Philippe Dufour Watches

Philippe Dufour is a living legend, one of the most respected, talented watch craftsmen, having worked in the watchmaking industry for long years. He is a member of  AHCI - Académie Horlogère des Créateurs Indépendants, founded in 1985 by Svend Andersen and Vincent Calabrese, its aim is to restore traditional watchmaking craftmanship.
 Philippe Dufour was born in Vallee de Joux and started studying watchmaking at Sentier school at the age of 15. He started working as a watchmaker in 1967 at Jaeger-le-Coultre company, where Gabriel Locatelli, a great watchmaker, opened all watchmaking art secrets to him. After that Philippe worked at different companies, situated on the Caribbean Islands and in 1974 he returned to Switzerland, where he started working for famous companies, such as Audemars Piguet and Gerald Genta. He gave life to old and complicated watches, created 5 Grandes Sonneries models for Audemars Piguet company, after which decided to produce watches under his own brand. The idea of creating his own models came to him in 1989 and since that time Philippe Dufour has been one of the most popular independent watchmakers. His search for perfection is reflected in his masterpieces. It's notable, that the expert works together with his daughter and a young assistant at his workshop.___ Philippe during his long work history, spent in the watchmaking industry, has managed to discover all watchmaking art secrets and working alone “made” him use a computer, which helps him to elaborate his watches. Philippe Dufour watches combine best watchmaking art traditions and innovative technologies. Moreover, he considers the future owner's opinion importaint. He likes to call this kind of relationship “transparent”.  «I want to have “transparent” relationship with the people, who buy my watches. I want to be able to tell them, that they won't find those movements anywhere else and I'm proud, that these watches have my name». The expert calls the final watch assembly a “great moment”, because that's when you can truly enjoy the ready masterpieces.
 Today the great watchmaker presents 3 masterpieces: Grande Sonnerie, Duality, Simplicity. All these watches are produced in limited edition. Firstly, the watchmaker spends very much time on each model's production, secondly, he strives for creating exclusive models. He never compares his watches to any other brand's watches and doesn't want to do it, because considers them to be masterpieces, created by one person.
 The Grand Sonnerie model is one of of the masterpieces, created by an independent watchmaker, Philippe Dufour. As the watchmaker himself states, – “I wanted to create a watch, whereon you could see the astonishing movement operation. I wanted to create a skeleton movement”. As a result, we got a modern invention with significant novelties. The watch has a round case, made of 18-carat white gold. The original dial with an open movement allows you to enjoy the skeletonized movement's operation. The Grand Sonnerie watch is characterized by a simple design, the craftsman made it simple intentionally, for the design not to divert you attention from the open movement's operation, that works non-stop. While creating the watch, its author used some elements, that attract your attention at once: 2 polished hands, made of burnished steel, that stand in stark contrast to the light dial and creation of a rounding on the blue movement, which visually separates the movement from the dial. It's much easier to indicate time this way. Moreover, the disk doesn't cover the movement and doesn't hinder you to see its operation. As Philippe explains, – “My aim was to expose the visible part as much as I could and still to keep the movement open”.
 There's a seconds hand on the dial at the “6” position. The Grand Sonnerie model is supplemented by an alligator skin strap with an interesting buckle, which was made by the expert, considering the wrist's shape. “The watch's buckle itself gives me a great pleasure, it is both beautiful and functional and made in correspondence with the same principle, as my watches are”, – Philippe says.

Dufour keeps saying, that if people come to him, it means they are looking for an extremely unique model. “I am to create exclusive watches with innovative technologies” – he says.
 The Duality model became one of them. This is a watch with a double wheel escapement. The double wheel escapement movement is an alternative for a tourbillon. Compared to a tourbillon, the movement, created by Philippe, has an auxiliary feature, keeping its efficiency even being diminished to the size of a regular watch. The movement's complication is in the differential system. The 2 balance wheels operate absolutely independently from each other and the differential system smooths the differences between them and reduces the potential mistakes in speed by half. This unique Philippe Dufour's movement is placed in a round case, made of yellow, rose or white gold or platinum. The silver dial has Arabic numbers and 2 hands, placed on it and a small seconds hand, placed at the “8” position. The model is supplemented by an alligator leather strap. The transparent case back enables you to watch the half-open movement's operation.
 Simplicity is the third model, created by the watchmaking expert. This mechanical watch's simplicity amazes everyone. The previous watchmaker's models' traditional round case is kept in this model too. The case is made of gold and the dial is conditionally divided in 2 parts: the dial's outer part is supplied with Arabic numbers and its inner part is guilloche and supplied with 2 hands. There's a small seconds hand at the “6” position. The watch is equipped with an original movement with a logo and a serial number, engraved in it and with its beautiful wavy tracery, that you can see through the transparent case back. The model is supplemented by a brown leather strap.
 The inimitable models from Philippe Dufour will become an inseparable part of any wrist watch fan's or connoisseur's collection.