Haute horlogerie is excellence in watchmaking, where the watchmaker’s craft is joined with the applied arts. The French term means ‘high watchmaking’. It covers far more than putting together the parts that tell the time. Watches with demanding complications, such as tourbillons and perpetual calendars, are held up as its high point.
Where it comes from
The phrase is modelled on other French ‘haute’ terms, such as haute couture in fashion and haute cuisine in cooking. Pinning down its meaning took longer. The effort goes back to 1991, when the Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie (SIHH) trade fair was founded. At that point nobody could say exactly what haute horlogerie meant. The fair used the name before anyone had agreed on a definition.
How is haute horlogerie defined?
One attempt comes from the Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie (FHH). The Richemont Group set it up, and it is housed in Richemont’s facilities. Its White Paper judges brands on 28 criteria, grouped into seven areas. The criteria are measurable where possible. A brand needs a score of at least 6 out of 10 to count as haute horlogerie under the scheme. The FHH also sorted the brands it assessed into four groups. One group was historic brands more than 50 years old. Even so, the FHH did not settle on one single definition of the term.
Not to be confused with
Upmarket watches are often treated as the same thing as haute horlogerie. They are not, and the difference is easy to miss. Haute horlogerie describes the craft itself: the watchmaker’s work joined with the applied arts, reaching well beyond the parts that tell the time. Demanding complications, such as tourbillons, perpetual calendars and grand complications, show it at its peak. Being upmarket is a different matter.
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