AKRIVIA
BY PAVEL PAVLOSVSKY
NEW YOUNG STAR ON
THE HIGH-END HORIZON:
AKRIVIA
W
atch brands come and go constantly at Baselworld, and it still amazes me how many new
brands or brand revivals pop up there each
year. Some of them survive and become part of
the watch lover’s stable; others struggle and disappear, or – struggle
for years and then make a success. The passage of time is always
able to find the chinks in a brand’s armor. On the commercial side,
the watch industry remains a tantalizing field as there always seems
to be an investor somewhere, willing to try their hand at a quick
turnover in the luxury industry, mesmerized with the high markups
possible by joining a movement, dial and case together, and placing it in a box, usually worth more than the raw movement itself.
Despite the sheer numbers of what there is to see at Baselworld, it
is surprising that there is so little of actual value and depth when it
comes to true high quality watchmaking. If I sound jaded, well, yes
it’s true, I am….. I tuned out the yearly recurring, maniacal screaming sessions by Jean-Claude Biver from the front of the Hublot
stand at Baselworld many years ago I’m afraid!
108
WRISTWATCH | 2016
The situation is rather different for me, however, when it comes
down to real watchmakers, and by this term I mean a person able to
create an entire watch on their own, of high quality, with mastery of
all the necessary watchmaking traditions. Such a person, when they
take the step to start their own brand, is of course what is meant by
the term ‘independent watchmaker’, and they form for me the most
interesting group to follow, especially those newcomers that I feel
are poised for great things. And one of these independents who has
tickled my interest for the last few years now is Rexhep Rexhepi,
who started his brand, AkriviA, when he was only 25 years of age.
Escaping from the precarious situation of war torn Kosovo as a
young boy, Rexhep arrived in Switzerland with his family possessing the curiosity of a child in a new environment, and on a positive
note, despite the emotional upheavals, it was in actual fact to be
a momentous change that would bring him closer to his boyhood
dream of becoming a watchmaker. It is a typical horological story:
as a child in Kosovo he became fascinated by the ticking sound of
his father’s watch, and had to figure out how it worked, so of course,