The Manufacture Royale has a motto: "E pluribus, unum", usually translated as "Out of many, one", which is the very essence of this young company whose roots go back to the time of Voltaire, and where the creativity of its founding aces combine to bring to lovers of beautiful timepieces an object which is simply unique. United in the search for perfection, these artists have pushed the limits of human creativity to deliver a work capable of increasing the fervor of those who love such objects, and even change one's idea about time in all its forms.
"Great minds think alike", said Voltaire, and Arnaud Faivre knows what that means. This not-so-young French entrepreneur, having already a full career behind him whilst working for the best in the industry, wished to take his art to another level and provide timepieces designed to satisfy the very demanding expectations of the real enthusiast.
Having had the responsibility within the most prestigious firms of creating delicate hand-made watch parts, he has decided to launch his own brand. Although daily able to contemplate the most beautiful of objects, he has taken up the challenge of breathing new life into an undertaking dating back to the Age of Enlightenment and which almost everyone has either forgotten or never even knew: the workshop founded by Voltaire in Ferney, a village bordering Geneva but on the other side of the frontier.
Driven by an unquenchable sense of perfection, and an equally consuming passion for the art of watch-making, he has been joined by similar 'pure' spirits prepared to give their all - talent, time and technique - to a project that, in both concept and creation, takes that art to heights until now unimaginable. The idea is not to produce the next rare, exclusive watch, but to create a work of art in the full sense of the term; to produce an instrument whose objective qualities make it stand out from the crowd. In short, the idea is to push all the relevant concepts to their limits so that, starting from scratch, one can create the 'ultimate'.
A purely intellectual approach to horology where the strength and beauty of the object are the very essence of its nobility, of its pertinence, and of its durability.
Nobility
Manufacture Royale's emblem, freely derived from the anvil in the rock which, according to the legend, housed King Arthur's sword, Excalibur (1), is a powerful sign for those who are capable of forming ideas from symbols. Such a symbol sets the tone for the noble ambitions that the company has fixed for itself.
Attached to these noble qualities, the creative talents of Arnaud Faivre and Charles Grosbéty are associated with the unparalleled skills of master watch-makers Michel Navas and Enrico Barbasini to offer to 12 lucky individuals the chance to possess a masterpiece such as no-one has seen before. Each in his own sphere, these men, motivated by the idea of the 'bienfacture', have put all their skills towards producing something quite simply exquisite in terms of the conception of the movements and the quality of the finish.
Nobility also in the way in which the company has been founded! It's not just a question of the Manufacture Royale leaving for posterity some one-off exotic mechanisms, but rather some extremely original, but reliable and reproducible concepts and constructs. This is the reason for choosing to combine features that improve the watch's precision with others that enable the eye and the ear to take advantage of this new level of precision.
(1): Lancelot and the Holy Grail: 13th century story attributed to Gautier Map relating the childhood and early reign of the legendary King Arthur, king of both Brittanies. Anonymous. Re by Jean Frappier, in old French, published by Editions Droz, c. 1936 / 6 volumes.
Durability
Decidedly innovative, although classic at first sight, the caliber is just 5.45 mm thick for its 32 mm and its ingenious openwork design for the plates and bridges can be observed through the back and front sapphire crystal windows (three mirrors for seven views). It required three years of research at the Fabrique du Temps by Michel Navas and Enrico Barbasini, two master craftsmen who have spent a lifetime designing exceptional movements for the most prestigious names in the business.
For the Manufacture Royale, these two have created the mechanical heart with manual rewinding, regulated by a tourbillon, which is fundamentally classical, but for which the functional ideas are quite simply audacious.
In effect, if the bottom plate and the bridges have been machined traditionally in brass, rhodium plated and finished by hand, the components of the escapement oscillating at 3 Hz (i.e. 21,600 vibrations per hour) are really avant-garde. For functionality and performance reasons, the company has chosen for the assortiment of the tourbillion cage, an escape wheel and anchor sculpted in silicon.
Durability comes at this price because the components possess longevity hugely in excess of that usually found in the profession, guaranteeing a much higher degree of precision over time. But the originality employed goes far beyond the futuristic materials used. For this exquisite object, comprising some 319 parts, including 29 rubies, has been conceived in such a way as to offer a power reserve of more than 100 hours. In addition, three significant innovations provide a powerful and clear striking mechanism (hours in A, minutes in C sharp), such as can be found in the finest examples of pocket watches made towards the end of the 19th century.
The Opéra watch: only 12 unique pieces. © Manufacture Royale
Pertinence
To be sure that the chimes of a repeater watch can be heard without the user having to put the watch to his ear, it was necessary to completely rethink the way the sound waves were to be created and to change the transmission method in the case.
In this area of acoustics, the Manufacture Royale has focused particularly on the force and regularity of sound by perfecting a very original repeater mechanism comprising three innovations - a more powerful rack spring, a striking mechanism spring longer than that used in traditional watches (6 turns instead of 3) and bells/chimes made with a single internal part using jealously guarded alloys and processes.
With an above average structural strength, the sound deserved a made-to-measure presentation.
A work of art is something that has attained the ultimate balance. To be able to grant such a status to this watch, it needed a real craftsman to cast his artist's eye over the mechanical creation.
When Arnaud Faivre first asked Charles Grosbéty to create the case middle for the watch, he refused. This from a man with 25 years' experience in creating unique watch-cases, and having carried out several design projects for Maserati, testifies to the level of the challenge. He is a man who works with traditional methods, i.e. without computer aid, a man whom one would call a watch sculptor. But finally, he was persuaded that the challenge of conceptualizing and producing a casing for significantly increasing the sound capabilities of an extraordinary object, was something he could not say no to.
Working with an iterative process, he conceived an articulated casing, opening and closing like the bellows of an ancient organ. This variable geometry resonance cage, tracing the Fibonacci spiral - a geometric expression linked to the golden number - resembles the exterior of the Sydney Opera House, an architectural masterpiece the artist used freely as an inspiration for creating this part.
Such a watch, with just 12 unique pieces being made, deserves a watchcase worthy of its status. Each one, made from a solid block of the most noble woods, is a reproduction of the Bastille Opera House in Paris, built on the site of the former Bastille Fortress, where the French Revolution all started, but which is also the place where Voltaire was twice imprisoned for his disrespect towards those in power at the time.
Genius is often the sum of the finest minds motivated by the same ideals.
With the Opera time-piece, the creators at the Manufacture Royale were given free rein for their talents to bring to fruition the sum of their ideas and work with a single goal, that of offering to a few discerning individuals the possibility of owning the very best mechanical representation that today's craftsmen can imagine.
The founders, all Voltaire fans and driven by the same passionate desire for perfection, see themselves as continuing the traditions of a man - writer, philosopher, and visionary entrepreneur - who wished to give new life to horology and to infuse a sense of pleasure into what are, in essence, sublime works of art.
The Manufacture Royale considers itself continuing a piece of history, and is pleased to have struck a fruitful partnering arrangement with the Chateau de Voltaire in Ferney, where it has chosen to install its head office and cultural centre. And since sincerity has no meaning without confidence and openness, the Manufacture Royale workshops are open by appointment to all those who would like to know more about the creation of the Opera time-piece, the first in a long line of exceptional watches destined to mark the standard in what watch-making craftsmen call the "bienfacture".
