INFINI · BASEL · MMXXVI
Volume I · MMXXVI47°33′N · 7°35′EAn origin story
A prologue

Time is nota number.It is a placewe return to.

FoundedBasel, 2026
OriginA student's thesis
First pieceN° 01 · in progress
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I
The OriginHow INFINI began.
§ 01 · 04

Every watch brand has a creation myth. Most involve inheritance, investors, or a factory in La Chaux-de-Fonds. INFINI's began in a classroom.

At the Wirtschaftsgymnasium Basel, final-year students must write a Matura thesis — a capstone project that stands between them and graduation. Most choose safe, academic topics. I chose a question that had haunted me for years.

Can I design and build a wristwatch entirely of my own?— The founding question, September 2024

What followed were nine months of sketches, six 3D-printed prototypes, CAD revisions at three in the morning, a long train ride to Biel to meet with the team at Horage, a CNC mill in Stuttgart turning a block of stainless steel into something wearable, and a hand-sprayed dial whose texture — entirely by accident — came out looking exactly like a glacier.

The thesis was submitted. The grade was good. But what survived the assessment wasn't the document. It was the conviction that independent watchmaking still has room for someone who simply wants to build something that outlasts them.

INFINI is what happens next.

II
The First PieceThe prototype.
§ 02 · 04

N° 01 — The Glacier

38mm · Seiko NH38A · Hand-finished in Basel

Loadingphotography
Case38 mm316L stainless, CNC-milled in Stuttgart
CrystalSapphireDouble-sided anti-reflective coating
DialGlacierHand-sprayed, spontaneous texture
MovementNH38ASeiko automatic, 21'600 vph
IndicesNoneTwo hands. That is all.
StrapLeatherItalian calfskin, quick-release
Case38 mm316L stainless, CNC-milled
CrystalSapphireAR coating, double-sided
DialGlacierHand-sprayed texture
MovementNH38ASeiko automatic
IndicesNoneTwo hands, nothing more
StrapLeatherItalian calfskin
III
The PhilosophyThree ideas, one watch.
§ 03 · 04
01
The Designer

Gérald Genta.

Royal Oak. Nautilus. Polerouter. Genta proved that a watch could be architecture — that proportion, line, and restraint could carry a design across decades.

His work is the starting reference for every INFINI sketch. Not to imitate, but to measure ourselves against the standard he set.

The best designs look like they have always existed.— Design principle N° 1
Nature

The Glacier.

Frozen rivers that move one centimeter per day. They record centuries in their ice cores and forget nothing.

The dial of N° 01 emerged accidentally from spray-painting — but its resemblance to glacial surface became deliberate. A quiet homage to Alpine permanence.

SUMMIT · 4274 MTIMBERLINEGLACIER ZONEPERMAFROST
02
03
The Method

By reduction.

No numerals. No date window. No applied indices. Only what is needed to tell the time — nothing more.

Reduction isn't minimalism for its own sake. It's an argument that simplicity is the hardest thing to execute, and the only thing that ages without complaint.

02Hands on the dial · zero complications
IV
The JournalField notes from the workshop.
§ 04 · 04
The Workshop Visit · Longform
I
Biel, June 2025. A small workshop where they still build their own movements. The best afternoon of the thesis year.
Feature
8 min read
Essay 01

A morning at Horage.

Notes from a workshop visit with an independent Swiss maker who still builds their own movements — and what it taught me about building something small, slow, and entirely on purpose.

Read the essay →
II
Process
5 min

Six prototypes before the watch.

Why iteration is the most underrated skill in watchmaking — and what each wrong turn taught me.

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III
Reflection
6 min

Why Basel, not Geneva.

On choosing a city known for chemicals and medicines to start a watch brand — and what that means for the work.

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