women in white ad red sparkly outfits and a man wearing a white suit with another in a black jacket and white t shirt

K11, the multidisciplinary art, culture, retail, fashion and design organisation created by Hong Kong mover and shaker Adrian Cheng, is staging a show in the city celebrating 200 years of couture, together with the V&A.

It’s an auspicious occasion: Cheng has just been given the responsibility to reestablish the territory’s reputation as an international cultural hub, after three years of isolation caused by COVID. During that time, the cultural and touristic pendulum has swung towards Seoul, with the opening of Frieze Seoul, Singapore, which has seen much incoming financial and cultural capital, and Bangkok. It’s a big ask, but if there’s anyone who can do it, it is Cheng, scion of one of Hong Kong’s biggest dynasties and also a cultural statesman and innovator with a visionary understanding of east, west and the future.

Meanwhile, The Love Of Couture: Artisanship In Fashion Beyond Time curated in collaboration with the V&A and production designer, William Chang Suk Ping, aims to to bring together Western European traditions with eastern innovation, highlighting the extraordinary creativity, history and craftsmanship of couture.

The opening of the exhibition was celebrated at K11 Night with some of the most influential people in Asia, particularly from the fashion industry.

Follow LUX on Instagram: luxthemagazine

a man in a white shirt lifting his glass at a dinner
two women with their arms arund their waist and one is wearing diamond ear muffs
people standing for a photo at a party
two men and a woman at a dinner

K11 collaborated with with the V&A, assembling a team of revered industry veterans and emerging fashion designers, who, within the exhibition, explore the evolution of fashion across time and space and celebrate the next generation of designers.

Read more: Adrian Cheng On Brands To Watch In 2023

Cheng says, “Fashion throughout history is reflective of how traditions, craftsmanship, creativity and societies continue to evolve. I am thrilled to present this exhibition in collaboration with the V&A and work with our brilliant designers who have all in their own individual way, reinvented and modernised history with their unique perspective and talent. This collaboration truly reflects my mission to create a deeper cultural exchange between east and west by providing a platform for next generation talent.”

The Love of Couture: Artisanship in Fashion Beyond Time Exhibition is on until Sunday 29th January at the K11 Art & Cultural Centre

Find out more: www.k11experience.com/love-of-couture

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Reading time: 5 min
jewellery designer's studio
drawings of jewellery designs

Pomellato’s Kintsugi collection brings the old Japanese technique of repairing broken ceramics with lacquer and gold dust to the upcycling of broken gemstones. Courtesy of Pomellato

Continuing our focus on sustainability in line with COP26, Torri Mundell explores how jewellery house Pomellato’s latest collection makes use of broken, upcycled stones
portrait of a man

Vincenzo Castaldo. Photo by Angela Lo Priore

Sustainability and ethical practices are a constant challenge for the jewellery industry. On the one hand, customers want the most desirable products and are willing to pay what it takes, so jewellery very rarely ends up as landfill. On the other hand, the sector is beset by reports of unsustainable practices and labour scandals.

Pomellato, the Italian jeweller known for its whimsical and colourful creativity, has set up camp firmly on the ESG (environmental, social and corporate governance) side of the jewellery industry. The company is part of Kering, the French luxury giant run by François-Henri Pinault which has long made a virtue of its ethical endeavours (it was the first luxury group to introduce an environmental profit & loss account and expects its brands to follow it).

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Vincenzo Castaldo, creative director of the brand, is at the heart of the company’s challenge: how to continue its trademark originality and freshness of design, while ensuring everything is produced via a supply chain strictly internally audited for its ESG credentials.

“With its timeless nature, a jewel carries the message of sustainability like nothing else,” says Castaldo. He says the pandemic has strengthened his customers’ resolve to shop more conscientiously. Fine jewellery is no longer simply about “the intrinsic value of materials and craftsmanship but about ethical and cultural values… The events we have recently experienced are addressing us to a more conscious luxury. Our clients are more and more interested in the story you are telling, the ‘behind the scenes’ narrative.”

jewellery set with necklace, earrings and ring

A selection of pieces from the collection. Courtesy of Pomellato

Establishing supply chains for precious metals and gems is the industry’s biggest challenge. The chains are notoriously murky, mainly because raw materials often originate from some of the poorest places in the world and pass through many countries and hands – miners, cutters, refiners and dealers – before they arrive to market.

