Rexhep Rexhepi’s best is yet to come

[SINGAPORE] Rexhep Rexhepi’s engaging smile and earnestness draw you straight into his watchmaking world, one where timepieces are still largely handmade and perfection is an obsession. Here, the 38-year-old from Kosovo produces watches starting at around S$80,000 and fetching up to millions of dollars at auctions.

The waitlist for his watches stretches over years and fans worship him like a rock star. Yet success hasn’t gone to his head. Rexhepi, now Switzerland-based, still keeps a low profile.

“We’re more recognised (now) which makes me a bit uncomfortable,” he said in a recent interview. “My days are very simple. I go to my workshop in the morning and come back to my kids in the evening. My life hasn’t changed much.”

If anything, Rexhepi feels “a bit more pressured” these days. “We’re always doing more complex watches with better quality, always pushing the boundaries. We got to do even better now, can’t make mistakes. We’ve much more to lose than before.”

Yet he stays focused and is even more motivated and disciplined today.

“I’m more mature, stronger and learnt much. We’re starting to know who we are; the best is yet to come.”

Rexhepi has just completed three new timepieces but could say no more than that they included a chronograph; the other two are a “simpler” watch and a complication. 

Rexhepi is certainly not resting on his laurels.

“I want to (continue to) explore watchmaking, to do something that pushes me.”

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And, as always, he wants to do “something different and better”, such as the Chronometre Contemporain II (RRCCII), the watch that catapulted him to stardom in the watchmaking world.

The RRCCII indeed felt “different” from other independent, self-conscious designs, immediately speaking of “simplicity and beauty”, according to Nicholas Foulkes, the jury chair for the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Geneve (GPHG), horology’s answer to Hollywood’s Academy Awards. Foulkes instantly recognised a masterpiece the moment he set eyes on the watch.

A time-only dress watch with a classical look and flawless finishing and symmetry, the RRCCII was a perfect balance of traditional high-end micro-mechanics and a modern sensibility, Foulkes gushed. The watch, which also features jumping seconds and a zero-reset function, won GPHG’s Men’s Watch Prize in 2022.

Latest works still stun

Rexhepi’s more recent Chronometre Antimagnetique, a stainless steel magnetic-resistant watch, recalls the timepieces for explorers and scientists in the 50s. It flaunts an aesthetic that’s like no other anti-magnetic watches of today.

This timepiece was built from scratch, including the movement. While the caseback of a conventional anti-magnetic watch is non-transparent, the Chronometre Antimagnetique boasts a double caseback that shields the movement, while allowing its beauty to be admired.

“The movement’s totally new, totally different,” Rexhepi enthused. “Not many today can do a totally different movement.”

The Chronometre Antimagnetique was sold for US$2.3 million at a charity auction in 2024.

Rexhepi also collaborated with Louis Vuitton in 2023 to create the LVRR-01 Chronographe a Sonnerie, the world’s first chiming chronograph. A new tourbillon movement powers the two-faced complication.

“Nobody did it, but we found enough energy to chime every minute,” he said.

It’s a one-time project and Rexhepi did it only because Jean Arnault, the fashion house’s head of watch development, is a friend and also because he likes to surprise people.

“Nobody was expecting me to do the collaboration.”

Rexhepi’s workshop Akrivia is 13 years old, still a novice in an industry populated by centenarians and older brands. His team has more than doubled to 50 in the past two years, while production jumped from 40 to 50 watches yearly.

All the new models come with new movements. Except for some parts, everything is done in-house. This includes the case, which used to be made by the legendary case-maker Jean-Pierre Hagmann, till his death.  

Rexhepi, who is influenced by Abraham-Louis Breguet and George Daniel, past masters of watchmaking, continues to design and make the prototypes of new models. He also helps to make some of the “regular” timepieces.

“I don’t have a group of designers,” he said. “For me, it’s one person thinking. It may not be ideal but the watches we make have some soul, something different.”