Christophe Claret was born into a wealthy well-established family in Lyon.
Christophe Claret was born into a wealthy well-established family in Lyon.
Christophe Claret’s passion is born in the workshop of a watchmaker restorer and he spends over a year disassembling and assembling horological mechanisms in order to clean and service them.
Christophe Claret is admitted to the Geneva Watchmaking School. In parallel, Christophe Claret sets up his watchmaking workshop in Lyon.
Christophe Claret graduates from Watchmaking School with a “diploma” certificate granted exclusively to only the best students.
Keen to improve his knowledge, Christophe Claret spends ten months with Roger Dubuis, a talented watchmaker whom he had met during his training. During this period, he learns a great deal by working with perpetual calendar watches.
In parallel with his work, Christophe Claret takes classes in corporate management. He enrols with the Chambre des Métiers in Lyon for a two-year training cycle and continues with significant personal research.
Creates his first symbolic skeletonised watches found illustrated in the first Christophe Claret brochure.
First hour and quarter repeater watch with jacks, made by Christophe Claret when he was an artisan.
Year he encounters Rolf Schnyder, an industrialist who has just bought the prestigious Ulysse Nardin brand. It marks the start of his career as a creative watchmaker. The new owner places an unprecedented order with the young craftsman, involving creating, developing and producing 20 minute-repeater calibres with jacks
Creation of a limited company bearing his name in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland. Transitioning from restoration work, he begins developing movements, a niche in which he would become recognized and respected around the world.
Christophe Claret turns to (or teams with) Giulio Papi and Dominique Renaud, two watchmakers who agree to join him in this venture. To create a framework for their joint activity, Christophe Claret founds a new company which he names RPC, standing for Renaud Papi Claret, and of which he awards or provides over two-thirds of the shares to his partners in order to motivate them.
Christophe Claret’s first creation as a movement design engineer: Calibre CLA88, a San Marco minute repeater watch.
Christophe Claret buys the shares owned by Messrs Dominique Renaud and Giulio Papi in order to become the sole shareholder. The company is renamed Christophe Claret SA.
To mark his company’s tenth anniversary, Christophe Claret presents an exceptional creation, inspired by Antoine Favre’s late 18th century creations: the first musical wristwatch to chime in passing and on demand, featuring a 20-tooth comb and playing two tunes.
World Première
Wristwatch with sapphire bridges and mainplate, and tourbillon.
Christophe Claret acquires the Soleil d’Or, a magnificent mansion perched on the heights of Le Locle. Within a few years, this magnificent residence will be transformed into (one of the world’s most a cutting-edge watch Manufacture’s. Uniting all professions involved in the design, development and production of movements as well as other parts of the watch such as cases, the premises have undergone a progress transformation into a superb contemporary watch production facility.
Tourbillon Orbital: unique in the world when first created, the IO200 is a watch born of a dream cherished by Christophe Claret. Equipped with a tourbillon regulator, this calibre pivots on its axis inside the case. It called for the development of a dedicated ball-bearing mechanism and is protected by a patent. A patented lateral power reserve, visible on the side of the case, sets the finishing touch to this innovative calibre (Jean Dunand).
Inauguration of a new 500 square-metre annex to the Manufacture Claret.
Tourbillon Glissière
Calibre CHW97 has a winding system associating oscillating weights sliding along rods in front of a double rotating system behind them. The second major innovation takes the form of a power-reserve displayed on a carriage that slides along a rail. Finally, winding and time-setting are performed on the back of the watch, which made it possible to eliminate the crown at 3 o’clock. Grand Prize Winner 1997 (Harry Winston).
Third and complete 100 square-metre annex. The original mansion and the new ultra-modern workshops are linked by a glass and steel passage way single-handedly embodying the company spirit: the alliance between ancestral tradition know-how and state-of-the-art contemporary technologies.
To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Manufacture, Christophe Claret launches the DualTow, a concentrated mechanical blend of the company’s skills.
The 2009 thus becomes a turning point in the history of the Manufacture Claret, a milestone that its owner wished to symbolise by an exclusive timepiece produced and distributed under its own name by the finest retailers.
Named DualTow, it faithfully reflects the watchmaking horology of Christophe Claret. Housing several inventions including one that is patented, this single-pusher planetary chronograph and tourbillon expresses both technical excellence and absolute dedicated to aesthetic sophistication.
