The pieces that never reach a window.
A watch is not bought.
It is found, verified, and quietly placed on the wrist of the one person who was always meant to wear it.
We do not run a shop window and we do not publish what we place. What we hold, we bought outright and declare before you see it. The rest of the business is the distance between a collector who owns a piece and the collector who should.
It began with a Swatchand a pocket watch.
My first watch arrived the summer I left kindergarten for school. A Swatch — plastic, loud, and the most serious object I had ever been given. I wore it until the strap gave out, bought another, and kept going.
On my eighteenth birthday my family handed me my late grandfather's pocket watch. He had loved watches his whole life, and I had never known it. Holding something that had kept his time made the fascination make sense. It was not an accident. It was inherited.
In 2019 I stopped collecting casually and started properly: reading, handling, and asking questions of anyone patient enough to answer them. Seven years of that leaves you with two things — an eye you can trust, and a network of collectors, dealers and watchmakers who take your call.
Chronometrie Suisse is what I decided to do with both.
- Independent
- Of every maison and every waiting list
- Flat fee
- Agreed before the search begins
- Bench first
- Verified before funds move
- NDA
- On every mandate, both directions
- Sourcing
- Brokerage
- Authentication
- Stewardship
Each mandate stands alone. Most clients begin with one and end up handing us the whole collection.
- Sourcing
- Brokerage
- Authentication
- Stewardship
Sourcing
Waiting lists are not a strategy. We work a private network of collectors, dealers and maison relationships across Switzerland, the Gulf and East Asia to find the exact reference — dial variant, box, papers, provenance — and to open a door that does not appear on any list.
- Reference-level search
- Discreet negotiation
- Full provenance file
Brokerage
Selling a significant piece in public costs you twice: in price, and in privacy. We place pieces directly with vetted buyers under NDA, settle through a Swiss fiduciary account, and you never appear in a listing.
- Off-market placement
- Fiduciary settlement
- Named-buyer approval
Authentication
Every piece that passes through us is opened, measured and photographed by an independent watchmaker. Movement numbers, case tolerances, lume spectroscopy, service history. You receive the report before the money moves — not after.
- Independent watchmaker
- Movement & case audit
- Written condition report
Stewardship
A collection is a living portfolio. We hold pieces in a bonded Swiss vault, schedule servicing before it is needed, keep valuations current for your insurer, and give you one dashboard for the whole thing.
- Bonded vault storage
- Service scheduling
- Annual revaluation
Two ways to buythe same watch.
Nothing here is a secret, and none of it is unique to us. It is simply what happens when the person advising you is not also the person selling to you.
Access
The usual routeA waiting list, and a boutique deciding whether you are the sort of client who deserves the reference.
Price
The usual routeRetail, plus whatever the grey market decided this morning.
Verification
The usual routeA certificate issued by the party selling you the watch.
Privacy
The usual routeYour name on a listing, a ledger, and a mailing list you did not join.
Exit
The usual routeA trade-in valued by the one person who wants your watch.
Incentive
The usual routeCommission on whatever they most need to move this quarter.
We are not an authorised dealer for any maison, and that is the point. No allocation to protect, no quota to hit — only your mandate.
Four steps, in order,
never in parallel.
A mandate that skips a stage is a mandate that ends in a dispute. This is the sequence, and we do not compress it for anyone.
- I
The Brief
A conversation, not a form. What you own, what you are missing, what you would never sell. We build a written mandate and a ceiling.
- II
The Search
We go quiet and go to work. You receive candidates only when they clear our own filter — never a forwarded listing.
- III
The Verification
Independent expertise, in Switzerland, before funds are committed. If the piece does not survive the bench, it does not survive the mandate.
- IV
The Handover
Settled through a Swiss fiduciary account. Delivered in person, insured door to door, or placed directly into your vault.
Sapphire
Coating tint, chamfer angle and the exact way the anti-reflective layer goes violet under a loupe. A replacement crystal announces itself before anything else does.
The list is not
published.
Pieces bought outright because they were right. Each one is in hand, opened by an independent watchmaker before it is offered, and can be seen in Zug by appointment.
What is available changes, and it does not go in a window. Ask, and the current list comes to you.
The questionsworth asking.
If yours is not here, ask it directly — concierge@chronometriesuisse.ch
On a mandate: a flat fee, agreed in writing before the search begins and unchanged by which piece you end up with. No commission from a seller, and no spread you have not been shown. If the fee moved with the price, so would the advice.
Requestaccess.
Tell us what you are looking for, or what you are ready to let go of. Every enquiry is read by a specialist, never by a queue, and nothing you write leaves this house.
Zug
Switzerland — by appointment