Tourbillon Barrette-Miroir
My goal was to reinvent the 1940s officer’s watch for the 21st century, so
when you look closely you can see a combination of symmetry for the move-
ment layout and asymmetry for the case. The dial has a hint of Art Deco feel
without making it a direct quote. I wanted to stay as far away as possible from
a purely 1940s revival exercise, which would have been too easy to do, but
much less personal.
And what about the use of your on name on the dial?
It is really important for me not to become pigeonholed into this or that
particular style; I see watchmaking, despite its technical essence, really as a
form of mechanical art. So, I don’t want to be stuck being classified like some
painters under a modernist, revivalist or a cubist school; I want the freedom
to create within any style or discipline I prefer at any give time. To make this
clear for the public, I use my own name on the classically inspired timepieces,
and Akrivia remains for the contemporary and complicated wristwatches.
In any case, it is only a difference in style, as the same crew is working on
both Akrivia and Rexhep Rexhepi watches, with the same attention to every
detail, as well as the use of all the traditional hand finishing methods Geneva
watchmaking was known for, before it became commercialized.
I often see on Instagram that your brother Xherdet Rexhepi works
with you; are you guys working together something like the
Grönfeld brothers?
I don’t know how the Grönfeld brothers work, but my younger brother is
a great watchmaker, and I am lucky that we can work together every day.
However, Xherdet is not so interested in organizing and running a workshop,
he prefers to concentrate purely on watchmaking and finishing - that’s where
his passion lies and he is really a pro. In the end, I am the 100% shareholder of
the Akrivia atelier, creating the designs, organizing and running the shop and
122 | INTERNATIONAL WATCH | SUMMER 2018
The AkriviA AK-06
functioning as one of the watchmakers; and my brother fills an important role
and essential support for me in the atelier.
What is done in the shop and what is done outside?
Everything is designed right here in house with industry standard watch
engineering software, which is great for us as we can quickly visualize, make
changes and finely adjust every detail exactly as we want, whenever we want.
The parts for the movement, case, etc. are milled at a manufacturer directly
from these plans. Later, all the parts come here and after undergoing a thor-
ough control for dimensional accuracy and quality, they are hand finished
with various traditional techniques, step by step.
Specialists make the enamel dials outside the shop of course; as was also
the case in olden times. Other smaller parts for the dial, hands and similar we
can make in the atelier. At the moment, I am considering eventually getting a
multi-axis milling machine in the future to have more control over the produc-
tion of necessary parts as we grow.
How many watches do you produce each year?
I guess you could say we are somewhere between the production numbers of
Roger Smith at about ten watches a year and Kari Voutilainen at about twenty-
five. We are now only able to make a maximum of about twelve watches the
coming year, and I hope, maybe with very hard work, twenty the year after. I
have no plans to make the atelier big or pursue massive production numbers;
we will always stay small scale and true to our philosophy.
You also have to remember that I need a lot of time for creating new devel-
opments. I have a lot of plans for the future, creating complications of various
types – please don’t ask me which ones, as that’s all I can tell you right now!
And a lot of that design work is done after a day of watchmaking, in my own
private time.