At Baselworld 2010, the DualTow returns in an even more spellbinding version. Its subtly sophisticated face provides a discreet backdrop that highlights its exceptional mechanism. Presented in an all-black version and in black with white accents, its stealth-style shape, angular lugs and tinted sapphire bridges are reflected in its intriguing name: NightEagle.
Presented at Geneva, the Adagio watch features central hour and minute hands, big seconds, a dual time-zone display with day/night indication, a patented large date and a minute repeater. The “cathedral gongs” of the striking mechanism are fitted with a patent.
Presented at Baselworld, the Blackjack watch is a genuine miniature casino. It presents three games: blackjack, which consists of drawing cards to equal or come as close as possible to 21 points and strikes each time a card is displayed, roulette and dice. The latter timepiece marks the official launch of the Christophe Claret brand.
Christophe Claret presents the Baccara, a spectacular timepiece that doubles as a miniature casino with three games: baccarat (‘baccara’ in French), roulette and dice, each one of them appealing to our audio, visual, and tactile senses. The Baccara forms part of the new and original field of horological innovation initiated by Christophe Claret – that of playful, interactive timepieces.
X-TREM-1, the first of a new generation of timepieces, features an unprecedented magnetization system to display the hours and minutes. The X-TREM concept expresses Christophe Claret’s determination to continue pushing the boundaries of mechanical watchmaking, introducing mechanical principles never previously used in the sphere of horology.
The Soprano watch is a new model associating two of the finest horological complications: a 60-second tourbillon and a minute repeater with a Westminster chime; four patented cathedral gongs and four hammers, highlighted by stepped bridges inspired by the Charles X style. Tradition and modernity are united in this creation, entirely in keeping with the demands of ultra high-end watchmaking developed by the Manufacture Claret.
Kantharos, the new creation from Christophe Claret certainly embodies a stunning blend of haute horlogerie expertise and high-tech precision. This mono-pusher chronograph with striking mechanism and constant force escapement, which provides a constant energy from beginning to end of the power reserve, asserts its own identity and reinvents the measurement of timing events. The automatic-winding chronograph's cathedral gong visible at 10 o’clock audibly chimes with each change of function. The perpetually moving mechanism exercises a hypnotic visual effect, which may be admired beneath a meticulously chamfered sapphire bridge revealing the full extent of the master-watchmaker’s know-how.
We have already had the 21 Blackjack and Baccara, now comes Poker, the latest addition to Christophe Claret's trilogy of gaming watches. Poker allows users to immerse themselves in real three-player games of the most popular variant: Texas Hold’em.
Maestoso has written a new chapter in the history of Haute Horlogerie. And the challenge? To equip a wristwatch with a traditional detent escapement, a mechanism usually designed to run in a perfectly stabilized position.
He loves me… he loves me not With Christophe Claret’s Margot, time is wooed infinitely. On the dial, the classic conundrum comes to life in an elegant and romantic ladies’ timepiece.
Christophe Claret’s passion for history has inspired him to create Aventicum, a tribute to the capital of ancient Roman Helvetia and to highlight the extraordinary work of the Avenches Roman Museum. In the center of its dial, Aventicum reveals a miniature gold bust of Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius.
Following Adagio and Soprano, Christophe Claret presents his latest musical masterpiece, Allegro. A master watchmaker with 25 years of experience, Christophe Claret has combined the finest horological complications in Allegro: minute repeater with cathedral gongs, GMT, big date, small seconds and day/night indicator.
A new flower is blooming in the Christophe Claret watch garden. The romantic and subtly poetic Marguerite watch embodies the essence of feminine watchmaking as conceived by Christophe Claret.
2016: The Christophe Claret brand participates for the first time to the Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie in Geneva, in the Carré des Horlogers, an area dedicated to independent watchmakers.
Endowed with a seven-day power reserve, a cone-shaped large date display and a 3D MEMO function, Maestro asserts itself as the first Haute Complication watch by Christophe Claret with a CHF 68,000 price tag.
Five years after unveiling the X-TREM-1 timepiece, the watchmaker joins forces with StingHD in launching a daring mechanical “memento mori”, issued in an 8-piece limited edition.