Greubel Forsey was officially founded in 2004 with the launch of the Double Tourbillon 30° Vision, featuring a completely new inclined double tourbillon. However, the partnership between Robert Greubel and Stephen Forsey dates back to the turn of the millennium, with the creation of CompliTime.
Robert Greubel grew up in Alsace, France, and began his watchmaking career in his father's business, Greubel Horlogerie. He studied complications and joined IWC in Switzerland, where he helped with the development of grand complications. In 1990, Robert Greubel joined Renaud & Papi as a complications prototypist, before becoming managing director and then partner.
Stephen Forsey grew up in St. Albans in the United Kingdom. His father's passion for mechanics and engineering inspired his love for watchmaking. From 1987 to 1992, he specialised in restoring old watches and in 1988 became head of the restoration department of the famous London watchmaker Asprey's. At the same time, Forsey followed classes at the Neuchâtel watchmaking school.
In 1992, he joined Robert Greubel at Renaud & Papi, working on complications.
From 1999 onwards, Robert Greubel and Stephen Forsey worked together, initially as independent watchmakers for two years, before founding CompliTime together in 2001 to produce complication movements for prestigious brands.
In 2004 they founded Greubel Forsey in La Chaux-de-Fonds, presenting the Double Tourbillon 30° Vision, the new company's first timepiece, at Baselworld. The launch was a success, and Greubel Forsey began to develop its distribution network around the world. To date, Greubel Forsey has presented a number of patented parts in its watches: the Tourbillon 24 Secondes in 2007, the Quadruple Tourbillon in 2008 and the Double Balancier 35° in 2013.
In 2006, the Richemont Group acquired a minority stake in the company, confirming the high standard of relationships that Greubel Forsey enjoys with the various watchmaking brands in the group.
In 2009, Robert Greubel and Stephen Forsey happened to meet Willard Wigan – a contemporary artist with a unique gift for microsculpture. Wigan is capable of producing works of art that are rarely any larger than one millimetre. The threesome decided to join forces to create a timepiece whose technical excellence is almost infinitely minute: the Art Piece 1.
