Op-Ed: The Rise of the Indies

MB&F, F.P. Journe, De Bethune, Richard Mille. For watch enthusiasts who’ve landed in the hobby within the past 5-10 years, these are nearly household names. Not that long ago, though, the landscape was vastly different. At one point, watch dealers across the continent — whether authorized dealer boutiques or otherwise — wouldn’t touch a brand that wasn’t a legacy name. Rolex, Patek, Omega, and the like were the currency of the time, and prior to the days of digital collecting communities, meetups, and watch blogs, even a name like F.P. Journe was seldom heard.

To speak of “the rise if the indies” in just terms, it’s the early days that really matter. I’m not talking about how all of a sudden certain people started hoarding a specific brand or two, or how during the pandemic formerly less desirable references from Urwerk and De Bethune doubled in value. If we want to talk about the rise as the first leaves sprouting up from barren soil, we have to go back to a time when these “indies” as we know them first came together: The Harry Winston Opus series.

Of the “younger generation” of collectors — those who entered the fold on a healthy dose of early Hodinkee and ABlogToWatch content — there will be some who acknowledge those last words with little other than a blank stare and a head tilt. After all, the last Harry Winston Opus watch (the Opus 14) came out in 2015 and in terms of horological buzz, that might as well have been the 1880s. The thing is, the Opus series lit the fire of indie watch collaboration and creativity, and in a sense legitimized a veritable onslaught of the modern makers we’re all obsessed with today.

With that spirit of collaboration in mind, I’ll give you one guess as to who we can thank (or blame) for this early spark. That’s right, the man whose eponymous brand includes the words “and friends”. Leaving Jaeger-LeCoultre after seven years, at the tender age of 31, Max Busser arrived to lead the Harry Winston timepiece division in 1998. The division teetered on the edge of bankruptcy, and of the numerous changes and initiatives Busser drove to keep Harry Winston timepieces afloat, the most significant was the idea of the “concept watch”.

Before Audemars Piguet embraced the term, the idea of horological excellence at its peak, and the idea of folding the incredible talents of smaller independent artisan makers into a larger collective — at this scale at least, was all Max. Obviously requiring some time to develop, the Opus 1 launched in 2001, with none other than F.P. Journe ‘s name on its caseback. All told, three Opus 1 variants were created: a Resonance, a Tourbillon fitted with a remontoir d’égalité constant escapement, and the first ever automatic watch movement with a 5-day power reserve (from a single barrel).

Journe was just the beginning of a cavalcade of watchmakers who would leave their respective imprint on the Opus collection, with each watch bearing a resemblance to the now-iconic design cues of their respective houses. If you remember the Vianney Halter Antiqua we wrote about a ways back, you’ll recognize the Opus 3. Felix Baumgartner of Urwerk’s rotating blocks and satellite time display are clear as day in the Opus 5, just as much as Greubel Forsey’s off kilter tourbillons are in the Opus 6. Hell, even the Opus 13, the final Opus developed ahead of the brand’s acquisition by the Swatch Group, is an interpretation of the clever engineering of “trigger indices” we now know as the works of Ludovic Ballouard (remember the Upside Down). Granted, Busser made his exit from the brand by the time the Opus 5 entered the market, but by then this seed of collaboration and creativity was firmly planted.

To go through the balance of Opus watches from stem to stern would be an entirely separate and lengthy venture, but the more chatter one hears online about the popularity of indies, the more one is reminded that sometimes a little history lesson goes a long way.