What happens when watchmakers take control of the shop and create their fantasy pieces? That’s the story of Vanguart, a brand created by veteran watchmakers who are going wild with movements and design, and marketing their creations to fellow enthusiasts.
“These watches are not for the first-time buyer,” said Mehmet Koruturk, Vanguart’s chairman and one of four cofounders. “They’re for the seasoned collector, the person who has everything — and wants something different.”
That’s why Vanguart has been taking a slightly different approach from its competitors, and targeting watch aficionados across a variety of sports and industries, including soccer, Formula 1, fashion and film.
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NBA star James Harden was an early investor in Vanguart, while Thiago Silva wore the brand’s sci-fi-inspired Black Hole watch during the World Cup in Qatar as captain of Brazil’s national team.
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Vanguart’s latest sports tie-up, with a male tennis champ, will be revealed around the time of Roland-Garros in Paris in late May.
The brand has also been appealing to a growing consumer segment — women — and tapped the designer and retailer Anu Hinduja; socialite Lady Eliza Spencer, and singer Isabel Getty for its latest social media campaign.
From Monday to Friday at Geneva’s Beau Rivage hotel alongside the Watches and Wonders fair, the brand plans to showcase the latest editions of its futuristic Orb watch and Black Hole Tourbillon, which was inspired by dying stars.
There will also be an ultra-special piece, a Black Hole Tourbillon with a sapphire dial and a white gold case dotted with diamonds.
The veteran watchmakers cooking up these designs include Axel Leuenberger, Vanguart’s cofounder and chief executive officer. He worked in research and development at Audemars Piguet Renaud & Papi, or APRP, which makes watches and micro-movements for watches.
Leuenberger works alongside fellow cofounder Jérémy Freléchox, who is Vanguart’s chief technical officer and another APRP veteran.
Earlier in their careers, Leuenberger and Freléchox worked closely with master watchmaker Giulio Papi, cofounder of Renaud & Papi, helping to develop complicated movements for brands including Audemars Piguet, Richard Mille and Chanel.
The fourth cofounder is Vanguart’s creative director Thierry Fischer, a longtime watch designer who has worked with several major brands.
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Fischer said that while Vanguart’s designs always start with “a raw artistic vision,” the watches are not works of art. He said the team is mindful of the “way mechanics interact with the wearer, and the way the object feels in the hand.”
The first Vanguart watch, the Black Hole Tourbillon, launched in 2021, with the titanium version priced at $360,000. There is also a gold model that costs $400,000.
The Black Hole has 750 movements, three concentric rings that turn independently, and a sunken dial inspired by the forceful gravitational pull of dead stars. It has a flying tourbillon aimed at defying gravity and improving precision.
Instead of a crown, the Black Hole has a patented, sliding joystick, which Vanguart describes as a simplification, as opposed to a complication. Instead of turning a crown to adjust the time, the person wearing the Black Hole can push the joystick forward or backward. Leaving the joystick in the backward mode activates a countdown feature.
“Being commercial was not the main concern with the Black Hole,” said Koruturk, whose background is in private equity and Formula 1. “We wanted to make a big statement and say, ‘We can do crazy things.’”
In 2024 the team came up with The Orb, a more commercial watch with prices that start at around $200,000, depending on the case.
That style also has a flying tourbillon movement and, unusually, allows the wearer to switch between automatic and manual winding modes. It has a hand-decorated case, which Fischer describes as “evoking relics of the past, and visions of the future.”
While the movements and playful features may be on show, the underpinnings — like screws and fasteners — are invisible. Straps can be popped on and off with the touch of a hidden button.
The watches come with nine-year warranties, which are rare in the industry.
“I worked in Formula 1 before, and I see — more and more — that this industry is very similar. There is so much high-end research and development — it’s also a bit like the space industry,” Koruturk said.
He added that the Black Hole has some components that are “difficult to see with the human eye. These are luxury pieces, but with super-complex engineering behind them,” he said.
The team has been taking commissions and, most recently, created the Black Hole Yas Edition, named for Yas Island in Abu Dhabi and priced at $850,000.
Commissioned in the Middle East by one of the biggest watch collectors in the world, it was designed as an homage to the heritage of the United Arab Emirates, Koruturk said.
Although Vanguart may have launched with ultra-complicated, small-batch designs, its ambitions are big.
“Our goal was never to be a micro-brand or an artisanal one, doing 15 to 20 watches a year. We want to be a strong player and grow significantly, but slowly and at a steady pace. But when you compete with the strong players, they have a lot of money to burn in terms of marketing and press, which we don’t have. So it’s been very difficult to penetrate the market,” Koruturk said.
The brand, which currently sells around 100 watches a year, began with direct-to-consumer sales. It took on two distributors last year, the New York-based watch and jewelry retailer Material Good and Ahmed Seddiqi & Sons in the Middle East.
Yoni Ben-Yehuda, head of watches at Material Good, described the Vangaurt watches as “futurism seen through a traditional lens.” He said the team also has “a keen eye for wearability and comfort, which is sometimes overlooked when innovating new case shapes and designs. The Orb is, without a doubt, one of the most comfortable timepieces I have ever worn.”
He added that the brand — unusually for an independent start-up — also has “a great sense for the business of watches. Building an impactful watch brand goes way beyond creating an excellent timepiece.”
Vanguart also supplies movements to third-party brands, and clients say their behind-the-scenes work on movements is top-notch.
Michael Friedman, founder and director of the soon-to-launch watch brand Pattern Recognition and the former head of complications at Audemars Piguet, said Vanguart’s cofounders work well together.
“They are helping me engineer and develop the first movement for my own brand, which will debut later this year. The four founders — Axel, Mehmet, Jeremy and Thierry — each have such complementary skills and unique personalities. They remind me of a virtuoso rock band where each member is a true master of their own instrument and capable of playing flawlessly together,” he said.
Koruturk said a big priority now is to raise awareness and get Vanguart watches “on the right wrists.”
In March, it became the official timekeeping partner at the first Icons Series event in Asia, which was hosted at Reignwood Park in Bangkok.
The sporting event, which was broadcast in more than 120 countries, saw a lineup of retired international soccer stars compete in matches and play golf, all to the beat of the Vanguart watches.