Ten years ago, in a corner of the 2015 SalonQP event in London, a watch called Quai des Bergues announced the rebirth of a name that had disappeared more than 150 years earlier: Czapek & Cie. By the end of the following year, the watch from an unknown startup had won the Public Prize at the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG). In the decade since then, Czapek has successfully claimed its place at the high table of contemporary haute horlogerie. A total of 10 calibres, represented in five distinct collections, has established a strong technical and aesthetic identity, a Czapek language that eloquently expresses the nuances of its unconventional spirit.

Czapek was reborn with a clear vision formed of apparent contradictions. Fuelled by an almost obsessive attention to detail and quality it is also driven by an insistence on experimentation and free thinking. There’s a sense of playfulness and risk-taking – an irreverent streak matched by a deep reverence for the traditions of haute horlogerie. Ignoring the usual way of doing things has produced some surprising results – and that sense of unpredictability has become one of Czapek’s defining qualities.

This spirit permeates everything that Czapek does and is physically manifested through a design language that unites all 10 of its calibres. Modern Czapek’s founding principle was clear: while it would draw inspiration from its 19th-century predecessor – channelling François Czapek’s design principles, devotion to craft and a certain rebellious spirit – it had no intention of reworking relics from the past. It was to be haute horlogerie in a modern spirit; traditional expertise blended with contemporary innovation – both aesthetically and technically.

In each model that Czapek creates – and within and between its five collections – there’s a tension between balance and imbalance, beauty and strangeness, the familiar and the unorthodox. These differences unite to create a golden thread that makes Czapek technically and aesthetically so uniquely Czapek. At the heart of everything lies the pursuit of Beauty. And the ultimate goal? To reinforce the emotional bond between the watch and its wearer.

François Czapek, born František Čapek in Bohemia (today’s Czech Republic) in 1811, trained in Poland as a watchmaker and arrived in Geneva as a 21-year-old refugee in 1832. After several years spent finding his watchmaking feet in this new country, he began a partnership with a fellow émigré, Antoni Patek then, in 1845 established an atelier under his own name, crafting technically and aesthetically notable watches for a clientele that included the French imperial court and European elite. Despite François Czapek’s contribution to Geneva’s reputation as the home of 19th-century haute horlogerie, once he retired in the mid-1860s, his name gradually faded into watchmaking obscurity.

Fast forward almost 150 years. After rights to the Czapek name were acquired in 2012, entrepreneurs Harry Guhl and Xavier de Roquemaurel, joined by watchmaker Sébastien Follonier (hence the SXH nomenclature of the first seven modern calibres) began the process of recreating the brand as a contemporary haute horlogerie Maison.


Everything that defines Czapek’s 21st-century personality – from its collection of ‘‘rare people’ to its design language – comes down to choices made during those pre-launch years and several mad ideas that followed soon afterwards (mad, that is, according to fine watchmaking orthodoxy and conventional business thinking at the time).

To be free of the creative and financial control inherent in having backing from a venture capital firm or an ultra-high net worth private investor, the founders’ solution – unprecedented in the luxury industry – was an equity crowdfunding campaign. Later, when high enthusiasm among retailers at Czapek’s first Baselworld in 2016 failed to convert to sales, another ‘mad idea’ emerged: sell directly online. Unheard-of in haute horlogerie, it was a great risk – and an immediate success. “We are a start-up, so we can invent our business model,” said CEO Xavier de Roquemaurel at the time.

As a start-up without a billionaire backer, the funds simply weren’t there to stake out a position in the haute horlogerie hierarchy by developing an expensive, high-complication watch. Also, while such a piece might turn heads, it was totally at odds with the founders’ insistence on building a no-ego company. The solution – the Quai des Bergues – turned out to be a statement of intent and philosophy even more powerful than a ‘bells and whistles’ first model. Another ego-check: rather than trying to master everything at the outset, Czapek would harness the skills of the best specialists in a variety of areas – choosing partners whose values resonated with the new company’s ethos and who were not tied down by watchmaking orthodoxy. In doing so, it honours the watchmaking tradition of établissage that is largely disappearing in today’s era of full vertical integration. Also in the no-ego vein: ‘Creative Director’ would not be a job title at Czapek: internal designers, various independent designers, Czapek’s team and its partner artisans all contribute pieces of the puzzle, with Xavier acting as a kind of ‘orchestra conductor’.

