Introducing Romain Jerome (Video) | Montredo

MEET THE MANUFACTURER

“What makes us very different is that we respect all the traditional approaches to high-end watchmaking, but we just express it in a totally different, unique and innovative way.”

In the current episode of “Meet the Manufacturer”, we travel to Switzerland’s horological epicenter: Geneva. This watch-crazy city also happens to be the hometown of one truly daring and relatively young watch manufacturer, namely Romain Jerome.

Here are some of our favourite watches from Romain Jerome that are also featured in this episode of “Meet the Manufacturer”:

0:41 – RJ-Romain Jerome Steampunk Tourbillon

Reference Number: RJ.T.TO.SP.003.02
Movement: Automatic
Caliber: RJ001-CS
Power Reserve: 42h
Case Diameter: 50mm
Case Material: PVD-Coated steel
Bezel Material: Steel from Titanic

1:18 – RJ-Romain Jerome Pac-Man

Reference Number: RJ.M.AU.IN.009.04
Movement: Automatic
Caliber: RJ001-A
Power Reserve: 42h
Case Diameter: 46mm
Case Material: PVD-coated steel

1:39 – RJ-Romain Jerome Space Invaders

Reference Number: RJ.M.AU.IN.006.08
Movement: Automatic
Caliber: RJ001-A
Power Reserve: 42h
Case Diameter: 46mm
Case Material: Black PVD titanium

1:43 – RJ-Romain Jerome Tetris

Reference Number: RJ.M.AU.IN.010.01
Movement: Automatic 
Caliber: RJ001-A
Power Reserve: 42h
Case Diameter: 46mm
Case Material: Black PVD titanium

1:45 – RJ-Romain Jerome Super Mario Bros

Reference Number: RJ.M.AU.IN.011.01
Movement: Automatic
Caliber: RJ001-A
Power Reserve: 42h
Case Diameter: 46mm
Case Material: Black PVD titanium

1:51 – RJ-Romain Jerome Donkey Kong

Reference Number: RJ.M.AU.IN.015.01
Movement: Automatic
Caliber: RJ001-A
Power Reserve: 42h
Case Diameter: 46 mm
Case Material: Black PVD titanium

2:00 – RJ-Romain Jerome Spacecraft

Reference Number: RJ.SC.AU.001.01
Movement: Automatic
Caliber: RJ2000-A
Power Reserve: 38h
Case Size: 50 x 44.5mm
Case Material: Titanium

2:14 – RJ-Romain Jerome Moon Invader

Reference Number: RJ.M.AU.IN.001.01
Movement: Automatic
Caliber: RJ001-C
Power Reserve: 42h
Case Diameter: 46mm
Case Material: PVD-coated steel

2:18 – RJ-Romain Jerome Moon Orbiter

Reference Number: RJ.M.TO.MO.001.01
Movement: Automatic
Caliber: RJ3000-A
Power Reserve: 42h
Case Size: 44.5 x 48.5mm
Case Material: Stainless Steel

2:23 – RJ-Romain Jerome Skylab

Reference Number: RJ.M.AU.028.01
Movement: Manual wind
Caliber: RJ004-M
Power Reserve: 48h
Case Diameter: 44 mm
Case Material: PVD-coated steel & gold

2:28 – RJ-Romain Jerome Tattoo DNA by Xoil

Reference Number: RJ.M.AU.025.05
Movement: Manual wind
Caliber: RJ004-M
Power Reserve: 48h
Case Diameter: 44 mm
Case Material: PVD-coated steel

Romain Jerome

Although the brand was only founded in 2004, it has quickly built up a reputation of being somewhat different to its fellow watch makers. The reason for this is that, since their founding day, the brand understood only too well how to skillfully experiment with unprecedented concepts on how to design modern wristwatches. Romain Jerome’s creations hence stand for a new kind watchmaking: away from traditions and conventions and more towards cutting one’s own path. This philosophy seems to be well received among watch enthusiasts.

Romain Jerome’s corporate identity does not only sound unique in theory but brought life to numerous unusual timepieces, as the brand attempts to integrate nature’s raw elements (sea, earth, space) into their product portfolio. The result is a combination of ancient and unprocessed materials, or to put it in RJ’s terms “the beauty of the raw”, and state-of-the-art technology. By incorporating these seemingly paradoxical values into one watch, Romain Jerome is one of the few Swiss brands that maintains a strong link to nature while evincing top-notch craftsmanship and technological expertise. A nice example for this approach is the Moon Orbiter (cf. minute 2:18), which contains both a flying tourbillon and real moon dust on its openworked dial.

However, since natural themes are not to everybody’s taste, the Haute Horlogerie house made sure to also appeal to other target groups. Especially their line of video games-related watches caused quite some horological upheaval in the watch community, as these watches pay tribute to all-time classics, such as Donkey Kong, Space Invaders or Pacman. Other collections are an homage to contemporary arts by picking up the design concept of music, art, tattoo and cars. Also, despite having only a very limited corporate history, Romain Jerome knows how to make up for that by utilizing a variety of historical artefacts in their watches: from actual Titanic steel (cf. Steampunk Tourbillon, 0:41), to volcanic ash and even elements of the Apollo 11 spacecraft.

At the end of the day, all these factors combined make Romain Jerome watches unparalleled conversation starters, boasting eye-catching designs and first-class technologies.