Worrying that rapid mechanisation was abolishing artisanal craftsmanship from the watch industry, in 2009, the trio of Stephen Forsey, Robert Greubel and Philippe Dufour have joined forces to lead a project named Le Garde Temps – Naissance d’une Montre (French for Guarding Time – Birth of a Watch). They have chosen a young talented French watchmaking teacher Michel Boulanger to translate the ideas of traditional watchmaking. With the mentorship of the trio and thanks to Michel’s interest and technical skills in horological heritage, together they presented the pictured watch in SIHH 2015, which Michel built the tourbillon ‘Naissance d'une Montre’ watch from scratch using only hand-operated tools, without the help of technology. Carrying the characteristics of both styles, the highly asymmetric dial is reminiscent of Greubel Forsey, whilst the clean, round case and movement decorations were inspired by the beautifully proportioned cases we have been seeing from Philippe Dufour. Impor...