In 2018, five years after its acquisition by Kering, the Italian jewellers achieved 100 per cent responsible gold purchasing – valuable because gold-sculpted pieces set with colourful precious stones as well as bold, chunky chains have been central to the brand’s relaxed, modern aesthetic since its founding in 1967.

jewellery designer's studio

The atelier where the collection is made. Courtesy Pomellato

three rings

A selection of rings. Courtesy Pomellato

The market for coloured gemstones and diamonds is even less regulated than that of precious metals. The brand has been collaborating with the Responsible Jewellery Council to develop their network of diamond suppliers. Brokering a direct relationship with a mining company is another way to establish the provenance of gems: lapis lazuli stones sourced ethically from an artisanal mine in Chile were used in the brand’s earlier, made-to-order Denim Lapis Lazuli collection.

Read more: Two designers on sustainable luxury design

When it comes to design, Castaldo says, “the biggest challenge is to keep alive the conversation between creativity and sustainability.” The Kintsugi collection, using upcycled stones, benefits from a “cross pollination” between the two. Castaldo was inspired by his visit to Japan in 2019, where he became captivated by the tradition of reassembling broken objects with lacquer and decorating the original fracture with a seam of gold. “I was drawn to the elegance of Japanese thinking and the idea of something broken becoming more precious through this ritual of repairing,” Castaldo remembers.

Slightly flawed stones have been used by Castaldo in previous designs, but the Kintsugi collection showcases gems that are actually broken: damaged pieces of jet and kogolong which would normally be discarded. A female kintsugi artist repairs the gems in Tokyo before they are brought to Pomellato’s craftsmen in Milan; the collaboration yields minimalist rings, earrings and pendants that tell a story through the gold seams streaking across former cracks and fissures in the gems. “Each jewel is truly one of a kind,” he says, “and this, to me, is the real essence of preciousness.”

Kintsugi is an ancient craft, but for Castaldo, “the idea of celebrating your scars as a sign of strength through healing is a very contemporary philosophy”. So, too, is the movement to reorder our priorities and shop more conscientiously.

Find out more: pomellato.com

This article was originally published in the Autumn 2021 issue.

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designer seated in a chair
designer seated in a chair

Jörg Neuner, Head of Gaggenau’s brand centre in Lipsheim, France

Jörg Neuner, Head of the Gaggenau Brand Centre, speaks to LUX about heritage, handwork, and embracing a hybrid design philosophy

Seamlessly absorbing technological advancements into its DNA, the Gaggenau design philosophy is second to none. The secret? “Traditional handwork with the lightest of mechanical touches,” says Jörg Neuner, Head of the Gaggenau Brand Centre.

LUX travelled to Lipsheim in north-eastern France to speak all things design with Neuner, and find out how – from champagne-supplemented culinary workshops to getting down and dirty in the forging room – the centre offers visitors a fully immersive expression of the Gaggenau brand.

Follow LUX on Instagram: luxthemagazine

LUX: How has the Gaggenau Brand Centre evolved since its opening in 2012?
Jörg Neuner: When we originally opened the Brand Centre, it was based just on design. Our first ambition for the space was for our internal product training, so it was used primarily for prototypes and new products. When there were guests here, like trainers and dealers, it also gave them the chance to visit the factory. That’s the interesting thing, to look behind the scenes and see how it’s all done – the handwork, the materials, and so on. So, that’s what we’ve been doing here since 2012. In 2019, after seven years of operation here, we had 10,000 visitors!

The Gaggenau Brand Centre, featuring a showroom, space for training courses and working kitchen, is located next to the brand’s historic factory

LUX: What makes the Lipsheim location different to other Gaggenau showrooms globally?
Jörg Neuner: We have showrooms like the one here in countries all around the world, and they’re all in the same style. I think what draws people to Lipsheim is the factory, being in the place where everything happens. Normally, we have all the guests here, aprons on, sleeves up, and in the kitchen; you can go and see inside the factory, too. That’s why people come. It’s a very dense experience of the brand, probably the most dense that you can have. Everything we do here is related to Gaggenau: its history, its characteristics, the products.

