Andersen Geneve

Andersen Genève was founded by independent watchmaker Svend Andersen, who also co-founded the Académie Horlogère des Créateurs Indépendants (AHCI) in 1985, which promotes the art of the best independent watchmakers in the world. Previously, from 1969, he had worked for nine years in the Atelier des Complications at Patek Philippe. Years of involvement in the manufacture, restoration, modification and adjustment of antique and complicated mechanical watches and movements allowed him to expand his skills, artistic taste and experience. After working at Patek Philippe, he set up his own workshop in the late 1970s and began offering handcrafted watches with complicated or simple movements, skeletonization, engraving and grand feu enamel as an independent watchmaker under the Créations Cabinotiers Andersen & Cie brand. He later launched a series of his own designs under the Andersen Genève brand, which are still aimed at collectors and connoisseurs of the Geneva watchmaking tradition today.
Andersen Genève is one of the most exclusive luxury watch brands in the world and has produced an estimated 1,300 to 1,500 watches in forty-five years, an average of 30 to 40 watches per year, many of which are made to one of their designs or entirely to order. Since 2022, the brand has been made up of two small teams of watchmakers, one in the center of Geneva on the banks of the Rhône and the other in La Chaux-de-Fonds.
The story of the Andersen Genève wristwatch with jumping hour complication began in 1995 with a request from collector Walter Haselberger for a unique watch based on an old Victorin Piguet pocket watch minute repeater movement with an additional mechanism for a jumping 24-hour hand and a small minute counter on the dial. The same complication appeared in 1998 in the Pasha Jour et Nuit watch, designed and produced by Svend Andersen for Cartier in a limited edition of 125 pieces, based on self-winding Frédéric Piguet 1150 caliber. Later, when Cartier allowed Andersen to release his own versions of the watch with this complication, some editions and customized watches proposed by him appeared in the Svend Andersen collection under the name Grande Jour et Nuit about 2000 to 2006. The jumping hour complication was mounted on pocket-watch hand-wound Frédéric Piguet caliber 15.
In 2006, Andersen Geneva announced a second edition of the Grande Jour et Nuit, also based on the Frédéric Piguet 15. He reportedly managed to acquire the last 50 movements, which were used in 30 pieces in rose gold and 20 pieces in white gold. Interestingly, the same edition was announced again 8 years later, in 2014.

This Grande Jour et Nuit is a perfect example of the elegance and craftsmanship of Andersen Genève. The jumping hour complication in the brand’s version gives the watch a minimalist and extremely attractive appearance. This complication appears on the dial with a grey “Lozegne”(Diamond Shape) guilloché pattern, which is extremely rare to find on the dial of a Grande Jour et Nuit watch – we have only found one similar example that has appeared at auction. The refined and very thin Empire case in white gold gives the watch an elegant look, and it is also a real pleasure to feel such a watch on the wrist. The rare ultra-thin hand-wound Frédéric Piguet pocket watch caliber 15, which only occasionally appears in Breguet and Blancpain watches, makes this watch even more attractive.