Atelier de Chronométrie

Atelier de Chronométrie was founded in Barcelona by Santiago Martínez and Montse Gimeno, a married pair of vintage watch collectors and dealers. Public sources disagree on the exact founding year: some outlets, including Only Watch and Monochrome, cite 2014; Phillips, Hodinkee, and other specialist watch press cite 2015; and the atelier's own manifest page states it "was born in 2016." The atelier's contact page currently lists a workshop address in Escaldes-Engordany, Andorra, with sales conducted by appointment, alongside a short list of international retail representatives.

The atelier is a team effort rather than a single artist's practice. Martínez, the creative director, holds a degree in Fashion Design; Gimeno, who also draws on more than fifteen years as a vintage-watch expert, holds a degree in Communication and Marketing. Neither the schools nor the graduation years for these degrees are documented in available sources. The watchmaking itself is carried out by a small group of named specialists: Eduard Mercadé, a graduate of the Watchmaking School of Mare de Déu de la Mercè in Barcelona, who spent two years at a major watch company before joining the atelier; Moebius Rassmman, also a graduate of a Barcelona watchmaking school, with roughly two decades of experience restoring important timepieces, though he no longer appears on the atelier's current team page, so his present affiliation is unconfirmed; and Pierre Aubert, a younger watchmaker trained at the K&H Watchmaking Competence School in Le Locle, Switzerland.

The atelier's watches are built around reworked vintage movements, most notably the Omega calibre 30 chronometer-grade movement, rebuilt with new bridge architecture and extensive hand finishing, and later around an in-house proprietary movement, the calibre M284, introduced with the AdC22. The atelier's debut watch, the AdC1, received chronometer certification from the Observatoire de Besançon in France, reported as the first Spanish timepiece to receive that certification; the AdC8 split-seconds chronograph, introduced in 2020, was a finalist in the chronograph category of the Grand Prix d'Horlogerie de Genève, though it did not win. The name "Atelier de Chronométrie" is occasionally confused with the unrelated Zurich workshop "Atelier Schmid, Artisan de Chronométrie," run by Hansueli Schmid; the two are separate businesses with no known connection.

As of this writing, Atelier de Chronométrie continues to operate as an active workshop. There is no evidence of any individual person by this name, living or deceased, and no obituary, closure notice, or estate has been documented for the atelier or its founders.

Coverage of Atelier de Chronométrie comes mainly from specialist watch dealers and publications rather than from art critics. The dealer and publisher A Collected Man has called it "a rising star in the field of independent watchmaking," noting its highly limited, bespoke output and mid-century-inspired design language. Phillips profiled the atelier under the heading "The Indie Insider: Atelier de Chronométrie Is Barcelona's Underdog Watchmaker," describing a three-person team producing hand-finished, vintage-inspired chronometers. Reviews of individual references, including the AdC88 and AdC22, have focused on the atelier's willingness to rebuild historic movements from scratch and on the depth of hand finishing applied to bridges, dials, and cases.

Atelier de Chronométrie's watches trade mainly through the atelier itself and a small number of specialist retailers rather than through a deep resale market, and the public auction record is thin. Phillips's own artist page lists two realized prices: the AdC20 (Unique Piece) sold for USD 171,450, and a separate watch, ADC#18, sold for HKD 482,600 (about USD 61,800) at a Phillips Hong Kong sale. Neither result carries a confirmed sale date in available sources, so this profile does not rank one above the other as a settled all-time high. The atelier has also produced unique pieces for the biennial Only Watch charity auction, including the AdC21 and the AdC30, the latter created for Only Watch 2023 to benefit Duchenne muscular dystrophy research. Current retail pricing has been reported in the range of roughly EUR 36,000 to EUR 65,000 depending on model and case metal.

This entry describes a small, active watchmaking workshop rather than an individual visual artist, and several of the usual reference points for a Masterworks Academy profile, a catalogue raisonne, museum collection history, or a clean auction record, either do not exist or are not documented for this entity. No catalogue raisonne has been published, and authentication runs through the atelier directly rather than through a third party. No museum collection is documented as holding the atelier's work as of this writing. The public auction record is limited to a handful of results, largely tied to the Only Watch charity auction, and sources conflict on both the exact founding year of the workshop and on which historical sale is the largest once currencies are converted. Collectors should treat any single reported price as a data point rather than a settled market benchmark.