LUX: What does a typical visitor to the centre look like?
Jörg Neuner: Most of the groups that come here are dealers or retailers. A particularly important group is the product developers, the people building high-rise buildings completely equipped with Gaggenau. They travel throughout Europe to visit all the suppliers they have in their buildings, and they come here to see how it’s done, to understand the brand. Even if they are old-timers with Gaggenau, and have a strong knowledge of the brand, they always say how good it is to come and see how we do it – to see that, still, the products are unique. Now, too, because we have this next to the factory, we can really provide an event.

industrial factory

Visitors to the centre can also tour the factory to gain an insight into how the brand’s products are made

LUX: What does the centre have in store for its private clients?
Jörg Neuner: For the moment, the main thing for end consumers is our cooking classes. We have star chef here, from the region, who has a long-time connection with Gaggenau. He does a cooking course here every month, so you can come here, if you pay a certain fee, to cook lunch with him with a glass of champagne. It’s a big dream of ours, to accommodate more private clients in the future.

LUX: One of the most fascinating elements of the centre is the heritage pieces. Is that something you’re interested in, showing more of the brand’s heritage?
Jörg Neuner: Sure. We have a little interactive forging museum with some of our old appliances in it. I always see guests with big smiles on their faces when they take the hammer and make a piece of really authentic heritage using their own hands, which they get to take home with them. This is how we communicate our history: we try to put guests in touch with it, to make it as tangible as possible.

Read more: Vitalie Taittinger on family business and philanthropy

LUX: Which aspect of the manufacturing process is most surprising to visitors?
Jörg Neuner: I think the most fascinating thing is that with every process, there are people involved. There is still so much handwork and complexity involved, which we try to show to visitors. We have only one process that is automatised, which cuts flat sheet metal and can run around the clock, but in all other processes we have people. It’s really traditional handwork too: we don’t cut any corners. The best example is the 90cm oven. The door takes ninety minutes to assemble, and it’s one person, putting together 515 pieces, 37 metres of cable, step by step, all alone. 90 centimetres, 90 minutes: one centimetre a minute. It’s quite a huge depth of production. That’s really special, and it’s important for the dealers when they come to see it here.

craftsman at work

Traditional craftsmanship is at the heart of Gaggeanu’s manufacturing processes

LUX: Technology has not replaced the human element of Gaggenau’s manufacturing process, but has it influenced the design evolution of products over the years?
Jörg Neuner: Our philosophy for our products is traditional avant-garde. We respect where we have come from – how people have cooked, what they know, what traditions there are – and, when it makes sense, we incorporate technology. For example, all the tapping indicators on the induction and ceramic cooktops have knobs. We have some [appliances with] touchscreens as well, for flexibility, so that you can do further programming, but you have full control at the manual level. Modular products have also come up over the course of the last few decades. With Gaggenau it started by developing our ovens, making the panels smaller, giving the cavity more space; and eventually we put the oven not below the cooktop but into the wall. We were the first ones to do that. Then, we realised, with this new development, that you could combine it with the steamer, or the coffee machine, and that brought up new forms again. It all contributes to a certain story about the ergonomics of cooking; it’s not just an oven without a panel. So that shows how, on the one side, things develop, and we get a new avant-garde style, but on the other side it still has the things which still make sense. That’s the traditional avant-garde.

LUX: Have any Gaggenau designs remained untouched by time or technology?
Jörg Neuner: We now have two oven series, the 200 and the 400, while the 300 stays as an icon. We did our first attempt to update that one, and I was very happy, and it’s stayed the same ever since. To me, that’s amazing: that you can have an appliance for thirty years in the catalogue without any major change in the design or technology. Nobody else has that. We have a successor, but while it’s technically based on our new oven platform, with the same functions and features, the outline is the same. It has the same face. For me, that’s the Gaggenau face.

