Renaud Tissier: A new brand founded by two cutting-edge watchmakers

Renaud Tissier is a new brand formed by a veteran watchmaker and an up-and-coming young watchmaker. The two founders visited Japan with their first watch, the Monday. What is it about this automatic movement that they describe as "innovative"?

Renaud Tissier's first work, "Monday," is a collaboration between a young and a veteran driver

　This heartwarming photo of the two of them could easily be considered father and son. The mutual respect between them is evident in the photo. These two are Dominique Renaud and Julien Tissier, co-founders of Renaud Tissier. The two world-renowned watchmakers visited Japan in March 2024 with a prototype of their first watch, the "Monday," to make the world debut of their brand, which was founded in 2023.

　Dominique Renaud, co-founder of Renaud & Papi (now Audemars Piguet Le Locle), who has brought numerous high complications to the world, and Julien Tissier, a young 31-year-old watchmaker, are two men of different ages and backgrounds. How did these two men decide to launch a new brand?

"When we announced the DR01 and held a lecture about the watch, there was an interesting young man who came to the lecture several times and asked sharp questions. That was Julien. We started to keep in touch after that." (Renaud)

　The two men continued to build a close relationship, with Renaud visiting Tissier's workshop in Le Rue in the Vallée de Joux. In 1922, they released their first collaborative work, the "Tempus Fugit" under the DRT name. The following year, they created the "Secular Perpetual Calendar" model for Farlan Mari's Only Watch collection. Both of these watches featured secular calendars, and their compact calendar designs earned them acclaim from watch enthusiasts around the world. The former, in particular, was nominated for the "Calendar & Astronomy" category of the GPHG (Geneva Watchmaking Grand Prix), making Julien Tissier, then in his twenties, a household name.

　The brand they founded, Renaud Tissier, is based on the concept of returning to the fundamentals of mechanical watches and innovating. Based on this idea, they pursued the winding efficiency of the micro-rotor in their first model, the Monday. The power reserve of the watch is officially stated to be approximately 60 hours, but in reality it achieves 90 to 100 hours, with approximately 90% of that time being rewound in just 40 minutes of wear.

"The rotor's outer periphery is made of rose gold, which has a high specific gravity, which increases its rotational efficiency. In addition, a spring-like part is placed in the center of the rotor. When the watch receives an impact, the shock is absorbed and converted into energy to turn the rotor." (Renault)

　The part attached to the center of the rotor, just below the bearing stone, is what Renault says gives it spring properties. This part, called the "Dancer," is the biggest attraction of the Monday. While it also functions as a shock absorber, considering the brand's explanation that it "captures energy like the strings on a tennis racket and throws it back with force like a catapult," it seems more accurate to understand it as a mechanism for amplifying energy.

　The unparalleled efficiency of the micro-rotor automatic winding is appealing on its own, but as you'd expect from a watch created by Dominique Renaud and Julien Tissier, the movement's finish is also impressive. The baseplate and bridges are made of grade 5 titanium, which is difficult to process, but the bridges feature extensive deep chamfers and entry angles. While the watch in hand at the time of this interview was a prototype, the movement is said to be nearly equivalent to the mass-produced version, so we can expect great things from the finish.

　Despite all this elaborateness, the price is a whopping 79,000 Swiss francs.