdown timer with the joystick, where the display rotates backwards until it reaches zero.
The movement making this possible is the highly intricate calibre T-1701, consisting of no fewer than 750 components including two barrels and gears trains. While one serves as the regulating organ, the second is responsible for the automaton display. Painstakingly hand-decorated, the movement, which took two years to develop, exhibits traditional as well as more modern Swiss finishing including micro-blasting, satin finishing, black-polishing and hand-bevelled components. Meanwhile, the mainplate and bridges appear in grade 5 titanium for a contemporary look. All of this is visible via the open caseback.
Here’s the catch: of the three versions available, only eight pieces of each edition was created. This gives some indication of how very limited production at the manufacture currently is, although we can hope to slowly but surely see an increase in the near future. Indeed, Vanguart already drew attention with another special edition dubbed the ‘Blackhole Tourbillon Yas Special Edition’, a unique piece that honoured the legacy of Islamic contributions to science and art featuring a special Islamic ‘automaton’ engraved dial. Created by artisans, the model’s dial took over 150 hours to complete.
The mainstream, extremely limited ‘Blackhole’ watches vary in price from 320,000 Swiss francs in titanium or 350,000 in gold. Let’s move onto the other collection, which unlike the ‘Blackhole’, is not expressly limited.
Circling back to Vanguart’s goal of introducing ‘new technical and experiential ways to engage with time’, the ‘Orb’ was launched in 2024, and aims to embrace both the past and future. In this second creation from the horology house, Vanguart presents a timepiece that combines mechanical craftsmanship with futuristic, sci-fi-inspired design, prioritising both functionality and distinctive style.
A harmonious shape that evokes relics of the past and visions of the future
Creative Director Thierry Fischer describing the Orb
Symmetry, balance, and depth are all focal points in the design of the Vanguart ‘Orb’. With the watch case’s height measuring 10.5 mm, the timepiece does not, as one would expect, level out with a dial on the surface and movement below. Rather, the entire design, from solid dial flange, to hands, to movement, are carefully carved into the watch’s architecture. This layered approach allows the wearer to be fully immersed in the watchmaking, almost as though wearing virtual reality goggles and taking a tour of the entire horological creation. An open-worked movement design and open dial display provide the wearer with an unprecedented level of transparency.
Vanguart Orb Flying Tourbillon
The shape of the micro-blasted and sand-blasted case with polished bevels, which comes in a choice of rose-gold and titanium – a rarely seen combination – or simply grade 5 titanium, mirrors the curvaceous depth of the dial. As with the ‘Blackhole’, neither screws nor pins blight the appearance of the sleek, contemporary 41 mm model, yet the model offers water-resistance to 30 m.
Evidently fans of the gravity-defying mechanism, the Vanguart ‘Orb’ also features a flying tourbillon. This time, however, the watch introduces an entirely different hand-finished flying tourbillon movement. Placed at 6 o’clock, the tourbillon, funnily enough, does not exactly take central stage. This is because Vanguart push both horological and technical boundaries by integrating an orbital oscillating mass at 12 o’clock, which enables the wearer to alternate between automatic and manual modes. When the watch’s owner changes the mode of the watch from manual to automatic via the crown, the 2 mm diamond-set orbital mass springs to life and begins revolving around its track, appearing to float within the timepiece. When the watch is changed back into manual mode, the diamond-set orbital mass is locked into place. It’s not only a unique innovation, but a visual spectacle and absolute watchmaking highlight.
That said, the design of the ‘Orb’ also maintains a certain level of simplicity by featuring classically placed skeletonised hour and minute hands and recessed luminous hour markers filled with Super-LumiNova for the utmost legibility. The latter sit against the backdrop of a sloped PVD-coated titanium bezel that makes the most of the depth of the watch. Finally, the mainspring barrel can be admired at 12 o’clock via the dial, perching neatly below the winding-setting display.
Powering the Vanguart ‘Orb’ is an open-worked movement in titanium grade 5, showcasing a microblasted finish, handmade polished bevels and satin finishing. With a frequency of 3 Hz, this latest movement ups its power reserve to 60 hours. More streamlined than its sibling, the aforementioned calibre T-1701, the movement consists of 395 highly finished components.
What can really be appreciated about the watch is that despite its impressive mechanisms, the watch retains at least some level of subtlety thanks to its clean design, as well as functionality due to the integrated indicator within the crown. Vanguart round off the essentially lugless watches with an integrated white or black rubber strap, this time also interchangable with quick-changing leather straps in the same colours for those who are after a smarter look. Two buttons on the caseback release the straps without the need for tools, while the straps themselves secure to the wrist via chunky buckles.
Prices for these models are 150,000 for the titanium version, or 180,000 for its precious metal counterpart.
While Swisswatches doesn’t frequently focus on notably young brands, we have long held a keen interest in them, and Vanguart is certainly one to keep an eye on. Another view we have also long expressed is that part of being a collector is taking what I would call an ‘educated gamble’ – identifying a young brand or specific new watch model’s promise, and putting your faith in it.
Of course, the Vanguart models are not meant for every collector. Despite being incredibly innovative mechanical Swiss timepieces, the watches released thus far are a far cry from your traditional luxury timepiece. Rather, these boundary-pushing pieces, bringing together unexpected horological combinations, are destined for forward thinkers and those with an interest in bending the norms of ‘luxury’.
Luxury brands such as Greubel Forsey and MB&F have paved the way for futuristic time-telling – so why shouldn’t Vanguart join their ranks? While still new on the block, the independent watch brand is by no means afraid to push forward with its powerful and ingenious designs, which endeavour to usher in a new era of watchmaking. As the saying goes, ‘Fortune favours the bold.’
Photos by alexteuscher.com
