Maison Aubrecq Swiss Jura Since 1887

Finished
where no one
looks.

Mechanical watches made by forty-one people in one valley of the Jura. Fewer than nine hundred a year, each finished to the same standard inside as out.

Request an appointment See it come apart
Reference
Strate 40
Calibre
OR-34
Reserve
72 h
Beat
4 Hz

Le fini caché, the hidden finish

A watch shows you eleven of its parts. We finish all two hundred and fourteen.

Below is the Strate 40, taken apart one layer at a time. Nothing in it was dressed up for the photograph. This is how every one leaves the atelier.

Anatomy Strate 40 Automatique

Take it apart.

Scroll slowly. Each part stops beside its name and the work that went into it.

  1. 01 Sapphire crystalDomed 0.4 mm and coated on the inside only, so the outside never clouds.
  2. 02 Three-step bezelEach step is polished at its own angle. That is why light breaks in three lines.
  3. 03 HandsCut, shaped and mirror-polished by hand. One watchmaker finishes six sets a day.
  4. 04 DialEleven coats of midnight lacquer over a ground cut on a 1920s rose engine.
  5. 05 Case middleTurned from a single bar of steel, satin on the flanks, polished on the bevels.
  6. 06 Calibre OR-3438 jewels, 4 Hz, Jura stripes and 160 inside angles bevelled by hand.
  7. 07 Gold rotor22k gold, engraved in waves. Every step you take winds the watch.
  8. 08 Sapphire casebackA window, so the work you just watched stays in view.

214 parts

Every part finished. Even the 203 you will never see.

Anatomy Strate 40 Automatique

Take it apart.

Five moments from the film. Swipe to take it apart.

  1. The Strate 40 assembled, seen from above at an angle.
    01 Assembled. 40 mm across, 9.8 mm thin.
  2. The crystal and bezel lifting away from the case.
    02 The crystal and bezel lift away.
  3. Dial and hands rising while the movement drops out of the case.
    03 The dial rises. The movement drops.
  4. Movement, rotor and caseback separating below the case.
    04 Calibre, rotor and caseback part.
  5. The watch fully exploded into eight floating layers.
    05 Fully apart. Every part finished.
01 Sapphire crystal
Domed 0.4 mm and coated on the inside only, so the outside never clouds.
02 Three-step bezel
Each step is polished at its own angle. That is why light breaks in three lines.
03 Hands
Cut, shaped and mirror-polished by hand. One watchmaker finishes six sets a day.
04 Dial
Eleven coats of midnight lacquer over a ground cut on a 1920s rose engine.
05 Case middle
Turned from a single bar of steel, satin on the flanks, polished on the bevels.
06 Calibre OR-34
38 jewels, 4 Hz, Jura stripes and 160 inside angles bevelled by hand.
07 Gold rotor
22k gold, engraved in waves. Every step you take winds the watch.
08 Sapphire caseback
A window, so the work you just watched stays in view.

Assembled twice. Once to test, once to keep.

Strate 40 Automatique in steel with a midnight engine-turned dial. Strate 40 Automatique in steel with an oxblood engine-turned dial. Strate 38 Remontage Manuel in rose gold with a champagne brushed dial. Strate 38 Remontage Manuel in rose gold with a slate brushed dial. Nocturne Tourbillon 41 in platinum with a midnight dial and tourbillon at six. Nocturne Tourbillon 41 in platinum with a blue aventurine dial and tourbillon at six.

OR-4012 Midnight lacquer

The collection

Three references. No hurry.

Each one is made in small series and finished by a single watchmaker from first screw to last. Choose a reference, then a dial.

Dial

The watch you just took apart.

Reference
OR-4012
Case
Stainless steel, satin and polished
Diameter
40.0 mm
Thickness
9.8 mm
Calibre
OR-34, automatic
Power reserve
72 hours, two barrels
Frequency
4 Hz, 28,800 vph
Jewels
38
Water resistance
50 m
Series
Small series
Price
CHF 21,500
Ask to see the Strate 40

Calibre OR-34

Eight beats every second.

The balance swings 28,800 times an hour. Watch the small seconds: it steps eight times each second instead of once. The dial beside this text does the same, set to your own clock.

Your time --:--:--

Wind it yourself

Press and hold the crown. Two barrels store the energy, and a click spring keeps every turn you give it.

Reserve 13 of 72 hours

Fully wound. Seventy-two hours.

Take it off on Friday evening and it is still running on Monday evening.

Press and hold the crown

A watchmaker's hands holding tweezers over an open movement in a holder, a loupe and a brass parts tray beside it on a worn bench.
Close-up of perlage on a main plate: overlapping circular graining around a polished screw and two ruby jewels, tweezer tips in the corner.

The atelier

Forty-one people. One valley.

Aurèle Aubrecq opened his workshop in 1887 in La Combe-aux-Merles, a hamlet of nine houses where winter lasts five months. Long winters turned farmers into watchmakers. Their great-grandchildren still work the same benches.

One watchmaker assembles each Aubrecq from the first screw to the last, then takes it apart, cleans it and builds it again. Their initials go inside the caseback, where only the next watchmaker will ever read them.

“A good bevel goes unnoticed. A bad one, a watchmaker will spot in forty years.”

Mathilde Aubrecq-Rey, head of the atelier, fifth generation
Founded
1887
Watchmakers
41
Watches a year, at most
900
Days of testing per watch
21

Eight-year guarantee. Serviced for life, by hand, in La Combe-aux-Merles.

Salons

Come and hold one.

There is no online shop. Every Aubrecq is shown in person, over an unhurried hour, with a watchmaker in the room.

A private salon in daylight with midnight blue panelling, two oxblood velvet armchairs and a single watch on a leather tray.
  • GenevaQuai des BerguesTue to Sat
  • ParisRue Saint-HonoréTue to Sat
  • New YorkMadison AvenueMon to Sat
  • TokyoGinzaWed to Sun
  • The atelierLa Combe-aux-Merles, JuraThursdays

Request an appointment

A concept site: nothing you type here is sent or stored.

Please tell us your name.

Please check your email address.