Cocon
Andreas Strehler wins Gaia Award 2013 for Craft and Design
The Gaia Award, sometimes named the Nobel Prize of horology, rewards individuals worthy of recognition. This year’s winner is Andreas Strehler, maker of calibres.
By Joel Grandjean
Editor-in-Chief
Gaia Award winners are rarely known to the general public –except for horology professionals – at the time they received their award. The Institut l’Homme et le Temps, an institute affiliated with the International Museum of Horology (MIH) at La Chaux-de-Fonds, serves as the umbrella organisation for the Gaia Award, which recognises creativity and excellence in watchmaking.
Although unknown before being awarded the prestigious prize, some of these laureates, especially in the Craft and Design category, did manage to build a reputation for themselves amongst leading collectors after picking up the prize. Jean-Claude Nicolet was the first winner ever, in1993, and has since been nicknamed “the last great orlogeur”. Other laureates were François-Paul Journe, Michel Parmigiani, Vincent Calabrese, Philippe Dufour, Derek Pratt, George Daniels, Anthony G. Randall, and Beat Haldimann.
Peer recognition
Emotions ran high at the MIH on the evening of the 2013 Gaia Awards handover. The renowned watchmaker Stephen Forsey, himself a 2009 laureate, together with his associate Robert Greubel, won the prize in the “Entrepreneurship” category. He spoke in moving and glowing terms about the life and work of his fellow watchmaker Andreas Strehler. It's reassuring to see that sheer excellence is not the subject of ego battles when practiced at the highest levels. In his encomium, Forsey mentioned that Strehler, the son of a watchmaker, was born in 1971 in Winthertur. A passionate kite flyer, Strehler went on to design minimalist mechanical movements that look like genuine living organisms.
Strehler launched his career at the engineering firm of Renaud & Papi in Le Locle. In 1993, the year the Gaia Award was created, he was promoted to head of the prototype department, where he partook in the creation of the calibre by Stephen Forsey and Robert Greubel. He went freelance in 1995 and managed to pick up H. Moser & Cie as one of his prestigious clients. It was Strehler who designed the Moser Perpetual 1, which won the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève in 2006. As an independent, he also became the youngest watchmaker ever to become member of the AHCI (Académie Horlogère des Créateurs Indépendants). He came out with his perpetual calendar in 1998 and his Zwei a year later, earning accolades from collectors and peers alike.
Strehler set up his workshop in Sirnach in 2007 – the same year in which he produced the Opus 7 for Harry Winston’s. He is a humble person, a man possessed of great creativity reinforced by his experience repairing antique watches. Such an exemplary journey deserved a Gaia Award. And for the icing on the cake, it was his famous fellow traveller, Stephen Forsey, who handed him that award.
