At first glance it appeared to be a very nicely designed clean dial, beautifully hand guilloched in a quality gold case. Nothing sensational; however, it was obviously extremely well made and well thought out. Unusually, it had no crown on the side.

What on earth was this calibre? Not only did it sport an easy to use winding system of a type I had not seen before, the layout of the beautifully finished movement was nothing like I had ever seen before. I asked Romain what his movement was based on. "I designed and made it myself" was his reply.

Romain Gauthier was born in 1975 in Le Sentier, la Vallée de Joux: the very heart of traditional Swiss watch making. After studying precision-mechanics he went on to gain a diploma as a constructor of precision machinery. In 1997, Romain started his first job as a CNC machine programmer/operator at very highly regarding horological parts manufacturer in la Vallée de Joux.

It is no exaggeration to say that over the following years he managed and grew the small CNC machine department into what has become one of the - if not, the - most well equipped and efficient production facilities in Europe.
But Romain had an itch.

He both loved horology and felt an entrepreneur inside himself desperate to get out. Surely he could marry the two." In 1999, Romain started thinking about what he could do on his own in the world of watches and in 2000, " My first idea was to set up as a consultant to collectors advising them on the quality of movements and watches. From there I became more ambitious and thought to start my own watch brand, i.e., design my own watch but using third party movements. Romain was only 25 years old then.