In this series that is featured every month, “Day & Night” focuses on individuals who have impacted the world of haute horlogerie positively… This issue, we look at the creativity and the inspirations that propel Gautier Massonneau, CEO and Founder of Trilobe
A savvy mix of boldness and French poetry, Trilobe has been making waves in the world of high watchmaking since its inception in 2018. In the 2022 edition of the GPHG, Trilobe’s second creation Nuit Fantastique Dune edition won in the Petit Aiguille category and the marque had grown apace since. With all its products featuring its signature three-rotating rings, Trilobe’s watches with their X-Centric movement provide an unprecedented vision of time.
A CONVOLUTED PATH TO WATCHMAKING
Gautier’s path to his destiny was not a straightforward one. Born and raised in Paris to a family of architects, “I grew up in this environment of playing with shapes and materials, which definitely influenced me in the way I got to watchmaking at the end.” Initially, though, young Gautier chose to study mostly mathematics and finance – subjects that had nothing to do with watchmaking. “As a youngster, I was not attracted to watchmaking, but I have always played with things, and I have always loved to do things with my hands. I am a hardware person, not software. I would not have been able to build a software company. I like to carry things, touch things, and play with them. As a child, I had the chance to play with my grandfather’s collection of little German trains, Märklin trains – dismantling them, reassembling them, repairing them…, playing with things. I dove into watchmaking through this prism of architecture.”
Gensis of concept
It was as a young man in his first job that he wanted to get his first good watch – A. Lange & Söhne’s Zeitwerk; not something that he could afford then. “I was working in Dubai, UAE, as a Project Finance person in infrastructure development and I wanted to get my first watch, but not something that everybody had. I wanted A. Lange & Söhne’s Zeitwerk – something super different yet very classical. of course, at 24 years of age, I did not have the means to buy that type of watch, as it is quite expensive. I had this idea of reversing the traditional way of reading time – one in which Time is in motion and the indicator is fixed. This idea, I felt, had a very strong design so I told myself, ‘Let’s do it; let me do it for myself.’”
The idea of making a watch for himself did come while he was in Dubai, but “It was a project that was a few years old. I had been playing with this idea for some years before Dubai, when I was living in Tokyo. It had been in the back of my mind for almost a decade.” Gautier had absolutely no experience in watchmaking nor any contacts to help him out, but this did not deter him. “I always have had a very candid approach to new projects and so I decided to cold-call a guy, well-known in the world of watchmaking. He took my call and we soon we had a very productive meeting. He was very open minded because he really liked the concept and the project. The more I dove into the project, I better understood the complexity of it. I also understood that this could not be a side project, and I had to go into it fully. So, I quit my job and went back to France.”
Setting up and naming the brand
It was important for Gautier to go back to France and establish his brand there and not in Switzerland. “Because I was born and raised French and because I am convinced that the products we create are influenced by this, I moved to Paris. I needed to be surrounded by the density of the culture you can find in Paris.” Friends and family were an integral part of his support system when Gautier decided to make watches. His journey began “Step by step with friends and family supporting me.”
Trilobe, Gautier explains is the name of an architectural shape – “A little homage to my parents being architects, it’s a shape that was created for the construction of the Mosque of Cordoba and then reused in Roman and Gothic architecture. It is a universal shape that you find in many parts of the Mediterranean Sea up to the Middle East. It is a little hello to my background. I found the idea of putting my name on the dial a bit pretentious because a company is made not with just one person, but with the whole team, and so that is an umbrella under which everybody at the brand can identify and not just me.”
It took Gautier around three years to set up the company from the design process till the first production. From the time of presenting their first working piece in December 2018, Gautier feels that the entire process went through quite smoothly. “It worked well, to be honest. We needed a few prototypes, but it went rapidly. The way we had conceived it was the proper way and it worked. Straight out of the machining to basically where we fine-tuned many things, of course. We took the most time for the conception, which meant that when we prototyped it for the first time, it worked.”
ESTABLISHING TRILOBE
Gautier’s first watch was an edition of 100 – Trilobe’s inaugural series, quite a big number for a reference. It was quite well accepted and sold fully. They went mostly to friends and family. Initially, he did face some negative comments about how his creations were the same price as that of a Rolex, but today, these same people wait for his watches. “That is the case for independent watchmakers, I guess. But now, in general, people are much more open-minded and understand everything that is within these type of watches and realise it is no longer just the brand name.”
