TF Est. 1968 was created in Geneva in 2011. The company’s founder, Freddy Tschumi, is in his own words a “typical consumer” of accessories, and looks around him for inspiration to create and design his typically masculine accessories. His idea was to offer products inspired by the world of watches and watch movements.
Over the last four years, TF Est. 1968 has continued to draw upon this fascination with the engine that beats at the heart of a watch to develop a panoply of elegant accessories, beginning with perhaps the most refined of them all: the cufflink. Each quirky accessory can be paired up with one or more of the others, either because they belong to the same subtly nuanced family, or because of their shared horological lineage.
Freddy Tschumi’s main concern, apart from his desire to create unique products, is to observe the highest standards of quality. All of the accessories produced by TF Est. 1968, from design through each production stage, are carefully constructed to stand the test of time, and cope with the rigours of everyday use.
TF Est. 1968’s Clockwork and Wheelwork collections feature laser-cut or engraved designs inspired by watch movements, and the pens in the collection have a crown – the little button used to wind a mechanical watch – on the end. The Tourbillon family all feature a working tourbillon mechanism under a protective sapphire glass. Another collection, the T-Mechanic Openside, voted “pen of the year” by the specialist press in the United States, reveals part of a watch movement, vertically orientated and imprisoned inside a glass tube.
In 2016 the Geneva brand is expanding its men’s accessory range with the Automatic belt. The belt buckle, in the form of a tonneau-shaped watch case, contains a simulated watch movement complete with gear wheels and winding rotor, which sets everything in motion when the wearer moves. The belt proudly borrows from the conventions of high-end watches: blued screws, brass and steel gears and Geneva striping on the rotor. The reversible brown and black belt is made of premium quality leather, and has matching beige and black topstitching. The Automatic is available in three sizes. A matching set of cufflinks is also available.
