A new independent watch brand is entering the market with a debut built around a 1932 experiment in mechanical watchmaking. Legare, founded by Wei Koh and Guillaume Tetu, has launched its first timepiece, the Chapter 1 AGP Inverted.
Based in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, Legare is built around the idea of revisiting overlooked developments in watchmaking and considering how they might have evolved with modern technology. The brand was founded in late 2024.
Its first watch looks back to a pocket watch created by Albert-Gustave Piguet in 1932, when he was a 17-year-old student at the Vallée de Joux School of Watchmaking.
The original featured two balance wheels whose rates were averaged through a differential. Piguet later became an important figure at Lemania, including through his work on the movement that became the basis for the famed calibre 2310.
For the Chapter I AGP Inverted, Legare has reworked the layout rather than simply reproducing the original mechanism. The two balance wheels and differential are positioned on the dial side, putting the movement’s key components in view.
The manually wound movement operates at 21,600 vibrations per hour and offers around 50 hours of power reserve. It sits inside a 37.5mm Grade 5 titanium case measuring 9.95mm thick.
Legare is releasing the watch in two versions. The Elegant uses untreated German silver components, while the Darth version uses black rhodium. Both are limited to 25 individually numbered pieces.
The debut sets out what Legare intends to explore next: mechanical concepts from watchmaking history that can be reconsidered rather than reproduced.
