The Watch: Renaud de Retz and Guillaume Tetu founded Hautlence in Neuchâtel in 2004, after time at Longines, Jaeger-LeCoultre, and TAG Heuer. The name is an anagram of the city. Georges-Henri Meylan, who ran Audemars Piguet for two decades, took control of the brand through MELB Holding, the Meylan family office, in late 2012. The purchase was for 1 Swiss franc and assumption of all the company's debt. Three months later they bought H. Moser & Cie., making the two sister brands. Both use Precision Engineering (part of the Hautlence purchase) as their parts manufacturer.
While Moser is known for playful high horology, Hautlence is into the outright strange and experimental, up to and including a watch that transforms into a lil robot. Hautlence's first leap and most consistent feature is the widescreen case.
The Avant-Garde collection arrived in 2012 as a sportier version of that display. The case measures 46mm across by 42mm tall, built from bead-blasted grade 2 titanium and brushed 316L stainless steel, with polished edges along the bezel and a caseback that arcs to follow the wrist. Water resistance is 30 meters.
The dial is complexly layered. The upper crystal carries the logo and the luminescent markers, and the lower one is semi-opaque and coated, the minutes register sits beneath the lower crystal, and the movement is visible beneath that.
The movement is hand wound and made in house, 24 jewels, 21,600 vph, with 45 hours of reserve. The bridges are hand chamfered and finished wxith perlage and Côtes de Genève, visible through the sapphire caseback.
Retail was CHF 30,000 at launch.
Condition: Very good condition. Light wear, see photos.
Includes: Watch, box, and papers.
