AkriviA's new Rexhep Rexhepi Chronomètre Contemporain.
Last year I met, by chance, Rexhep Rexhepi of AkriviA walking the basement of the Ramada Hotel, now Hyperion. Adjacent to the Messeplatz fair in Basel, this hotel has been and continues to be a place where many smaller and up and coming brands, unable to afford (or unwilling to pay) the large commitment required to be part of the main hall or even the second hall, meet with the press and show their novelties.
Rexhep Rexhepi and his brother Xhevdet Rexhepi.
What stood immediately when I met the 30 year old watchmaker for the first time was his humble nature and young appearance. Having joined the ranks of Patek Philippe manufacture as an apprentice at the tender age of 19, he had already created a myth amongst horology aficionados that he seems completely oblivious of. Instead, he was kind to share his time and showed me his masterpieces while allowing me to photograph them.
This year, Rexhep and his brother Xhevdet are back to Baselworld as AkriviA now celebrates 6 years of independent watchmaking with a new atelier in Geneva and new booth in Les Ateliers section of the fair. I was happy to see him there and promptly scheduled an appointment to view his novelties. And again he did not disappoint.
AkriviA Tourbillon Chronographe Monopoussoir.
While I got another chance to view his past masterpieces, such as the Tourbillon Regulator and his Tourbillon Chronographe Monopoussoir, the star for Baselworld 2018 was the simple, classic, officer-watch inspired: Chronomètre Contemporain, shown at the start of this post in platinum with white enamel dial.
The eponymously named dress watch looks like any other dress watch of the 1940s while also looking like none other. Standing at less than 10 mm high and 38 mm in diameter, it makes for a new line of classic watches for the brand which is also an introduction to the genius of Rexhep Rexhepi. Another model with Xhevdet's name on the dial will likely follow in years to come.
Rexhep adjusting one of the watch for me to try on.
For this model, the simple white dial includes a large seconds subdial at 6 o'clock and simply the hour and minutes hands. The magic is in full effect when you turn over the watch to view the gorgeous movement: caliber RR-01. Completely hand-made with hand anglage black polish, perlage, Côtes de Genève, and black mirror finishing.
To help the owner set the time precisely, the seconds hand resets to zero once you pull the crown. AkriviA will gladly have the watch be certified by the Besançon Observatory if you so desire. An indication of the brohters' confidence of the chronometric performance of this new movement which also includes 100 hours of power reserve when fully wound.
In addition to the platinum version, Rexhep also showed me a red gold version of the watch with black grand feu enamel dial infused with gold chapter ring and indices. A gorgeous, perhaps "more luxurious" version, than the understated white dial platinum version, yet keeping the exact same aesthetics and ethos.
The Rexhepi brothers have managed to create an introductory timepiece that shines in its simplicity while giving independent watch lovers another reason to take a hard look at this young brand. akrivia.com
One of the winners in the 2019 GPHG awards in the first week of November was a two year old upstart watch brand from Kuala Lumpur named MING Watches. The young brand won best watch in the Challenge category at the Geneva show to the delight of its founder and watch aficionados who have regularly helped sell out the brand’s 11 prior releases since its debut of the 17.01 watch.
MING watches are not limited per we but are produced in small batches of a few hundreds, which in effect make them limited. A quick perusal to their web site shows that all models, except for the two new 2019 models have sold out. Interestingly the new models are also priced much higher than the previous ones. However, before getting ahead of ourselves, how does one go about seeing or trying on a MING watch?