Interview Niton Watches: Rewriting The Recipe For Revivals

As vintage Swiss brands go, Niton has always been a sleeper, with a distinct je ne sais quoi style and Art Deco charm off the radar for most collectors. The historic Geneva brand was relaunched earlier this year by Leopoldo Celi and Yvan Ketterer, and the rapid full allocation of the inaugural subscription series of its delicate, gold-nugget-like Prima has firmly put it in the enthusiast spotlight.

I reached out to the brand’s two founders to gain deeper insight into what makes a successful revival, including the unusual move to establish retail partners across Europe, the US, the Middle East, and Asia, and to unpack Niton's brand story.

In truth, I already knew Leopoldo Celi, an Italian with a long Swiss watchmaking resume from another role working with the legendary Dominique Renaud. Leopoldo has a marketing background and met Yvan while developing another brand before one of many pivots to a watchmaking degree. Celi then returned to marketing at Girard-Perregaux for 10 years before shifting to the Independent scene. I met him while visiting Renaud Tixier and Renaud’s recently launched eponymous brand.

“About two years ago, Niton was ready to launch, and I made the switch,” Celi tells HODINKEE ANZ. “I still spend one day a week with the Dominique Renaud team, but otherwise my attention is all on Niton.”

Yvan Ketterer, on the other hand, first encountered watchmaking with his grandfather, a watchmaker, before entering the world of electronics design during the watchmaking slump of the 80s and 90s.

“I began my career as a product manager with Valgine," Ketterer tells me. “After that, I worked a few years for Daniel JeanRichard, then became product manager at Tissot, where I was lucky to develop the T-Touch.” He then worked at Girard-Perregaux before Celi’s time there, and has been independent for more than 15 years. But despite the last few years of vintage being back in vogue, reviving a dormant brand at a higher price point is a bold move.

Celi told me that Ketterer first discovered the brand around ten years ago and shared it with him. “When I discovered Niton, it gave me the right excuse to start something," Ketterer says. “I'm really a fan of this 1920s, 1930s period, and fell in love right away with Niton.”

The enthusiasm of the founders is palpable, and Kettering said he surprised himself by feeling so emotional upon discovering Niton and learning that the sleeping brand had no current owners. In old catalogues, the founders tell me that Niton’s past aligns with today's price tag of over US$80k for the two versions of the Prima, as back then, the brand competed with (and indeed supplied) Patek Philippe.

“The most important preoccupation for us was to relaunch this brand in the right way,” Celi tells me. “The Geneva Seal was really one of their signatures, because they were doing the highest number of Geneva Seal movements at the time, so it made sense to do Geneva Seal, precious metal, and positioned at that level.”

It seems that their instincts were right. Despite a quiet market, launching a dormant niche brand mostly known for its 20s and 30s creations, the two Subscription models were a big success this year. “It did surprise us, in a good way, of course,” Celi says with a smile when reminded of the rapid filling of the order books.

"We weren't expecting to sell out that fast, but I guess we have some appreciation of why it went like that. Sure, jump hours are so hot right now, but you don't build a watch like that overnight. When we started working on the project, there were very few new jump hours on the market, but by the time we launched it, it was all the rage.”

The Prima, of course, also sits right in the sweet spot of small case designs, just like the Berneron Mirage with its curvaceous case and similarly rapid sales. Still, it is not easy earning the trust of collectors at this price point, but being able to fit a discreet sonnerie and a chronometer-spec proprietary movement with a Geneva Seal within a 27mm case opens many doors (and wallets). In fact, clients told Celi that the latter was one of the main selling points.

“Today, a lot of people talk about finishing, but finishing means so many different things," Celi says with a knowing smile. “Whereas when you have a very strictly ruled [certification] like the Geneva Seal, you know what you're getting. So that helped reassure people.”

Unlike many debut brands on the independent scene, Ketterer and Celi have also made the astute, if unusual, move of finding retail partners around the world, but the right ones. And according to Celi, it took time, long lists and many meetings.

“In the end, we were able to go with exactly the ones we wanted, because building a brand means having a global footprint from the beginning. They also had to be able to talk to collectors, so these are retailers who host events, create content, and understand brand building. And lastly, we chose people who understand the product,” he explains.

Having a closer look at the two versions of this unusually shaped watch, they feel just right, and naturally, perfectly timed for this newfound love of guichet and jump hour watches. To me, what the Niton Prima has going for it is a unique style and an Art Deco shape that grabs you. It has, especially with the weight of gold, the feel of a precious metal nugget with charmingly scalloped ends. At a quick glance, it might remind some collectors of the recently revived Cartier Tank à Guichets, but it offers a more nuanced design with its soft, rounded flanks and brushed top.

Into the precious metal is a keyhole-like opening with a vertically symmetrical layout of jumping hours at 12, a charmingly snailed rotating minute disc in the centre, anchored by a minimal small seconds display at 6 – all in a tonal design that matches the rose gold or platinum case, with applied blued markers, numerals, and hands.

Turning the Prima around, you will be faced with perhaps the most surprising detail: a stylistically pared-back movement with covered secrets and again, an Art Deco design. It feels very modern, and some collectors will lament the lack of expressive organic bridgework and sweeping arcs of beveling, but the two founders' aesthetic conviction is strong.

Under the architectural bridges lie impressive specs for the size and sound. Yes, the Niton Prima actually features a sonnerie à passage, marking every hour on the hour, deceptively hidden under what could double as the engine cover on a 1920s streamlined sportscar.

At the heart of the 27mm x 35.5mm Prima is the calibre NHS01, a manually wound, rectangular movement designed by Niton and developed with Le Temps Manufacture SA of Fleurier (perhaps best known as the specialist behind the Byrne Gyro Dial), then assembled in Geneva. The decoration pairs distinctive Art Deco restraint with technical clarity, something which will undoubtedly be a brand signature.

Ketterer cites literal inspirations as well as the obvious Art Deco stylistic flourish, such as Bugatti engines from the early 20th century, evidenced in the striped guilloché pattern that delineates the vertical, and curves across the German silver barrel and train bridges, with poli noir or black polished steel for the escapement and balance bridges. A variable inertia balance with Breguet overcoil beats at 28,800vph, and the movement holds 72 hours despite its compact footprint. Each is numbered x/19, certified with the Geneva Seal and the ISO 3159 chronometer standard. An impressive debut, especially set within a compact 7.9mm-thick case.

The astounding success of the Niton Prima makes both collectors and writers like me curious about the brand’s next steps and what plans are afoot.

“We could lie back, relax and enjoy the success we've had,” says Celi. “But to the contrary – I think it has challenged us to rethink what the next years, not just eighteen months, will look like. We've drafted a product plan spanning the next five years, so we have a pretty good idea of the developments we'll make." This also includes scouting a physical office in Geneva, because after all, Niton was a Genevan brand.

Bookending this story on Niton and the nugget-like, rectangular Prima is an Easter egg in the form (or sound, rather) of a quiet acoustic signature. Where a jumping hour usually announces itself only visually, here the change is heard and felt discreetly. The snail cam that drives the jump actuates two superimposed levers: one trips the hour disc, the second lifts a hammer that strikes directly on the case.

The result is not a sonnerie in the grande complication sense but a single discreet “click”, a soft mechanical signal that the hour has turned. There is nothing theatrical about it, just a tactile confirmation timed to the jump, and the reserved way it performs underlines the quiet perfection of Niton, its ethos and its impressive (re)-debut.