Manufacture d'horlogerie — Est. 1887

Time, machined by hand.

The dial above is not a photograph. It is a living instrument,
drawn and driven in real time — as every Chronolith is.

In 1887, Elias Voss carried a broken marine chronometer across the Jura on foot, convinced that a watch should be built the way a bridge is built — to outlive its maker. Chronolith still assembles eleven watches a year. Not because we cannot make more. Because we will not.

01 — The Movement

Calibre 11,
exposed.

Balance wheel

Free-sprung, 21,600 beats per hour. Your scroll is its mainspring — every pixel you travel is stored and released as six beats of regulated time.

Pallet fork

Two synthetic rubies lock and release the escape wheel. The tick you hear in a Chronolith is this jewel striking steel — 172 million times a year.

Escape wheel

Fifteen teeth, each ground to a two-micron tolerance. It is permitted to advance only when the balance says so. Power, held in obedience.

02 — The Collection

Eleven a year.
Three ways.

Meridian

Obsidian dial · bronze indices · 38 mm

CHF 42,000

Tundra

Bone-porcelain dial · steel · 36 mm

CHF 38,500

Sable Nocturne

Smoked umber dial · gold track · 40 mm

CHF 51,000

Each dial rendered live. Tilt with your pointer.

03 — The Atelier

Eleven months,
one bench.

  1. I

    Months 1–3 — Blanks

    Plates and bridges are cut from German silver, then set aside to rest. Metal, like wood, has memory; we let it forget the mill.

  2. II

    Months 4–7 — Finishing

    Côtes de Genève, drawn by hand against a boxwood peg. An hour per bridge. No two movements carry the same stripes.

  3. III

    Months 8–10 — Assembly

    One watchmaker assembles, times and disassembles the movement three times before it is cased. Their initials are engraved under the balance cock.

  4. IV

    Month 11 — The vigil

    Thirty days on the wrist of its maker, in six positions, through two mountain walks. Only then is it yours.

04 — Private fitting

The next unallocated
movement completes in
—

Fittings are held in Geneva, London and Kyoto, by appointment only. A deposit is not required; patience is.