It’s the golden age of high-end independent watchmaking, with more exceptional makers and mad horologists than ever before. Unlike previous generations, it’s not just the old guard of fine watchmaking holding court – your Dufours, Journes and Smiths – but a younger subset of watchmakers with very different outlooks on what makes a watch. It’s also a generation with a clear starting point: Rexhep Rexhepi.
Rexhep Rexhepi watches are a staple of the highest-end watch auctions, listed alongside those of the independent old guard. And it’s not hard to see why; they are some of the most beautiful timepieces of the last two decades. Impeccably made but, more importantly, they are distinct. They have their own, unique visual language and a flair that sets them apart.
And yet while Rexhepi himself seemed to burst onto the scene with Akrivia in 2012, his approach didn’t come out of nowhere. In fact, he started honing his craft at that most traditional of maisons, Patek Philippe.
Born in Kosovo in 1987, Rexhep moved to Switzerland in 1998 to escape the Kosovo War. It was a move that made a lot of sense; his father had regularly travelled to Switzerland for work. And yet, when he arrived, he didn’t fit in or speak a word of French. Watchmaking, by all accounts, became a way for him to assimilate into Genevan life, and it soon became obvious that his future was at the bench. And so, at 14 years old, he took the entrance exam for an apprenticeship at Patek Philippe.
He didn’t pick Patek Philippe because it was arguably the most prestigious maison in Geneva, though that was undoubtedly part of it. His main reason was that, unlike other manufactures, apprentices there had the chance to work across the atelier’s various workshops, from movement development to finishing. And he made the most of that opportunity, devouring everything he was taught.
Once Rexhep’s apprenticeship ended, he didn’t stay at Patek Philippe, starting with renowned movement developer BNB Concept, founded by Mathias Buttet, Michel Navas and Enrico Barbasini. Here he was producing complications for various brands – everything from chronographs to flying tourbillons, and within a year was leading a team of 15 watchmakers. Among clients were independent watchmakers, something that struck a chord with Rexhep who, after his three-year tenure at BNB Concept, moved to F.P. Journe.
Journe needs no introduction; he’s largely credited along with Philippe Dufour with putting independent watchmaking on the map. He’s also renowned for guiding his brand with the firm hand of a watchmaker who understands what having his name on a dial means. For Rexhep, his two-year stint there was an inside look at how to run a successful independent watchmaker. He learned how to build a brand and an identity.
Seeing inside F.P. Journe also convinced Rexhep that he needed his own brand. Indeed, he worked feverishly every evening and weekend, servicing movements and prototyping complications, to raise the money he needed. And at Baselworld 2013, to everyone’s surprise, while Rexhep Rexhepi was just 25 years old, Akrivia launched their first watch, the AK-01. And it did not sell.
Rexhep Rexhepi’s first watch should have been an instant success. But at the time, a CHF 160,000 steel watch from an untested, fresh-faced watchmaker using a third-party base movement was a tough sell. It took two-and-a-half years before a collector would invest in his brand and his ‘desert years’ didn’t get much better from there. It wasn’t until the AK-06, a smaller, symmetrical timepiece with an open dial and beautiful decoration, that Rexhep started to get noticed. One of those noticing him was Michael Tay of legendary retailer, The Hour Glass.
The Hour Glass was the first retailer to sell Dufour watches and Tay was in many ways a kingmaker. So, when Tay suggested something daring, Rexhep listened. The idea? A classically round watch with his own name on the dial.
Up until this point, Rexhep had never considered using his own name. He was already a young man trying to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with traditional giants and he doubted anyone would care about seeing an Albanian name on the dial. It’s not that there wasn’t the desire; working with Journe showed him the importance of a recognisable name and the person behind it. He just needed a push – one which Tay provided.
When the Rexhep Rexhepi Chronomètre Contemporain I was launched in 2018, it won the men’s watch category at the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève – and Rexhep became one of the most important figures in modern watchmaking.
The Chronomètre Contemporain I didn’t come out of nowhere, of course. It was the culmination of Rexhep’s entire watchmaking journey, from his foundational years at Patek Philippe to the movement work at BNB Concept to the confidence of F.P. Journe. The Chronomètre Contemporain I was a phenomenal talent finally coming into its own.
Since then, Rexhep Rexhepi has continued working across both Akrivia’s more contemporary, complicated collections and his more classically elegant own-name watches. He even collaborated with Louis Vuitton on the LVRR-01 Chronographe à Sonnerie (with, incidentally, some of the founders of BNB Concept, now at La Fabrique du Temps). Even his earlier pieces have been reassessed, with that original, unsellable AK-01 now achieving between $610,000 and $1.23m at auction.
More importantly however, Rexhep Rexhepi has become an aspirational beacon for a young generation of watchmakers. He’s a template for young, hungry watchmakers to build their own brands, to believe in themselves and keep pushing forwards. Not bad for a watchmaker still in his 30s.
