Rexhep Rexhepi

Rexhep Rexhepi founded Akrivia in Geneva in 2012 at the age of 25. Through the 2010s the Akrivia name went on complicated sporty references (AK-01 tourbillon, AK-06 chronograph). In 2018 Rexhepi introduced a second signature for a different kind of watch: the time-only, austerely classical Chronomètre Contemporain I, signed on the dial with his personal RR monogram rather than the Akrivia brand. The RR signature became the house's haute-horlogerie line; Akrivia stays on the more architectural, sports-leaning complicated pieces.

The Chronomètre Contemporain I won the Men's Watch Prize at the 2018 Geneva Watchmaking Grand Prix. Chronomètre Contemporain II followed in 2022 with a seconds-at-six variant, a grand-feu enamel dial, and a stop-seconds mechanism at a retail price of CHF 58,000. The secondary market multiplied that figure: a CC II at a 2023 Phillips auction sold for over CHF 500,000. Anglage is bevelled entirely by hand; interior angles, polished steelwork, and the decoration of bridges sit at a level routinely compared to Philippe Dufour.

Rexhepi trained at Patek Philippe and F.P. Journe, and his influence has rippled across the new generation of independents. The RR Chronomètre Contemporain is now cited alongside the Dufour Simplicity and the F.P. Journe Chronomètre Souverain as the three reference time-only watches of the modern independent movement. Annual RR production is roughly 15 pieces; the 2022 Only Watch one-off (a collaboration with Gérald Genta marking the 50th anniversary of the Royal Oak) set a record for Rexhepi at CHF 5.4 million.