Frenchman Simon Brett takes the stage on the indie watchmaking. 

You can't really call Brette a newcomer — he's got ten years of work experience at famous workshops under his belt. After graduating from Haute Ecole Arc Ingénierie in Le Locle, Brette spent five and a half years creating movements with Jean-François Mojon at his company Chronode.

He then left to join Manufacture Contemporaine du Temps (MCT), where he worked on the Dōdekal One D110 with a digital jumping-hour display in the center of its dial. The final step Brette took on his watchmaking career path before launching his own company was a position at MB&F, where he worked for three and a half years.

The list of Brette's former employers is proof that the young watchmaker plunged straight into the deep end, taking on nothing but serious work from the outset. The watches created at each workshop where Brette was lucky enough to start building his career were far from typical timepieces.

Brette transferred another thing he'd learned to his own brand to create the Simon Brette Chronomètre Artisans Souscription Edition — enlisting the help of different artisans and niche specialists to work on one and the same project.

The first watch by Brette's own brand was born after the birth of his own daughter in 2021: Chronomètre Artisans Souscription Edition. The new dad took a two-month paternity break, which turned out to be a surprisingly productive time.

It was when the watchmaker conceived his firstborn timepiece. The help of around fifteen people was enlisted to work on it. The work was so carefully divided that only one artisan was responsible for finishing the unusual concave screws, and another was assigned the task of finishing the bridge over the large balance.

Brette himself admits his design began with the movement, so we can start by taking a look at the caseback. Symmetry prevails here in contrast to the dial side. The manually wound movement measuring 33.3 mm × 7.8 mm consists of 194 components and ensures a power reserve of 72 hours. It's housed in a modest-sized zirconium case measuring 39 × 10.50 mm.