Engraving is one of watchmaking’s oldest languages, but it rarely feels this essential. With Faune et Flore, Andreas Strehler pushes the craft beyond decoration and into structure. These are not watches with engraved elements but movements whose bridges are the canvas. Flora and fauna emerge directly from solid gold, inseparable from the mechanics that animate them.
The project is a genuine collaboration. Strehler’s technical architecture meets the hand of Roman Houdek, who spends upward of 160 hours, often more, cutting each bridge by hand. Starting from sketches and working burin-first, Houdek builds depth and motion through subtraction alone. The risk is real as a single mistake can undo weeks of work, which lends these pieces a quiet tension you can feel when viewing them up close.
Whether it’s the butterfly garden of Jardin des Papillons or the still water of Étang des Koï, each Faune et Flore watch is made to order in Sirnach, Switzerland. Materials, motifs, and execution are decided collaboratively. The result is something rare, engraving that belongs exactly where it is, and nowhere else.