Find out more: gaggenau.com

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Reading time: 6 min
Man wearing slouchy outfit
Two models sitting on a step

Two Point Two AW20 collection

Monochrome portrait of a woman

Anvita Sharma

Anvita Sharma founded her Delhi-based fashion label Two Point Two to celebrate individuality through genderless collections that reject all forms of stereotyping and categorisation. Following the launch of the brand’s latest collection at London Fashion Week, Abigail Hodges speaks to the designer about the concept of beauty, self-expression and acceptance

1. Can you tell us about the historical events that inspired your AW20 collection?

Every collection that we have done so far has had a multicultural reference to it. Maybe it’s because I have lived in such different countries as well as among such different nationalities that amalgamation of these different/opposing or similar things comes very naturally to me. As a creative person, I try to challenge myself with every season. To do something that Two Point Two has not done before, may it be in relation to colours, silhouettes or embroideries.

Follow LUX on Instagram: luxthemagazine

With this collection we wanted to take a step forward, and mix art and comfort. ‘The Self’ embodies a reconceptualisation of genderless clothing, aspiring to refashion a world that breaks down the boundaries of gender and illuminating the very fluidity of it. It speaks about self-confidence despite flaws and quirks. It is about finding perfection in the imperfections; about embracing one’s uniqueness and weirdness because that is what sets you apart from the rest. It is a synthesis of the masculine and feminine energies of the universe in one body which are depicted in our inspiration of the embroideries – “Ardhanareshwara”, an androgynous form of Lord Shiva and Parvati. We made our artwork using the tantric symbols of these deities mixing it with the Japanese character Enso as well as some genderless faces.

Male model on the runway

A look from ‘The Self’ collection by Two Point Two, which launched at London Fashion Week 2020. Photo by Gio Staiano

2. How is your brand philosophy reflected in the models that are chosen to showcase the pieces?

We celebrate individuality, confidence and diversity. [Our philosophy] aims to create an “agender” identity, which has characters from maybe both the binaries or maybe neither. It strongly stands against stereotyping and categorisation of anything. Two Point Two believes that beauty exists in every soul and it’s all about accepting and endorsing it as your own. We focus on the individual and not their gender, culture, race or size and support them to express their individuality through clothing even if it’s something unusual. Being ‘Typically Atypical’ is our motto. We chose models who we thought have very strong personalities and character to them. We were very pleased to have all of them in our show as each and every one of them represented Two Point Two’s brand philosophy of inclusivity and individuality to the core. As we did not have any particular category or guidelines as to what type of faces we need, we saw so many interesting people at the casting and instantly fell in love with so many of them that it became difficult to choose.

Two Point Two AW20 collection

3. Do you face any institutional obstructions when working to showcase a genderless collection?

The world has started going in a direction of all-inclusivity. It’s becoming very welcoming and embracing everyone’s individuality day by day. Self-expression is easier now than 10-20 years ago. And it’s only getting better. However, since the norms/criteria or categories still exist, there will always be stereotyping among things. Whether a particular look is too feminine or too masculine. Beauty is connected to a particular idea that the society creates. Sexiness is connected to a particular image or type of looks. Idolising that concept of beauty sometimes feels like an obstacle to who we, you and I are. The constant justification required as to why genderless fashion and people adorning it are also sexy/beautiful is something which we face and have no problem reminding everyone about it multiple times.

Read more: Founder of Nila House Lady Carole Bamford’s guide to Jaipur

I was very self-conscious about my looks while growing up. Still sometimes, very rarely, I fall in that vicious cycle of idolising the perfect beauty. So, for me, the concept of Two Point Two and the celebration of individuality and self-confidence it stands for, as well as rebelling against giving any sort of justifications for who you are, is the main goal while working on genderless collections. Also, the gender disparity and the problems the LGBTQIA community faces in India is something I strongly stand against and this is a way to support their community as well as any individual who feels that they don’t “belong”.

4. Which are your favourite pieces from this latest collection?

Oh, it’s very difficult to choose. They are so different yet so similar to each other. I poured my heart and soul to each garment and each detail. But if I have to choose I’ll have to say the monochrome olive-green look. It was very unexpected as the decision of changing its combination happened moments before the runway, so I was very pleasantly surprised by it myself. This is what fashion is to me. Fast paced, maddening and yet very satisfying.

