Haute-Rive Honoris I

High watchmaking, tradition and innovation. Three intertwined subjects in which innovation is often the poor relation.

With HONORIS I, its inaugural collection, Haute-Rive places these three elements on an equal footing. A wristwatch in yellow or white gold, polished, elegant, with a mysterious flying tourbillon and a grand feu enamel dial; the whole resting on a finishing ethic (chamfering and decorations by hand) that exemplifies Haute Horlogerie, high watchmaking.

The element of tradition is rooted in the cultural and family heritage of founder Stéphane von Gunten. In HONORIS I, he perpetuates the work of his ancestor Irénée Aubry, the 19th-century watchmaker and inventor, among others, of the 8-day pocket watch known as Hebdomas.

In equal part at the heart of HONORIS I: Innovation. Stéphane von Gunten takes his grandfather’s inventions further, creating the first wristwatch with a 1000-hour power reserve that is both wearable and elegant – and reasonably slim at just 11.95 mm in thickness and 42.5 mm in diameter.

Once a month, HONORIS I needs to be wound via its 60-facet bezel, controlled by a column-wheel function selector. The construction of the case, movement and complications, and the way they interact, are all the result of an extreme pursuit of slimness, performance and refinement. This rare combination provides coordinates for the trajectory that Stéphane von Gunten is charting for Haute-Rive.