Charles Girardier

Like a star shooting across the Geneva sky, Charles Girardier exerted his talent from the late eighteenth century, working quietly in his atelier in the city. The last in the Girardier line, he was by no means a prolific watchmaker: his signature appears on a rare few pocket watches. One of the most famous is on display at the Geneva Museum of Art and History. Another can be admired at the Petit Palais Museum of Fine Arts in Paris.

The former features a finely chased engraving depicting a classical scene. It frames a discreet enamel dial that is swept simply by hand-crafted hour and minute hands. It is this unique style, in which the dial becomes a canvas for the most noble decorative arts, that has inspired the revival of the Charles Girardier name. Still in Geneva, the Charles Girardier brand brings the master watchmaker's creativity back into the spotlight. Taking inspiration from an aesthetic close to that of the watches made by Charles Girardier himself, the brand gives life to timepieces for men and women in which traditional métiers d'art such as grand feu enamelling, paillonnage and engraving take pride of place.

Helping to safeguard these time-honoured crafts is an entrepreneur, Patrick Ulm, who in 2018 acquired the possibility to bring this grand name and its romantic spirit back to life. It took close to two years of technical and artistic developments for the first watches to see daylight. Charles Girardier timepieces are designed and made at an independent Manufacture in Geneva. Every component of the habillage and the in-house movement are guaranteed of Swiss origin. Given its highly limited production, the brand is destined for a clientele of knowledgeable collectors who value authenticity and singularity, both mechanical and artistic.