Ateliers DeMonaco is a sister brand to Alpina and Frederique Constant, based under the same roof in Geneva. But where the latter two brands specialise mainly in affordable luxury watches, Ateliers deMonaco operates at that level in haute horlogerie, where price is of less importance...
Where technical virtuosity, high-quality workmanship and intricate crafts play a starring role. And where you can even have unique pieces made to order. A conversation with Pim Koeslag, the brand's Dutch CEO, about the surprising Stradivari-watch...
Lack of originality and creativity can never be blamed on DeMonaco. Every watch is a pleasant surprise. So why team up with an external designer?
Pim Koeslag: It certainly wasn't planned to look for an external designer either. Because, indeed, we don't lack creativity. But I met Luca Stradivari by chance. We were both invited by Prince Albert for a cocktail in the Palace's garden.
When we got talking and I passionately talked about my profession, Luca let me know that he would like to order some watches for his customers. He also said that he would like to help create them. And that seemed like a nice idea to me.
Luca Stradivari is a direct descendant of the famous violin maker. So you might say: music is in his blood. Yet 'his' watch is no minute repeater, but a flyback Became chronograph. Conscious choice?
Luca Stradivari donates this watch to his clients after completing an interior design project, as a token of thanks for their trust. These often involve flats and other properties in Monaco worth tens of millions.
But if the watch is a minute repeater had become, they would be very expensive presents...
Your daily work is watches. Luca Stradivari's ranges from luxury yachts to furniture, interiors and entire building designs. How difficult was it to draw him into your world of micro-design and engineering?
This was indeed not very easy. On the computer screen, a part still seems quite large, but when it is then brought to a scale of 1 to 1, it is often only then that it becomes apparent that it is too small or impossible to produce.
Do you see it as an added value when someone from outside the watch world is involved in watch design and are there other designers you would like to collaborate with?
It definitely adds value, as it creates design elements that watch designers would never have thought of. My biggest wish was to work with Gerald Genta one day. He is the greatest watch designer of all time and has designed, for example, Patek Philippe's Nautilus and Audemars Piquet's Royal Oak. That wish has partly come true. I met him several times in Monaco, where he lived, and a collaboration had now begun. But before the project really took shape, he sadly passed away....
Ateliers DeMonaco operates as a small, high-end, independent brand. Creatively, are those the most fun watch brands to work at?
I think so, yes! Of course, we were taken over by Japan's Citizen Group five years ago, but fortunately I get all the freedom to develop the brand and models.
If you had to explain in two sentences what really sets Ateliers DeMonaco apart from all other watch brands, what would you answer?
Ateliers deMonaco stands out above all for its personal touch. Customers can have a watch made in consultation that 100% bespoke is. We then sit down with the customer and discuss the project from the beginning of the research and development process to delivery. Everything is personally supervised. This personalisation can be a simple engraving, but it sometimes happens that even the watch is developed especially for a customer.
See also: ateliers-demonaco.com
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