Czapek’s haute horlogerie philosophy is expressed through its ‘small is beautiful’ approach. Production is limited and aesthetic variations of any given model are almost invariably limited editions; clients are able to customise their watches by mixing different dial colours, markers, hands and straps – a degree of personalisation rare in high-end watchmaking. Matching its production process to its values, at Czapek a single watchmaker assembles a watch from start to finish, giving the watchmaker a greater sense of ownership over each watch while strengthening the relationship with the client.


Czapek’s first years were an emotional rollercoaster: from almost zero sales (despite tremendous interest) at Baselworld in April 2016, to the ‘outrageous idea’ of direct online sales that ended up exceeding the target for the year. The struggling startup slowly gained traction and, at the end of 2018, broke into profit for the first time. In 2019, with this proof of concept secured, Czapek opened its first flagship boutique in Geneva, just a stone’s throw from the location of François Czapek’s 19th-century atelier. Amid a global lockdown, May 2020 looked like terrible timing for the launch of the Antarctique – but with everyone stuck at home, interest in high-end watches soared and so did the Antarctique. With the first limited editions selling out within a few weeks or days, the watch became a runaway success, propelling Czapek to a whole new level of international recognition.

However, success brought different growing pains: by the end of the year, Czapek had a backlog of around 600 watches to deliver and at the end of 2022 – by now installed in its own manufacture in La Chaux-de-Fonds – the backlog topped 2,000 pieces and Czapek had to close the Antarctique order books.

Meanwhile, Czapek’s technical evolution continued: as its internal skill base expanded, in 2020 SHX5 became the first calibre to be designed and conceived entirely in-house. Calibre 9, introduced at the beginning of 2025 marked another big step: not only designed and constructed in-house it was also machined mostly in-house.

Taking the 19th-century pocket watches of François Czapek as ground zero, Czapek’s technical evolution through 10 calibres over the past decade has been underpinned by a distinctive aesthetic identity. SXH1 was conceived as a modern homage to the calibre of François Czapek’s pocket watch No. 3430. Aesthetically and functionally true to the 1850 original, it features a highly unusual indicator combining day of the week and 7-day power reserve at 4:30, complemented by small seconds at 7:30. For those who took SXH1 as a literal definition of Czapek’s stylistic and technical path, SXH2 came as a surprise: a technical leap to a tourbillon and an aesthetic pivot to a strikingly modern dial-side display of a suspended tourbillon and second time zone.

Both calibres are proprietary and were developed in partnership with Jean-François Mojon of Chronode and, while SXH1 crystallised the journey from past to present, SXH2 took Czapek from the present to the future. Then came a series of classical complications, each reinterpreted in Czapek’s own distinctive language – with some unexpected sidesteps along the way.

Launching the Faubourg de Cracovie collection in 2018 with Calibre SXH3, Czapek turned to a classical complication – the chronograph – in collaboration with Vaucher Manufacture Fleurier. Based on Vaucher calibre VMF 6710, the high-frequency (36,000 vph / 5Hz) movement was fully customised for Czapek. At Baselworld 2019, Czapek surprised the watch world with The Sands of Time hourglass, a beautiful object created to express the beauty of time itself. Calibre 4 – a time-measuring device rather than a movement in the true sense – was co-created with Moser Glassworks which, like François Czapek, traces its roots to 19th-century Bohemia.

Next, came the game-changer, the in-house Calibre SXH5.
Designed for the Antarctique collection, it was created with the twin objectives of sports-watch performance – with a micro-rotor in recycled platinum for improved inertia – and visual delight, provided by its distinctive architecture of seven skeletonised bridges. The following year, 2021, brought SXH6, developed for the Antarctique Rattrapante in collaboration with Chronode. Pushing the inherent playfulness of the split-seconds chronograph complication to its limit, the unprecedented ‘upside-down’ movement architecture revealed all the key elements and their connections – chronograph clutch, reset cams, levers – on the dial side. This passion for the visual pleasure of watch mechanics manifested itself again with SHX7, released in the Antarctique Révélation in 2023. Reinterpreting SXH5, it went far beyond merely open-working the existing movement: the entire calibre was reengineered, with the escapement reversed to offer a full view of it on the dial side and the central seconds hand replaced by a small seconds subdial at 4:30.