Model wearing green outfit on runway

Anvita Sharma’s favourite look from ‘The Self’ collection by Two Point Two. Image by Gio Staiano

5. How has your design process evolved over the recent years?

I think there is a massive growth in terms of design aesthetic as well as the process that we follow. With every season, I learn from my mistakes and evolve and grow making sure that those mistakes are not repeated again. We are of course more organised and clear now as compared to our first collection. Although, our brand ethos, philosophy and belief remains as strong as when we started the brand. And, we still work on a ‘go with the flow’ basis and let the inspiration take over when it has to instead of actively looking for one. Like mentioned earlier, my favourite look was very last minute and unexpected, so these things happen very spontaneously and I strongly believe that the energies of the universe guide you and take you where you are meant to go.

6. What’s your five year vision for the brand?

I want Two Point Two to have a global audience and impact in the coming years as the brand is non-demographic and all-inclusive and can be appropriate for any market and any customer in the world. We also like to be working with more handloom and handwoven fabrics which we are already exploring and used in some collections at the moment and planning to get more involved in it. Also, we would like to support the local artisans and their dying crafts from different regions of India, so we are exploring certain tribes and clusters of various parts in India and getting to know their stories, their histories and cultures as well as helping them economically and incorporating their crafts in Two Point Two and give them an international audience in the coming season.

View the collections: twopointtwostudio.com

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Reading time: 6 min
Entranceway to a beautiful whitewashed building
House hidden amongst the trees

Supported by the Lady Bamford Foundation as a centre for craft and sustainable design, Nila House occupies a 1940s residence in Jaipur restored by Indian architect Bijoy Jain of Studio Mumbai. Image by James Houston

Lady Carole Bamford, the founder of Daylesford Organic, beauty brand Bamford and numerous charitable foundations including Nila House gives us a guide to her spiritual home, Jaipur

Woman sitting on steps of building

Lady Carole Bamford

Where I hunt for treasures…

I always look forward to visiting the government khadi shops. I find myself spending hours there, lost in the piles of beautiful hand-spun fabric. Handwoven in villages across the country, the simple white cloth with all its imperfections is my idea of the ultimate luxury item.

Follow LUX on Instagram: luxthemagazine

Cultural immersion…

The riot of colour and sound of the markets is extraordinary, and the old city has some of the best textiles and jewellery. I recently met a family of hand-block carvers who have been creating intricate wooden blocks for generations. Such artisans have a wealth of knowledge that we at Nila House, our new centre for preserving these traditions, believe should be shared with a broader audience so that it can be carried on into the future.

Entranceway to a beautiful whitewashed building

Image by James Houston

My perfect day in the city…

I always start my day with a puja prayer ritual followed by yoga and meditation. Then I will head out with my design team to visit our suppliers. I love visiting the workshops; I always learn so much, watching the dedication and meditativeness of their work. In the afternoon I might explore antique textiles at Rajasthani Arts to see if there is anything for our archives.

Read more: Hôtel Chais Monnet & the beauty of southwest France

Best dining spot…

47 Jobner Bagh is my favourite place to escape the crowds and noise. This charming family-run hotel has the best home-cooked Indian food. My favourite is a bowl of dal makhani, mopped up with a hot naan bread.

Clothes hanging against white wall

Indian craftsman threading fabric

The building features a shop and studio spaces for local artisans. Images by James Houston

Home away from home…

We always stay at the The Oberoi Rajvilas. It is our home in Jaipur and the wonderful staff look after us like family.

Worth a detour…

I love visiting the paper factories in Sanganeer, just outside Jaipur. They have some of the most beautiful paper you can find, all handmade from natural materials – from cotton rag and banana fibre to the beautiful textured seed paper that we use for all of our packaging [at Nila House].

Nila House is a cultural centre dedicated to preserving traditional craft methods and supporting artisans across India; it is part of the Lady Bamford Foundation. Find out more: carolebamford.com

This article was originally published in the Spring 2020 Issue.

