Watchmaking you can turn over
Valmont Horlogerie is an independent Geneva maison that designs, makes, finishes and services its own mechanical movements - and puts every one of them behind sapphire.
Émile Valmont opened his workshop in 1968 with a lathe, a set of files and the drawings for a single hand-wound calibre. He believed a watch should be judged from the back first: if the movement was honest, the dial would follow. That conviction is why every watch we have made since has a sapphire caseback, and why the decoration you see through it is applied by hand, part by part, rather than stamped.
We now produce seven calibres in-house, from the 2.9 mm hand-wound VH-10 to the column-wheel split-seconds VH-70. Bridges are cut on our own CNC machines and then bevelled, grained and polished at the bench; the balance springs are sourced from the Vallée de Joux and pinned in Geneva. Each movement is regulated in five positions and observed for fifteen days before it is cased.
A watch that is made carefully should be serviced carefully. Every Valmont carries a five-year international warranty, and beyond it our atelier services every calibre we have ever produced. Where a part no longer exists, our watchmakers make it - which is why the first VH-01 movements from 1968 are still running on their owners’ wrists.
- First calibre, the VH-01
- 1968First calibre, the VH-01
- In-house calibres in production
- 7In-house calibres in production
- Watches made each year
- < 2,400Watches made each year
A short history
1968
Calibre VH-01
Émile Valmont finishes his first hand-wound movement in two rooms on the Rue de la Corraterie.
1979
The Abysse
A 200 m diver with a unidirectional bezel, built for the Geneva diving club and still in production.
2004
Plan-les-Ouates
The atelier moves to a purpose-built workshop with its own machining, finishing and service floors.
2026
Calibre VH-30
A 3.2 mm micro-rotor automatic with 72 hours of reserve debuts in the Lac Ultra-Plat.
What we hold to
Five-year warranty
International, transferable and registered to the serial number - parts, labour and return shipping included.
Serviced for life
Every calibre since 1968 is serviced in Geneva, with original parts stocked or remade on our own lathes.
Insured delivery
Signed-for, fully insured shipping to Switzerland, the EU, the UK and the US, with thirty-day returns.
What customers say
“I timed my Lac 38 against an atomic clock for a month. It gained eleven seconds in thirty days. The caseback is the first thing I show anyone who asks about it.”
“My father’s 1974 Valmont went back to Geneva after decades in a drawer. It came home with a new mainspring, its original dial untouched, and a handwritten note from the watchmaker.”
“The Abysse has been to 40 metres off Komodo more times than I can count. The bezel action still clicks like the day it arrived.”
Letters from the bench
Four letters a year: new calibres before they are announced, limited editions before they are listed, and the occasional note on how a hairspring is made. Nothing else.