Red Stromatolite and Maw Sit Sit!

Still discreet on the watchmaking scene, AKHOR is an independent Geneva-based house whose identity revolves around a very particular dial construction. In the Le Temps en Équilibre collection, an upper disc seems to float at the centre of the watch, freed from any visible attachment, above a second level bearing the hour markers. For Geneva Watch Days, this architecture welcomes two rare ornamental stones for the first time: red stromatolite and maw sit sit.

Let us focus here on the red stromatolite. Hardstone dials have regained an important place in recent years, with a fairly clear preference for lapis lazuli, malachite and tiger’s eye. Stromatolite belongs to a much more unusual field in watchmaking, with shades that are equally uncommon. Deep browns, ochres, caramel and charcoal veins mingle here with a dominant red that gives the disc a very distinctive presence.

This irregularity is part of its appeal. The stone becomes a true visual signature, its natural structure containing a genuine random component in the distribution of veins and colour variations, a mechanism that no traditional decorative process can reproduce identically.

Once upon a time, time…

The material also possesses a depth that goes far beyond its aesthetic interest. Formed layer after layer by colonies of cyanobacteria, stromatolites are among the oldest known traces of life on Earth. Fossilised, the stone preserves its concentric undulations, like a succession of lines accumulated over the course of a time measured on an entirely different scale.

On a watch dial, the image takes on an obvious resonance. The hands measure the hours while the stone preserves the trace of a geological calendar billions of years old. Each layer evokes a season of the world, each undulation a chapter formed long before the very idea of measuring time was born. AKHOR thus gives centre stage to a material that already carries within itself its own measure of time.

The choice of the upper disc further accentuates this presence. The stromatolite covers only part of the surface and is concentrated at the centre of the composition, suspended within the architecture of the AK10 calibre. The stone is thinned down to a few tenths of a millimetre, then cut, polished and fitted by hand. At this thickness, the slightest vein or internal tension can cause a break. Several discs may be sacrificed before a single one makes it into the case, a reminder of just how delicate these dials remain to produce.

The piece retains measured proportions, with a 39 mm gold case measuring 11 mm in thickness. A white alligator strap accompanies the whole and extends the light tone of the lower dial, while the gold numerals and hands echo the warm shades of the stromatolite.

A triple-certified movement

Beneath the dial, the manually wound AK10 calibre operates at 4 Hz and offers 60 hours of power reserve. It bears the Geneva Seal and benefits from double chronometric certification issued by the COSC and the Geneva Chronometric Observatory. A rare combination that underlines the level of standards claimed by the house.

AKHOR accompanies this version with a second interpretation in maw sit sit. Originating from Kachin State in Burma, this stone is distinguished by a dense, almost electric green, crossed by dark veins. Once again, the choice moves away from the stones most commonly used in watchmaking and gives the same architecture an entirely different face.