Few things command more respect in high-end watchmaking than true craftsmanship. While most luxury brands incorporate some level of industrialisation, a small number remain deeply committed to the traditional, labour-intensive methods that define artisanal watchmaking. This article explores a small number of watchmakers creating some of the most handmade timepieces in the industry. These brands don’t just make watches — they preserve watchmaking heritage for those who truly appreciate its finer details.
Roger W. Smith
Let’s start this list off close to home with Roger W. Smith. Smith is an elite master of the craft who only produces five timepieces per year. There are 34 individual skills needed to hand-build a watch from the ground up. Smith masters 32 out of the 34. You will probably understand that if you individually use all those skills to create some of the most exceptional artisan timepieces, the deciding factor dictating production numbers is time.
In the case of Smith, it’s impossible not to bring up the name of the legendary George Daniels. Smith started out as an apprentice for Dr Daniels and later on became his partner in the workshop on the Isle of Man. After three years of working with Daniels, Smith started his own studio and introduced the retrograde calendar Series 1. It wasn’t until the Series 2 came out in 2006 that Roger W. Smith became a prominent name in high horology. Not only was it an artisanal tour de force, with almost all of the 225 parts being made in-house, but it also assured the brand’s future through recognition of a wider audience.
Roger Smith Series 1
Currently, the Roger W. Smith collection consists of five series defined by their refined beauty and incredible levels of finishing. As you move up from Series 1 to Series 4, the watches gradually become more complicated but maintain that refined classical style. With the Series 5, Smith created an open-dial version of the Model 2 that perfectly displays Smith’s handmade watchmaking brilliance. While the Series 5 might be the most extravagant of the five series, they all perfectly display the artisanal craftsmanship that defines Roger W. Smith.
More details at Roger W. Smith.
J.N. Shapiro
The workshop of the American brand J.N. Shapiro is located in Torrance, California. The brand’s founder, Josh Shapiro, and his team focus on creating American-made high-end mechanical watches in the great Swiss and British traditions. The brand’s mission is to become an integrated manufacturer that can produce every part of the watch in the United States.
Shapiro’s fascination with machining parts comes from spending a lot of time as a young boy around metals and machines in his father and grandfather’s machine shop. Despite pursuing a career in teaching, Shapiro was fascinated by watchmaking. He enrolled in the British Horological Institute’s Distance Learning Courses and quickly found a deep love for dial-making. Not long after, his talent for creating beautiful engine-turned dials was recognised by legendary master watch and clockmaker David Walter. Shapiro created various dials for Walter, working together on many watches.
J.N. Shapiro Resurgence
That sparked the idea for his own brand, and in 2018, the J.N. Shapiro Infinity series became the first testament to Shapiro’s extraordinary watchmaking skills. From then on, J.N. Shapiro has been focusing on increasing the number of handmade components in-house, with significant results. In 2023, Shapiro introduced the Resurgence series, which is the only series currently available from the brand. For the Resurgence, 148 out of 180 watch components are created in the Shapiro workshop, and the remaining parts are sourced from within the United States.
In this quest for American handmade excellence, the Shapiro does not forget to create classically styled stunning timepieces that are defined by multi-level, engine-turned dials featuring different guilloché motifs, stunningly detailed cases and beautifully finished movements that make the Resurgence series one of the most exciting series of handmade watches currently available.
More details at J.N. Shapiro.
Hodinky Berkus
We travel to Ostrava in the Czech Republic for our next brand, where independent watchmaker Ondřej Berkus has his atelier. Berkus is a refreshing character in the traditional world of high horology, with a love and fascination for horses and cars, and a knack for solving horological puzzles through his bespoke timepieces. Berkus is a self-taught watchmaker who mastered the trade by studying the book Watchmaking by George Daniels.
While that initially makes him one of the many students of Daniels’ work, the unique approach to materials, techniques, and finishing defines Berkus above anything else. His pragmatic approach to the craft is probably best exemplified by Berkus’ unorthodox entry into watchmaking. The young Berkus worked as a knife maker and searched for a specific watch he wanted to buy. When he finally found the object of his horological desires, the price tag made clear that it was unfortunately out of reach. That’s when his father told him to make a watch himself because… how hard could it be?
Ondrej Berkus Piece Unique
Berkus will jovially explain that it turned out to be very hard, especially because he felt the need to make complicated watches to prove he was a capable watchmaker. That drive has resulted in watches featuring tourbillons, grand sonneries, and perpetual calendars. Additionally, Berkus will use materials like Damascus steel, tantalum and meteorite for his various styles of cases and dials. This adventurous approach to watchmaking has worked wonders for Berkus. With a long list of admirers who want to add one of his unique creations to their collections, the future looks bright for Hodinky Berkus.