At the end of 2023, the Place Vendôme Complicité marked another bold step in Czapek’s technical evolution. Calibre 8, created in collaboration with master watchmaker Bernhard Lederer, employs a rare and highly technical double escapement. Working on the principle that, with power delivered from a single barrel via a differential to two independently beating balance wheels, any variation in rate will be cancelled out, thus ensuring greater timekeeping accuracy.

With the launch of the Promenade collection in 2024, Calibre SXH5 was again revisited: a movement conceived for a sports watch was transmuted into one for a highly stylised dress watch. For SXH5.1, the central seconds hand became a small-seconds register in the signature 4:30 position, creating a visual anchor for myriad artistic treatments of the dial. Calibre 9, introduced at the beginning of 2025, again reconciled two apparent contradictions: the delicacy of a tourbillon and the sporty spirit of the Antarctique. The architecture of the Antarctique Flying Tourbillon again reveals the heart of the machine on the dial side, with the tourbillon, gear train and barrel appearing to float above the main plate.

Calibre 10 leads Czapek into its second decade.
A tribute to François Czapek’s pocket watches written in contemporary language and the foundation of a new series of in-house automatic movements, it has been designed to host a variety of complications. However, rather than just adding modular functions, every future evolution of Calibre 10 will be entirely re-engineered to fully integrate each complication.

The first iteration, Calibre 10.1 combines a central jumping hour display for 24 hours with trailing minutes on a peripheral disc, housed in a playfully retro-futuristic case with a half-hunter cover.

Expressing itself through 10 calibres and 5 collections, Czapek’s transition from past to future – encapsulated in the difference between the first two modern collections and permeating the entire spirit of the brand – has evolved into a distinct design identity over the past decade.

The primary principle: homage to the past but no slavish copying. Thus, for example, the multiple bridge constructions typical of 19th-century Czapek pocket watches have been reinterpreted in Calibres SXH5 and SXH7 as a series of open-worked bridges angled from the outer edge of the calibre to grip the gear wheels. Vertical symmetry, another signature of François Czapek’s architecture, is expressed through the alignment of hours-minutes with day-night registers in SXH2; the two column wheels in SXH6 (chronograph at the top, split-second mechanism at the bottom) and the barrel and tourbillon of Calibre 9.

The tension between symmetry and asymmetry, so eloquently expressed in François Czapek’s work, is ever-present in the modern collections. The displays for the complications on the 19th-century pocket watch No. 3430 were translated literally into SXH1, positioned at 7:30 and 4:30 rather than on the 9–3 axis. This has since become a signature, rewritten in many ways: the tourbillon and power reserve on SXH2; the off-centred small seconds on Calibre 5.1; the minute totaliser and small seconds on SXH6; the two escapements on Calibre 8. The play with asymmetry went even further on SXH7: the rotor at 9:00, barrel at 1:00 and – tipping its hat back to SXH1 – small seconds at 4:30.

The powerful architecture of every modern Czapek calibre emphasises three-dimensionality, combining open and closed elements in a dance of curves and concentric circles: circles within circles on SXH1, Calibre 8 and Calibre 10; curving bridges and cutouts on SXH1, SXH5 and SXH7. Bold straight lines anchor the designs as a contemporary counterpoint to the elegant curves of traditional watchmaking: the arms of the open-worked oscillating weights of SXH6 and Calibres 9 and 10; the skeletonised bridges of SXH3 and SXH5; the signature tripod bridge of SXH6 and SXH7, which echoes the rectilinear dial-side bridges of SXH2.

A fascination with mechanical beauty informs the design of every calibre. From the partially open-worked bridges on SXH1 and Calibre 8 to the airy construction of SXH3, SXH7 and Calibre10 and the full skeletonisation of SXH7, it’s not only about the beauty of line, form and finish but also the visual pleasure of the kinematics. Taking the principle further, SXH2 reveals key mechanical elements on the dial side and SXH6 and SXH7 reverse the entire movement.