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IMG_0724

Baku Corner was launched by Leyla Aliyeva, vice-president of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation and Founder of IDEA Public Union as a non-profit project designed to support the work of local Azerbaijani artisans and talented craftspeople from across the globe. The online boutique stocks a collection of beautifully curated fair-trade products, and a line of Aliyeva’s own striking designs. We love the bright colours and bold, quirky patterns. Here we select six unique pieces from LUX’s wish-list.

This iPhone cover is one of our favourite designs, featuring a detailed drawing by Leyla Aliyeva of a monochrome panther with bewitching emerald eyes.

Follow LUX on Instagram: the.official.lux.magazine

This floral silk scarf illustrated with artwork by Leyla Aliyeva fits with this season’s penchant for bright, clashing colours combined with delicate fabrics.

This structural basket bag is handmade in Colombia from sugar cane and decorated with ‘Molas’, colourful fabric which is sewn with a reverse-appliqué technique to create an intriguing textured effect.

The ‘Eclipse’ hat is also made by Colombian artisans utilising traditional materials and techniques to weave an intricate pattern that’s made all the more pretty with a cut out back.

From Leyla Aliyeva’s home collection, this stunning cushion cover features different illustrations on both sides so that you can flip it over and transform the room.

This loose weave alpaca scarf in cherry red is both cosy and stylish, best worn with statement artisanal jewellery (as above).

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Reading time: 3 min

Francois Paul Journe is the CEO of the eponymous Geneva-based watch company that is the ultimate object of desire for some of the world’s most discerning collectors. For our Luxury Leaders series, he talks to Darius Sanai about how F.P.Journe’s watch business has thrived as an independent, focused on scientific precision, in a world dominated by luxury groups.

Francois Paul Journe watchmakers at work

FP Journe watchmaker’s atelier

LUX: Why have you succeeded where so many others have failed?
Francois Paul Journe: I believe we have to go back in time to explain. Watchmaking schools do not teach to conceive a watch and being a watchmaker is not synonymous with changing a battery. I was lucky enough, after finishing my watchmaking school, to work with my uncle Michel, renowned antique horology restorer in Paris and learn “on the field” to repair complicated watches, benefit from his experience and discover a world of culture the school does not teach. My uncle was also the curator of the Musée des Arts et Métiers in Paris, I discovered the most astounding creations by the great French Masters and that obliged me to go further in my research, in order to create watches as beautiful as theirs. But I had to work tirelessly and acquire a real knowledge of the horological history. You do not acquire this kind of experience at school. I became totally passionate and horology became my life.

At the time, there were maybe 15 collectors who were interested to buy authentic horology as the quartz was revolutionising the watch industry and haute horology was not any more in the trend. I had to wait for the taste of clients to revert to real horology until about 1991 when I sold my first wristwatch with tourbillon. I set up my own independent manufacture, to remain independent above all and not have to depend on anyone. From then on, I created a full collection and I never stop selling my watches after that.

Read next: Jean-Claude Biver on the evolution of luxury

Also, F.P.Journe is the only manufacture in the centre of Geneva, and we are producing 95% of the haute horlogerie components necessary to make our watches, dial and cases included. We also offer a true watchmaking art. Each certified watchmaker makes a specific watch according to his technical sensitivity, and performs all production stages from beginning to end without anyone interfering in the process. A long lost privilege in today’s industrial watchmaking that is more and more segmented.

This is why my horology is different, authentic and respecting the fundamentals of haute horology. Above all, I remain in my own path, innovation, quality and independence. And collectors appreciate our authenticity, transparency and our permanent researches for precision, innovation and exclusivity.

Luxury watchmaker and owner of eponymous brand FP Journe

Francois Paul Journe

LUX: How does history inform your brand?
Francois Paul Journe: I respect the history of horology as a musician would study Mozart. If one does not understand the philosophy of the ancient grand watchmakers which only goal was to make watches that were giving the exact time, then you only create gadgets.

LUX: How can you make a product stand out to a consumer who owns everything?
Francois Paul Journe: Our collectors who can have the best money can buy, and above all, exclusive objects know that I am running an independent manufacture with an integrated production of all the components necessary for the making of our watches. It includes the creation and production of all its dial and watch cases which echo our 18 karat rose gold movement in perfect harmony. We are the only manufacture in the world to do so. My goal is continue my pursuit of precision in creating innovative precision chronometers in the respect of the fundamental values of haute horology and I will not disrupt this rule under any circumstances.

