The contemporary watch design brand HAUTLENCE has signed an exciting new partnership with the international personality ERIC CANTONA, overturning traditional watchmaking conventions and bringing an off-beat approach to the heart of an ambitious team. This iconic footballer and artist brilliantly embodies HAUTLENCE’s determination to move boldly off the beaten track, to think out of the box and deliver original, edgy designs to their timepieces.

Driven by Guillaume Tetu, HAUTLENCE CEO and co-founder, and Georges-Henri Meylan, Chairman, one of the most well respected personalities in the watch industry, HAUTLENCE prides itself on its different, creative approach to watchmaking, while its exceptional timepieces are recognised by connoisseurs as being true feats of mechanical architecture. Coupled with a daring vision that challenges pre-conceived ideas, this strong corporate philosophy is ideally suited to this new collaboration with the bold, free-thinking of Eric Cantona. 

ERIC CANTONA and HAUTLENCE, a shared vision distinguished by offbeat edginess 

A keen lover of words, photography, cinema, painting and all forms of artistic expression, Eric Cantona is passionately interested in creativity and design and will be intimately involved in developing the unique limited-series models that will carry his signature, thus, according to Guillaume Tetu “share with us his own offbeat, edgy vision”. In his capacity as exclusive partner to the brand, Eric Cantona will also take an active part in HAUTLENCE’s upcoming 10th anniversary events as well as in the 2014 international advertising campaign “CROSS THE LINE”. 

Like Tetu and Meylan, whose entrepreneurial spirit and creativity have earned respect amongst their peers and esteem from their clients, Cantona’s authentic, atypical and accomplished personality personifies the spirit of the HAUTLENCE Gentlemen Rebels Club. This is an exclusive club, composed of HAUTLENCE timepiece owners, which represents the human values cherished by the brand. All members are passionate, exceptional, uncompromising people who are prepared to move beyond their comfort zone in order to achieve their personal and professional goals, thereby reaping the rewards of their bold decision-making. 

“We are very proud to welcome Eric Cantona to our team” says Guillaume Tetu. “Footballer, actor and artist all in one, Eric is a creative, direct, unpredictable, decisive and dynamic partner of choice who perfectly embodies the HAUTLENCE client and our brand values. We are very excited about working on this project together, to bring something different, something unexpected”. 

HAUTLENCE, Contemporary watchmaking design 

Founded in 2004, HAUTLENCE – the anagram of Neuchâtel – pays tribute to the cradle of horology. By challenging the traditional vision of watchmaking, the brand has earned recognition among watch collectors and devotees around the world. 

Inspired by architectural principles, HAUTLENCE challenges the watch world with surprising ways of reading the time, which creates a powerful and immediately recognisable design. 

“HORLOGERIE SUISSE” 

HAUTLENCE timepieces are developed and crafted in the finest Swiss watchmaking traditions and bear the inscription “Horlogerie Suisse”. Wherever possible, the watch components are developed, produced, decorated and assembled in the Canton of Neuchâtel, Switzerland.