Sylvain Pinaud Origine

This Origine is No. 9, one of the earliest examples of the watch that earned Sylvain Pinaud the Horological Revelation prize at the 2022 GPHG. Pinaud has confirmed it as unique in its configuration, pairing a black dial with a 40mm pink gold case and pink gold movement bridges. Of the roughly 100 Origines he plans to make, he expects only around five percent to be cased in pink gold, making an early black-dial example in the metal a rare combination indeed.

Lead photo supplemented via a prior sale and is by K2 Luxury

Pinaud took the long way to independence. Born near Grenoble in 1978 to a watchmaker father, he grew up around his father’s bench before graduating from Morteau’s Lycée Edgar Faure in 1998. He then worked on high complications at Franck Muller, restored Breguet, Berthoud and Janvier pieces at Dominique Mouret’s atelier in Sainte-Croix, and prototyped at Carl F. Bucherer’s THA. In 2018 he sold his home to fund his own workshop, and his monopusher chronograph won him the title of Meilleur Ouvrier de France. Vianney Halter, a Sainte-Croix neighbour, later sponsored his entry into the AHCI.

The Origine began on paper, with three months of hand sketches spent settling its proportions. Its centrepiece is a balance moved to the dial at six o’clock: Pinaud’s own three-armed, free-sprung design, 13.2mm across, with gold inertia weights and a Phillips overcoil, beating at 21,600vph over a 55-hour reserve. Look closely and the small seconds is the same diameter as the inner hour dial, with only guilloché telling them apart. A slender black-polished cartouche, bevelled along its length, wraps both, and pulling the crown swings a lever against the balance to stop it.

The finishing rewards a loupe. Pinaud calls his soft matte texture 'grainage,' a finish notoriously hard to keep even across a large surface. The anglage is full of sharp interior angles, every jewel and screw sink is polished, and each hand takes about a day to make in his workshop. The pink gold bridges on No. 9 raise the difficulty further, as gold’s softness makes it among the most delicate materials to finish. Cases come from Voutilainen & Cattin and dials from Comblémine; nearly everything else is Pinaud’s own hand.