Vanguart’s case for contemporary independent watchmaking rests on two very different watches: the Black Hole, which turns time into a mechanical display, and the Orb, which pairs a more familiar face with a hybrid winding system. Founded in 2017 by four partners with experience in watch development, design and finance, the small La Chaux-de-Fonds company has pursued technical ambition at deliberately low production volumes. “Ultimate” is a judgment, not an industry ranking; the substance behind the claim is how these watches make their mechanics part of the wearer’s experience.
Four founders built Vanguart around a shared design ambition
Vanguart was founded in 2017 by Axel Leuenberger, Jérémy Freléchox, Thierry Fischer and Mehmet Korutürk. The company’s 2024 Black Hole and Orb catalogs identify Leuenberger as CEO, Freléchox as CTO, Fischer as creative director and Korutürk as president. In a March 2026 interview with Europa Star, Korutürk said Leuenberger and Freléchox had worked at APRP on complex movements, Fischer’s graduation design project provided the Black Hole concept, and Korutürk brought private-equity and Formula 1 experience. The company was founded in La Chaux-de-Fonds and spent several years on research and development before unveiling the Black Hole in 2021.
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Korutürk described the name Vanguart as a contraction of “avant-garde” and “art.” That ambition is clearest in the Black Hole: rather than treating the movement as something hidden behind a conventional dial, the watch makes the mechanics and the act of reading time its central design features.
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The Black Hole replaces familiar hour and minute hands on a conventional dial with concentric rotating displays arranged for linear time reading, beneath a central flying tourbillon. Vanguart’s 2024 catalog describes its T-1701 calibre as developed and created in-house by the team and says it contains more than 750 components. Instead of a traditional crown, a joystick-type setting system lets the wearer adjust time forwards or backwards. Vanguart’s 2024 Black Hole catalog provides the core technical description.
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In the Europa Star interview, Korutürk said the team did not want to make another conventional tourbillon. It started from scratch with three concentric rotating discs, a linear display and a flying tourbillon. The design challenge, he explained, was controlling the rotating masses while managing energy and stability. The unusual display is therefore not just a visual treatment: it creates a different mechanical problem for the watchmakers and a different way for the wearer to engage with the watch.
Oracle of Time’s Black Hole feature reports a 43 mm case, two barrels and twin gear trains, a 42-hour power reserve, two joystick-like crowns, and a display that advances in 200–500 milliseconds. Those details are reported by that publication; Vanguart’s catalog is the source for the movement’s central architecture and component count.
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The Orb changes the wearing experience without abandoning complexity
Launched in 2024, the Orb moves toward a more immediately legible round form, with two hands and a symmetrical movement. Its defining mechanism is a winding system that can switch between automatic and manual modes: in automatic mode, an orbital mass moves around its track; in manual mode, the mass locks. Vanguart’s 2024 catalog specifies a hand-finished flying-tourbillon movement, 395 components, a 60-hour power reserve in manual mode, Grade 5 titanium for the mainplate and bridges, and an overall height of 10.5 mm. Vanguart’s 2024 Orb catalog documents these specifications.
Korutürk told Europa Star that the Orb was more immediately readable than the highly conceptual Black Hole. That makes it a different proposition, not a retreat from technical ambition: it retains a flying tourbillon and adds a winding mechanism that lets the wearer choose between automatic and manual operation.
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| What changes | Black Hole | Orb |
|---|---|---|
| Time display | Concentric rotating indications arranged for linear reading; central flying tourbillon. | Round form, two hands and a symmetrical movement; flying tourbillon. |
| Winding and interaction | Joystick-type setting system permits forward and reverse time adjustment. | Switches between automatic winding, with the orbital mass moving around its track, and manual winding, with the mass locked. |
| Published movement details | T-1701 calibre; more than 750 components, according to Vanguart’s 2024 catalog. | 395 components; 60-hour reserve in manual mode, according to Vanguart’s 2024 catalog. |
| Case or movement dimension stated in the cited material | 43 mm case, as reported by Oracle of Time. | 10.5 mm overall height, according to Vanguart’s 2024 catalog. |
Small production is part of the company’s current operating model
In its March 2026 interview, Europa Star reported that Vanguart had around 20 people. The company handled project management, decoration and assembly internally, while subcontractors performed machining. Korutürk said it had produced 15 watches in the preceding year and had theoretical capacity for around 100. He separately put Black Hole production at around five pieces a year. These are figures reported in that interview, not audited production totals.
Korutürk described the intended balance this way: “We do not want to remain ‘microscopic’ in terms of volume, but we refuse brutal growth.” He also said the company hoped to reach 300 pieces annually within five years, enrich the Orb range and develop a new line with different forms. Those are stated ambitions from March 2026, not guaranteed production or launch outcomes.
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Reported prices and named retail partners
Europa Star’s March 2026 interview reported prices of CHF 355,000 for a Black Hole with Arabic numerals and CHF 410,000 for a rose-gold Black Hole. These figures apply to the specified editions in that report; they are not a comprehensive or confirmed current price list.
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What makes Vanguart’s approach distinctive
Vanguart’s significance is easier to assess through the choices embodied in its watches than through an absolute ranking. The Black Hole makes the display itself a mechanical statement, while the Orb combines conventional readability with an unusual winding system. Both place visible mechanical invention at the center of the experience, but they ask different things of the wearer: the Black Hole asks for a new way to read time; the Orb offers a familiar layout with a choice in how the movement is wound.
The company’s small scale and its founders’ mixed backgrounds help explain how that design-led approach developed, but neither production numbers nor celebrity ownership establish quality on their own. The most defensible case for Vanguart as a contemporary independent watchmaker is the concrete one: two distinct designs, technically ambitious movements and a willingness to make the watch’s interaction part of its identity.
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