Read next: Sky high with Bombardier private jets

LUX: What is luxury?
Francois Paul Journe: Luxury is a term that has been perjured and used outrageously. It means excellence, know-how and innovation, within a limited production combined with genuine craftsmanship, an exclusive design with a genuine authenticity. It is also a desirable object that is not a necessarily a necessity.

LUX: How do you honour tradition while still innovating?
Francois Paul Journe: You can certainly innovate but you have to respect the fundamentals in high horology that have pertained for over 2 centuries, and there are not many horologists doing so today. I am proud to be one of the only fervent defendants of the fundamental values of haute horlogerie. We have a real manufacture and we continue to produce our watches as if they were scientific objects. That is how watches were considered in the 18th century.

LUX: What are the biggest challenges you’ve faced as the owner and CEO of a luxury brand?
Francois Paul Journe: Independence is in your genes; for me it is not negotiable. Many of the challenges I set for myself would be difficult to achieve if I depended on large financial groups, on a financial side as well as on a creativity side and on a component production side. When I create a new calibre, I can modify components as I please in no time as they are made in our manufacture and I don’t have to depend on a supplier either.

As an independent, we have to demonstrate a strong resistance against big groups and provide a genuine authentic concept and rely on ourselves only. We thus have to be self sufficient and control our production as well as our sales network. That is why we have opened our own network of boutiques which are offering the best possible service to our client, a professional approach of high horology and a perfect knowledge of our collections, without mentioning receiving our clients in a décor at the image of our brand. But creativity is our most powerful weapon to exist and coming out of groups’ shadow.

Big groups sell industrial watches, and we are selling authentic high horology watches. I can only hope a certain public will know how to make the difference and do justice to the genuine values of craftsmanship that we will never cease to perform.

Read next: Secrets to investing in Switzerland

LUX: Would you define F.P.Journe as a discovery brand?
Francois Paul Journe: I don’t know what you mean exactly by a discovery brand. We can be called a discovery brand in the sense of innovation as we are producing innovative mechanism, or reunite different technical developments another brand have not put together, i.e. the Tourbillon Souverain with remontoir d’égalité and we are the only ones to do so. If you mean a recent brand, yes we are not for the general public but we are one of the best known brands in the world of collectors.

FP Journe watchmakers at work

FP Journe watchmaker’s atelier

Francois Paul Journe plush room

The entrance to the FP Journe Manufacture in Geneva

LUX: How many watches would you recommend an individual owned?
Francois Paul Journe: I cannot tell a collector how many timepieces he should own, each collector has a collection that correspond to his taste but also its financial means. If he has only a few watches and he is happy with them, it is fine but he is not really a collector. But it is also fine if a passionate collector owns one models of each available in my collection .

Read next: The silent speed of a Rolls-Royce Wraith 

LUX: What innovation are you most proud of?
Francois Paul Journe: The Tourbillon has been my first fascination of course and the resonance phenomenon has been occupying my mind for years in order to produce my Chronomètre à Résonance with 2 mechanical beating in opposition and auto-regulating each-other. But the watch I am most proud of is certainly the sophisticated Sonnerie Souveraine, the most difficult and most accomplished horological creation never realised and the one that has certainly given me the widest challenge in my career. It means six years of research for the Invenit and 10 patents for the Fecit, over 500 components, 4 month of assembling, adjusting and fine tuning, and this without counting the manufacturing of the components entirely produced in our manufacture in the centre of Geneva.

Operating a chiming watch has always been risky. If you do the slightest thing wrong, like setting the time while the chimes are engaged or ringing, you damage precious mechanisms. My challenge was to create a Grande Sonnerie that was safe to use, and what sets it on a higher plane is that it is the only grand strike clock watch safe to use existing today.

LUX: How do you relax?
Francois Paul Journe: I work a lot and I do not have so much free time. Mostly it is dinner with friends, tasting good food and good wine, and enjoying each other’s company. And Formula 1 racing.

fpjourne.com

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