I have been fortunate enough to have visited several watch manufactures and ateliers over the course of doing this blog, some that I have written about, and some that I haven’t. Some of the bigger manufactures include Blancpain and Bremont, and some of the smaller ateliers have included the likes of Laurent Ferrier, Jean Kazès, Rexhep Rexhepi/Akrivia, and most recently that of Simon Brette.
These have of course varied in size and scale, and despite the fact that there are many of the same functions fulfilled, I find there to be something inherently more romantic about the smaller ateliers with a few rooms, in some cases only 1 or 2, where artisans go about their work crafting only a few pieces each year.
Indeed, there was even something not too dissimilar at Blancpain where a separate much smaller facility from the main factory named “The Farm”, a few minutes across Le Brassus, where the most complicated pieces are assembled and hand finished in the relative peace and quiet when compared with the main manufacture.
Suffice it to say that this experience was definitely towards the smaller end of this scale! Whilst in Geneva recently with Pietro Tomajer of The Limited Edition and Pietro’s friend Stéfane, we paid a visit to the atelier of Cédric Johner, an independent watchmaker of more than 30 years.
Cédric Johner Atelier Visit
Cédric Johner at work in his atelier
When we arrived, Stéfane knocked on the door and we were greeted with a call from round the corner – Cédric had just expanded his workshop into the adjoining room and turned that into his atelier entrance! So, we duly backtracked down the corridor and were invited inside.
Inside there were two rooms, one resembled a reception type area with one or two tools on the side, a shelving unit with plenty of books and a few seats around a small coffee table. The second room – the room we had initially tried to enter from the outside – was the workshop area. This was filled with countless tools, workstations, supplies, and decorated with photographic prints of Cédric Johner watches on the walls.
After a bit of a chat, going back and forth between French and English, I learned that Johner had started out in the jewellery industry before turning his hand to watchmaking, and it was this which had put him in such good stead when it comes to his way of working – Johner creates very few pieces, all of which are crafted and decorated by his own hand using the traditional machines and tools in his workshop.
He even makes each of his cases by hand, starting with a block of whichever material it may be, cutting it down and shaping it using his hand operated machines and tools, and as the case takes shape, filing it by hand into the final shape before polishing it to perfection.
As a client of Cédric Johner’s, you have plenty of customisable options available as we often see within the realm of independent watchmaking, specifically characteristics such as the choice of material, dial colours, movement colours, and numerals.
Any engraving is again applied by hand, and stemming from his origins as a jewellery-maker Johner has created his own tools to apply a particular type of bead, or bubble, effect finishing. By pressing a sharp small circular edge into a surface and rotating it, the tool creates a small bead on the surface, and when doing this hundreds of times to create little beads next to one another, from a little further away it looks quite similar to the “frosted gold” effect that Audemars Piguet use, but up close you can appreciate that this is an entirely different and unique decoration.
Johner was kind of enough to show us how he does this, using a microscope to make sure each bead is placed to perfection, which led me to have a far greater appreciation of the craftsmanship that goes into his watches.
He then showed us a piece unique that he had created to showcase his skills as an engraver which depicted the shores of Lake Geneva, where Johner had meticulously hand engraved the buildings around the shore to an incredible level of detail. This piece had been granted the Poinçon de Genève, or Geneva Seal, a hallmark reserved for only the highest quality finishing.
Hand engraving by Cédric Johner
I was in awe of the detailing on this watch; the fact that this had all been done by the hand of Cédric Johner in this small atelier was mind-blowing, and I think another wonderful example of, and testament to, artisanal independent watchmaking at it’s finest.
After this, we got to see and try some of the 30th Anniversary Edition Abyss chronographs, a series of 30 watches to celebrate the 30 years of Cédric Johner being an independent watchmaker, powered by Valjoux 23 movements which have been fastidiously decorated by Johner. With this series, there will be only 30 numbered pieces produced before it ceases.
Having this on my wrist not long after seeing the early stages of the case making process, I found it astonishing to see that something of this level of quality was the end result – it’s difficult to overstate the skill required to evolve a block of metal, by hand, from what I had seen earlier into this sleek, comfortable and beautifully crafted watch case on my wrist.
The decorative finish that had been applied to the movement as well was beautiful to see. I’m a huge fan of movements which are decorated in such a way that there is a bit of colour contrast, and this particular movement was beautifully done – I think it helps too that the movement is a manually wound one, the lack of a rotor serving to make sure that the whole thing can be enjoyed at all times.
We spoke a little more about some of the watches and enjoyed a nice hot drink on this overcast Geneva day, before thanking Cédric for his time and hospitality, and making our way back from Carouge to central Geneva.
In Summary
I’ve said it countless times before on this site, but one of the reasons I gravitate towards independent watchmaking is that you can really get a sense what goes into these watches. In this case, the decades of skill and the craftsmanship belonging to one man in Cédric Johner, who in a small Geneva workshop produces just a handful of watches a year to his clients’ exacting specifications.
The sense of awe that I got from holding these watches, being able to witness some snippets of the process first hand, and appreciating the effort that goes into them is, to my mind, an ever-welcome reminder of just why it so easy to fall in love with these little things we wear on our wrists.
A huge thank you to Pietro at The Limited Edition and Stéfane for inviting me along, and of course to Cédric Johner for his kind hospitality and taking the time to speak with us. To learn more visit Cedric-Johner.ch, follow Cédric Johner on Instagram, or reach out to Pietro at The Limited Edition.
If you have any questions, please get in touch via our Contact page, or via our Instagram.
You might also be interested in:
- Laurent Ferrier Manufacture Visit
- In Conversation with Pietro Tomajer
- Spotlight: Jean Kazès
- Watch Stationery and Gift Ideas
- Watch Books, Watch Boxes and more at the Watch Affinity Shop on Amazon (commissions earned)
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