This architectural language is enriched by component finishes used in combinations that have also become a visual signature. Traditional and modern techniques create plays of light and dark tones, reflections and textures – sandblasting contrasts with hand-bevelling; black PVD contrasts with rhodium plating – compositions that emphasise the three-dimensional architecture and draw the eye to the heart of the calibre.

The beauty of these movements is honoured by the cases that house them. Blending past and present, adhering to the round shape of traditional haute horlogerie yet rich in contemporary detail, each is a beautiful object while never competing with the beauty of the calibre or dial. Again, there’s a subtle but recognisable Czapek language – an effortless elegance that feels deeply comfortable on the wrist as well as, proverbially speaking, utterly comfortable in its own skin.

And the dials. The face of Czapek is another creative playground where past and future meet, deploying centuries-old decorative crafts in new ways – or sometimes dispensing with the traditional notion of a dial altogether. Guilloché has become a Czapek hallmark, with new patterns developed to create texture, a sense of movement or an optical illusion of depth – different patterns specific to different calibres, each one taking the layout of the dial displays as its starting point. Some of the most visually striking and original patterns began by accident – a small miscalculation by the guillocheur. At Czapek, a mistake is often a creative opportunity, fuelled by the willingness always to challenge its own achievements, together with its collaborative working style.

Producing model variations in small series – often in response to collectors’ requests or to suggestions by partners Metalem, Donzé Cadrans and MD’Art – provides more opportunities to play with textures, materials, optical tricks and a ‘no rules’ colour palette. Uncommon finishes such as lamé, and finely pleated metal, rare materials such as osmium, different techniques of enamelling, hand-varnishing and lacquering have added up to a vast array of faces, each with its own distinct character. This variety, in itself, is intrinsic to Czapek’s design language.

Distinctive dial colours and decorative patterns notwithstanding, there is a certain understatement to the design of a Czapek watch that expresses a singular idea of luxury. For the wearer, it is not the luxury defined by an instantly recognisable statement of success or wealth; it has a more emotional resonance. Philosophically connected to the Latin word lux, meaning light or clarity, it is an appreciation of craft, of detail, of expressing oneself in an uncommon way – recognised only by others who share similar values.

Introduced in 2019, Czapek’s motto honours its unusually devoted community, which began with the shareholders – a rare breed who don’t just love watches but are impassioned by the chance to own part of an haute horlogerie venture. It also includes the supplying partners who contribute rare watchmaking and artistic savoir-faire and a constant flow of ideas; the tightly knit group of retail partners around the world, who have a rare appreciation of Czapek’s mission and purpose; and the clients and collectors with a rare obsession for things like beauty and quality.

Beyond a statement about its community, “we collect rare people” is a gently provocative play on words that encapsulates the philosophy infusing every cell of the company and expressed through every watch. Perhaps the most important – indeed the most unusual – of those qualities is the spirit of openness and transparency. Again, expressed by the Latin lux. Because the crowdfunding model required open books, the company naturally became transparent – and thus unusually collaborative and open to ideas. This open and transparent quality is reflected in the physical design of Czapek’s creations – both the calibres and their habillage – and the depth of creativity that they represent.

“In an important sense, Czapek symbolises mankind’s capacity to create,” says Xavier de Roquemaurel. “And we see creativity as a source of happiness that is better shared rather than owned. That makes our notion of ‘rare people’ inclusive, rather than exclusive; being part of it is an opportunity to experience luxury as a way of being rather than things to have.”

This also explains why for Czapek, having its own manufacture does not signal a desire for vertical integration; mastering all the key skills internally simply allows it to be agile, independent and to experiment with small quantities that wouldn’t make sense for an outside supplier. It also maintains the all-important freedom to collaborate with the best specialist partners in any given area – not to mention its collectors and shareholders.

Above all, it allows Czapek to keep having fun and confounding expectations as it enters its second decade, evolving as it pleases and continuing to play with a technical and design language in which each word and every phrase is joined by a golden thread: the pursuit of Beauty.