While haute horology and metiers d’art are regarded as separate crafts, they have always gone hand-in-hand. There are of course many watches that explore one or the other, with austere grand complications on one side and insane works of enamel, guilloché and miniature paining on the other. While both can be admired in isolation, it’s when the two crafts come together that you get truly magical feeling timepieces, watches like the Parmigiani Les Roses Carrées and now this, the Renaud Tixier Monday Organica by Olivier Vaucher.
Renaud Tixier is not one of the independent brands we cover all that often on Oracle Time so let’s start with a brief profile on them. It’s the project of Dominique Renaud, who has been a leading figure in modern horology for a long, long time. In the 1980s, with the movement development studio Renaud & Papi, he helped kickstart the revival of the watchmaking industry following the quartz crisis. With Renaud Tixier he hopes to explore seven distinct mechanical concepts, each with a watch named after a day of the week – so far having only explored Monday there’s a long way to go.
The Monday was introduced in 2024 and the new Renaud Tixier Monday Organica is a fresh aesthetic reinterpretation of that watch. It features a case in platinum for the first time, measuring 40.3mm in diameter with a thickness of 12.6mm including crystal. However, the major aesthetic update is the metier d’art dial produced by Atelier Olivier Vaucher – another veteran of the watch industry from the late 1970s.
Trying to describe the dial is very difficult because the pattern is intentionally intricate and obtuse. It’s made from multiple layers of hand-engraved metal over top of which is a blue grand feu enamel, which is called a flinqué finish. In broad terms the pattern displays a four-pointed cross with intersecting lines and small round shapes. As you look at it, the shapes begin to resolve themselves into components you can half-identify from the movement housed inside the watch, viewed through the exhibition caseback. It’s supposed to invite you to investigate the pattern and learn more about the watch, studying it in minute detail, like a code breaker deciphering a complex cypher.
That’s why I think this is the best example of haute horology and metiers d’art working in tandem that’s ever been produced. It feels like they’re in conversation with each other. The artwork depicts the movement but the movement is beautiful. There’s a harmony to it. In order to stop myself rambling anymore, let’s delve into the technical aspects of that movement.
It’s the calibre RVI2023 and the main focus of the piece is actually the rotor. It’s a micro-rotor which has had its winding efficiency boosted thanks to the integration of a patented system involving an inertia wheel and ‘dancer’ spring. It’s conceptually based on the energy recovery systems used in cars – essentially recycling the energy that would normally be wasted during the normal operation of the system and putting it back into the system to increase efficiency. The RVI2023 was built from scratch with this system at its heart, rather than applying it to an existing movement.
Due to Renaud Tixier’s seven days concept, the Renaud Tixier Monday Organica by Olivier Vaucher is a limited edition of just seven pieces. It’s priced at CHF 125,000 (approx. £115,500) from Renaud Tixier’s authorised retailers. If this is what Monday has in store, I can’t wait for Tuesday, and I never thought I’d ever say that.
Price and Specs:
More details at Renaud Tixier.
