Rexhep Rexhepi at the bench.
when his father was asleep, out came the screwdriver and he tried
to open it to look inside. ….You can guess the result of course, yet
the seed was sown and the move to Switzerland allowed it sprout
and take root, when Rexhep passed entrance exams and was able
to start at Patek Philippe in Geneva as a student and later as an
apprentice. It was there, when he was only 14, that he decided although he enjoyed working for others, his real goal was to establish
something of his own in the future. After leaving Patek Philippe, he
worked in the atelier of F.P. Journe and later BNB Concepts, who
used to create high end movements and prototypes for other Swiss
brands. After BNB Concepts eventually went into receivership,
Rexhep felt the time had come for him, at the age of 25, to found
his own company, AkriviA, and forge a personal future. When he
presented his first timepiece, the Tourbillon Monopusher Chronograph, many collectors took notice, and today, some three years
down the road, he has presented four other tourbillon models in
several finishes and variants in dials and hands.
One of the first things that hits you when you look closely at
an AkriviA timepiece in the metal under a loupe, is the extremely
high level of finishing; the entire watch seems to sparkle, from the
inside out so to speak, as a result of the light bouncing off all of the
exquisitely polished surfaces. The result is that when I look inside
one of his timepieces, I get that warm, watch-nerd glow in my eyes,
and it is a rare treat indeed these days.
I was totally enthralled with his latest timepiece presented at
Baselworld 2016, the Tourbillon Barette-Miroir, with its classically
mounted and stunning black polished and blued numerals and an
incredibly delicate, arching center bridge viewable from the back
of the movement, not to mention the highly polished surround
of the the tourbillon with its delicate poising weights. I grabbed
Rexhep in-between some client meetings and had to ask him about
his working philosophy and AkriviA. A central question for me is
why Rexhep accentuates the fact that AkriviA is a Geneva based
company founded on promoting and protecting the traditions of the
city’s watchmaking traditions and legacy, whilst he is so young and
much of the finishing executed, like that on for example the pinion
leaves and shoulders and other such minute parts, will never be
seen by the actual user:
RR: “As you can imagine, my training at Patek Philippe imbued me
with certain values. So I learned how to produce, make and assemble
timepieces with the highest expectations. It has become an integral
part of my mentality and approach. For these reasons, my objective
is to deliver a watch only with a very high quality. And for me, this
2016 | WRISTWATCH
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