Horological Meandering

Antoine Martin – Part 1: The company and the people

I had the pleasure to visit Antoine Martin in Alpnach, Switzerland early August. Alpnach is located in the scenic Canton of Obwalden in Central Switzerland, about 20 minutes drive from Lucerne. The village is set in an idyllic valley with the backdrop of Lake Lucerne and Mount Pilatus.

Central Switzerland, relatively far from the Jura region, is not a traditional area of watchmaking, However early development of tourism around the lake of Lucerne (in the 19^th century) enabled the birth of major watch and jewelry retailers such as Guebelin, Bucherer and Embassy in Lucerne. Modern day watchmaking came to Obwalden, when the Franck Muller Group opened an assembly workshop in Sarnen a few years ago.

The company and the people behind Antoine Martin

I was received by the company founder Martin Braun and the CEO of Antoine Marin, Bruno Jufer. Martin Braun is certainly known to many PuristS for the astronomic watches under the Martin Braun brand that he used to conceive. He brings some 30 years of watchmaking experience to the table and used to teach watchmakers in Germany in Straubenhardt (between Pforzheim and Karlsruhe, in the Blackforest region)

Martin Braun (left) and Bruno Jufer (right)

Bruno Jufer worked for several prestigious watch brands such as Maurice Lacroix, Jaquet Droz and Zenith as well as Carl F. Bucherer and brings his competence in product management, marketing, communication and retail to the company.

One of the first questions I had for Martin Braun, is how it came that he set up this new venture in Obwalden –a nowhere land with regard to watchmaking - and not the traditional watch making regions of western Switzerland. The short answer is that this was the place in Switzerland, where his German watchmakers would move with him: a beautiful place in the German speaking part of Switzerland, within one hour reach or so of the German border.

Nice view from the watchmakers bench!

The nucleus for founding Antoine Martin was Martin Braun's dream to develop and build a movement that would incorporate his innovations and at the same time fit the size of large watches. The result is an impressive caliber with an enormous 39 mm diameter – the size of a pocket watch movement.

Martin Braun founded the company MHO AG (Manufacture Horlogère Obwalden)  in 2009 with just the prototype of the caliber 39 movement. It was the time of the crisis in the watch industry and suppliers were more than happy to entertain new customers, even a start up like Antoine Martin. Two years later however, the tide in the watch industry had turned again and some suppliers now turned them down as they had larger customers to supply….that's how quick things can change and one of the major challenges for a start up watch company.

Bruno Jufer came onboard in summer 2010 and Basel 2011 already saw the presentation of the "Quantième Perpétuel au Grand Balancier" collection, based on the Caliber AM39.

That's where all the thousands of parts are stored…

Wheels with cam (Kurvenscheibe) for the perpetual calendar mechanism

The majority of the components are manufactured by proven partners in the industry, however to the design and specification of AM. While the company is still small, it employs not only watchmakers but also a movement design engineer. As a consequence, engineering&design, prototyping, assembly and testing is done in the AM workshops in Alpnach.

 "Antoine Martin" the brand name, was conceived by combining the first name of the main investor Antoine Meier and the first name of Martin Braun.

Company Philosophy

Bruno Jufer describes the company philosophy as follows:

"Our watches are made for a discerning clientele and for connoisseurs who take an interest in technology, have high expectations regarding quality and are looking for something out of the ordinary,"

Considering that the first watch being introduced is a perpetual calendar with the innovative Caliber AM39, it can be assumed that Antoine Martin customers already own several high end watches.

Talking about the huge size of the caliber, Martin Braun explained that he can not think of wearing a watch smaller than 45 mm diameter. "For us, the large size of the case is not a fashion, but a statement. We designed the movement accordingly"

(end of Part 1)