Renaud Tixier is one of the more intriguing young independents to surface recently. The brand is a partnership between Dominique Renaud, co-founder of movement developer Renaud & Papi and a genuine legend in high-complication circles, and Julien Tixier, a master watchmaker with serious technical credentials. Together, they've set themselves the task of rethinking seven core horological principles across seven watches. The Monday was the first one out, launched in 2024. Now comes the Monday Skeleton.
The concept is straightforward: take the Monday's debut calibre, the RVI2025, open it up, rework the bridges, and let the movement do the talking. What you get is a 40.8mm gray gold case with no dial hiding any of the action underneath. It comes in two versions, petrol blue and green, each limited to just 15 pieces. Price is CHF 129,000.
That's a serious number, but this is a serious watch. Here's what actually matters.
What's New with the Skeleton
The original Monday already had a distinctive proposition built around that "dancer" micro-rotor, Dominique Renaud's inventive approach to an automatic winding system. The Skeleton version keeps that mechanism but exposes it fully, so you can watch it move against the openworked movement beneath.
The bridges have been extensively reworked for this version. Skeletonising a movement isn't just about cutting material away. Done properly, it requires reconsidering every structural element so the watch still functions reliably while offering the maximum visual depth. Renaud Tixier has leaned hard into that depth, treating the movement's substantial thickness as a feature rather than something to minimize.
Then there's the finishing. The figure that keeps coming up from multiple sources is 238 inward angles, all finished by hand. Inward angles are among the most demanding tasks in decorative watchmaking. Each one requires a dedicated tool and careful work, and there's no shortcut. 238 of them is a statement of intent.
Most skeleton watches use openworking as decoration. Renaud Tixier is using it as an argument: the movement is interesting enough to be the whole point. With Dominique Renaud's engineering behind it and 238 hand-finished inward angles in front of you, that argument is hard to dismiss.
The Specs Worth Knowing
- Case: 40.8mm gray gold
- Calibre: RVI2025 with "dancer" micro-rotor
- Finishing: 238 inward angles, all hand-finished
- Versions: Petrol blue and green, 15 pieces each
- Price: CHF 129,000
40.8mm
Gray Gold
RVI2025
15 per colour
CHF 129,000
Who This Is For
Not everyone. Fifteen pieces per reference means this is going to a very small group of collectors who already know what Dominique Renaud's name means on a movement and are comfortable spending at this level on a young brand. That's a narrow Venn diagram, but it's the right one for a watch like this.
If you care about movement architecture and the kind of hand finishing that takes real time to understand and appreciate, the Monday Skeleton is worth your attention. The 40.8mm case is a sensible size, not overbuilt, not trying to compensate for anything. Gray gold is a muted, slightly warm choice that lets the movement colours, blue or green, read clearly through the case.
If you need a brand with decades of resale history behind it, this isn't your watch. Renaud Tixier is young. But the people behind it are not, and that distinction matters.
How It Sits in the Independent Market
CHF 129,000 puts the Monday Skeleton in territory occupied by established high-complication independents. At that price, buyers have options from names with longer track records. What Renaud Tixier is offering is something more specific: Dominique Renaud's engineering sensibility expressed in a movement you can actually see, finished to a standard that justifies the conversation.
The dancer micro-rotor is the thing that sets the RVI2025 apart mechanically. It's not a standard peripheral rotor or a conventional central rotor. It's an inventive solution that reflects exactly the kind of rethinking this brand says it's built around. Seeing it work through an open dial is a more compelling experience than the original Monday's covered version could offer.
Renaud Tixier is still early in its seven-watch programme. The Monday Skeleton shows the brand has enough confidence in its first movement to put it fully on display. Given who designed it and how it's been finished, that confidence looks justified.
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