At first, Romain Gauthier struck me to be a very serious man during our appointment. I had to be black-gloved and excessively careful. He tracked my hands’ every motion, and instilled in me his sense of gravity over the haute horlogerie that I was handling. It wasn’t until later in the interview, when we coincidentally sidetracked to the topic of cars, that smiles cracked and laughter alleviated the tension. And that’s when it dawned on me that Romain Gauthier was one guy, with whom only a handful of others created very superior and very exclusive watches in very limited quantity. The model that I was handling embodied months of someone toiling away to create something novel and pristine – and that indeed deserved my caution in addition to deserving my respect.

The piece at hand is the Logical One by Romain Gauthier. HODINKEE introduced it in 2013 (the year that the Logical One claimed the Men’s Complication Watch prize at the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Geneve). Rest assured, it’s every bit as serious a watch in the metal as it is in press release photos.