A high-performance mechanical watch remains a rare object that works without batteries or software. It is a miniature engine, built from hundreds of parts, powered by wound springs and regulated by an escapement. In a year dominated by ephemeral digital services, buyers are drawn to...
The story begins in 1953, when two French naval officers emerged from the Mediterranean with water-logged wristwatches and an urgent need for something better. At almost the same time, a young Swiss chief executive, who had just gasped his way back to the surface after...