More details on Ondrej’s Instagram.
Raúl Pagès
For our fourth brand, we finally land in Switzerland, the traditional home of mechanical watchmaking. In the small village of Les Brenets, we find the atelier of independent watchmaker Raúl Pagès. After successfully obtaining diplomas as a watchmaker-restorer in antique watchmaking and designer in watch complications, he started his professional career at Parmigiani Fleurier’s renowned restoration workshop. After learning the tricks of the trade there, Pagès created the Tortue Automaton – an animated desk animal powered by a mechanical movement – under his own name in 2012. The next dream was to create his own watch.
It took Pagès four years of intense development before he released the Raúl Pagès Soberly Onyx. The beautiful three-hander with a deep black onyx dial was a wonderful display of Pagès’ watchmaking talents. What seems like a straightforward timepiece at first glance becomes a refined and beautifully handmade creation upon a closer look. The one element that was missing was a self-developed movement. As a certified designer of watch complications, it was the next step for the young Swiss watchmaker.
Raúl Pagès Régulateur à Détente RP1
Pagès achieved this with the Régulateur à Détente RP1, introduced in 2022. This brilliant regulator-style watch is powered by a manual winding movement featuring a detent escapement. This unique style of escapement was developed to increase chronometric precision and is considered a technical grail among watchmakers. It is traditionally used for marine chronometers. Pagès successfully introduced the escapement as part of his first self-developed movement to power a watch that was met with universal praise.
The technical mastery combined with the refined brilliance of the handmade piece earned Pagès the 2024 Louis Vuitton Watch Prize for Independent Creatives and introduced his name to a wider audience. Two collaborative efforts with Massena LAB, where Pagès oversaw the technical development of the movement, further cemented Pagès’s name as one of the most talented watchmakers to watch. The future is full of promise for Pagès, who combines an almost understated style with his outstanding technical craftsmanship to create some of the most exciting handmade timepieces currently out there.
More details at Raúl Pagès.
Greubel Forsey
Greubel Forsey might not be a name you would expect on a list of small watchmakers who celebrate their independence by creating outstanding timepieces by hand. However, you cannot create an article about handmade watches without including the Greubel Forsey Hand Made series. These two extraordinary timepieces represent the best in handmade watchmaking and celebrate the craft in style.
The Hand Made 1 was introduced in 2019 and baffled watch fans worldwide because 95% of it was created using hand tools. Each of the Hand Made 1 watches takes a whopping 6,000 hours to create, and that is why Greubel Forsey only creates two to three pieces annually. From the beautifully finished 43.5mm white gold case to the partly open dial with its hand-enamelled décor that’s contrasted by the flame-blued hour and minute hands, all the parts are a joy to behold. At seven o’clock, you will find the beautifully executed tourbillon as the grand gesture of the specially developed movement that powers the Hand Made 1 and is party visible thanks to the open-worked dial. It is the beating heart of a beautifully created work of art that is nothing short of astonishing.
Greubel Forsey Hand Made 2
In early 2025, Greubel Forsey unveiled its follow-up model, appropriately named the Hand Made 2. This new addition to the brand’s Hand Made series ups the level of handmade mastery, as one watchmaker creates 96% of the 270 components entirely by hand. As a result, it takes one watchmaker a total of 5,000 hours to create one single watch. The Hand Made 2 is slightly smaller at 40.9mm but follows the overall aesthetic of the first model. The watch is less technically challenging to create because it loses the tourbillon of the Hand Made 1 and instead introduces a hand-shaped conical jewel power reserve on the dial, which is made of frosted German silver. It is a far more practical complication that is accompanied by the balance spring and the small seconds display. The Grand Feu enamel scale for the hours, minutes, and seconds, the power reserve indicator and centrally mounted flame-blued hands for the hours and minutes are further displays of traditional watchmaking brilliance that make this a technical masterpiece.
Greubel Forsey stated that the Hand Made series is not about technical brilliance but rather about the artistry of handmade watches. The realisation that every single component except for the sapphire crystal, jewels, gaskets, spring bars, and mainspring is created, finished, and assembled by hand is mindboggling. It makes the Hand Made series the perfect example of the magic and mastery of handmade watches. It perfectly closes out a list of five brands that create timepieces that celebrate artisanal watchmaking in all its glory.
More details at Greubel Forsey.
Oracle Time