Gautier credits his very strong business plan for the marque’s rapid growth, despite numerous challenges. “We launched during the yellow jacket crisis in France; then, we had strikes. This was followed by COVID, but it was actually not a bad period for us because it is the survival of the fittest and, in the end, all of these forced us to adapt and to strive in our development. I am not saying things went super smooth, but we adapted quickly when we needed to, and we even opened a few markets, such as in the US, during the COVID crisis.”
First movement
“The movement for the first 100 batch of watches was based on the ETA 20/28/92, which we modified as per our concept and after that we have been making our own movements. Our first movement was a macro automatic movement, which is quite a cool one because you can both see and enjoy the movement, as well as have an automatic watch. Our next movement is the X-Centric calibre, which makes for a slim watch as well; I created this movement and it was developed by our movement partner, le Cercle des Horlogers of La Chaux-de-Fonds in Switzerland. That is the movement that is equipping all of our watches today and we love it.”
Case sizes
Trilobe’s first launching series was presented in a case of 41.5 mm, but now, the marque offers watches in 38.5 mm and 40.5 mm. “Because to me that is the right size. I wear both of these sizes as anything above 41 is too big for me. I don’t think it is the right to have bigger cases for all watches; bigger sizes are suitable only for some watches. So yes, at present, we have the two sizes that we think are the right; one for people with smaller wrists and the 40.5 mm for others. We may offer bigger sizes at some point, on other complications – perhaps more crazy stuff – but for what we have today, I think we have the right sizes.
Collections
Trilobe has 3 collections and, interestingly, all of them are named after literary works. “The first one is named ‘Les Matinaux’ or Dawn Breakers by French poet René Char, which is an invitation to see things very differently. The timepiece has three eccentric rings that rotate counterclockwise and three small logos of Trilobe for the hours, minutes and seconds indicate the time. This timepiece is the best-known of our creations.
“We then launched our second collection, ‘Nuit Fantastique’ or Fantastic Night, which is named after the book by Stefan Zweig. Our latest collection – which really is our first collection but exploded into 3D with titanium rings rotating into the sky and the gigantic bubble dome in sapphire – is ‘Une Folle Journée’, or A Crazy Day by Beaumarchais.
“All three collections have the same base movement, but, of course, the dial side is completely different, and we change some elements of the movement as well. It is then three completely different watches, but with the same DNA and they are in different price segments as well. The first two collections are the same price, but the last one is priced more because of the complication of creating the bubble dome and the three-dimensional bridges and dial.”
GROWING THE BRAND
Gautier established his brand in 2018, and in 2022, within a very short period of time, Trilobe first participated in Watches & Wonders. Gautier feels justly proud of his achievement; “It is super good for us. It helps us position the brand as well to show that we are serious about watchmaking, even though we are young. It was an investment, of course, but it was well worth it. We launched the brand at the perfect time, I think, because one year after we launched, COVID hit, and then independent watchmaking just boomed. The global environment definitely helped us. A lot of watch lovers got a bit bored with the relationship they can have with big brands and the products that are offered by them. We had other independent watchmakers initiate this trend earlier than us and that has helped us a lot, definitely. It is only the beginning of this wave, and the new clients we see every day are people that would not have thought much about independent brands even two years ago.”
Pricing
Trilobe, currently, is in a segment that ranges from around CHF10,000 to CHF25,000, and Gautier plans to concentrate on this price range as “It is very important for me to show that we are able to bring super-creative, independent watchmaking that is very well made, and Made in Paris at a price that makes sense. We have numerous projects in the pipeline and some of them, of course, will be priced differently but they would have appropriate value adds for the higher price.”
Production
Trilobe is targeting to create approximately 700 pieces this year, which is quite an impressive figure for a brand that is slightly more than five years old. In those five years, Trilobe has produced three different collections – a very impressive achievement, but Gautier feels, “It is a drop in the ocean compared to big brands. We have about 30 points of sales; the struggle now is to find the balance – to produce properly so that we do not go too fast. We want to see a steady growth; we don’t want to grow too fast.”
Markets
Trilobe has a good presence in the Gulf region; and “We have strong presence in the US, Asia – Hong Kong, Singapore, and Malaysia – and of course Europe, where we are very strong, especially London, France, Italy, and Brussels. We do have a balanced market spread.”
As for the future, Gautier still hopes to “Still be here in 30 years’ time; our ambition is to create the French House of High Watchmaking.”
