Not all images were able to load for printing. Please close the print window and try again. Stéphane Pierre Launches Indie Brand and his First watch, L’Impétrant
A technical, theatrical, and mechanical manifesto built around motion and meaning.
There’s a new indie brand in town… Stéphane Pierre enters the independent watchmaking scene with a strong personal story and vision. Based in Annecy and trained as a micro-mechanical engineer, he brings a background shaped by traditional watchmaking and the demanding environment of the naval and military sector, as he spent several years in the submarine industry. His first watch, L’Impétrant, developed with prototypist Julien Tixier and realised with the help of about 30 other specialists (whose names are mentioned by Stéphane Pierre in the best of traditions, and listed at the end), is conceived as an object where mechanics are not hidden but displayed, almost staged. The inaugural model’s name, the “Impétrant”, is a nod to Stéphane Pierre’s earlier career and means a “young submariner assigned to a team but not yet humanly integrated into the group. To be integrated, one had to display technical but also human competencies: respect and humility”. Let’s see if the watch complies.
The case of the Stéphane Pierre L’Impétrant is crafted in Grade 23 titanium, with polished concave surfaces and satin-brushed finishes. It measures 39mm in diameter and 10.8mm thick, 12.2 mm including the sapphire crystal. The 27-component construction is complex, with lugs machined as separate elements assembled around a central unit. A limited “souscription” series of 15 pieces introduces a combination of zirconium and rose gold, ahead of the 50-piece titanium production run.
The dial-side is captivatingly technical as the watch is built around an idea of time displayed through a double retrograde system for hours and minutes. Two 20mm long rose-gold treated titanium hands with polished bevels were engineered to withstand repeated shocks from the retrograde mechanism. They sweep across curved white ceramic scales that work as subdials, before snapping back to zero in a coordinated motion. The minutes complete their arc every 60 minutes, triggering the hour hand to jump forward, culminating in a shared retrograde reset every 12 hours. At 6 o’clock, the large 11.5mm balance wheel with a traditional Breguet overcoil is a focal point, elevated and deliberately exposed.
The watch is powered by a movement developed internally, specifically for this project. The movement with ruthenium-treated bridges and a rose gold-toned barrel runs at 21,600 vibrations/hour. It offers a 70-hour power reserve, indicated by a vertical red sapphire cone, visible from the front, and a hand on the back. Also on the back, small seconds are indicated by a heat-blued steel hand on a ring with markings and numerals.
The movement integrates a Maltese cross stop mechanism to prevent loss of precision at the extremes of the mainspring’s torque curve to provide consistent performance by avoiding both over-winding and the low-energy phase at the end of the reserve. Across the watch, finishing combines frosted surfaces, hand-polished bevels, linear brushing, and traditional decorative techniques such as berçage (rounded-edge polishing).
The Stéphane Pierre L’Impétrant is worn on a calf leather strap with a titanium clasp. The initial subscription series is limited to 15 pieces, followed by a production run of 50 titanium models. Pricing for this niche, collector-driven, independent creation is CHF 84,000 before taxes. To reach the watchmaker, visit stephanepierre.com.
