RJ-Romain Jerome’s new timepiece is the story of two contemporary visionaries that share the same inspiration for design. Friends for the past 15 years, Manuel Emch and Alain Silberstein have finally decided to lay down their ideas and develop together RJ-Romain Jerome’s latest creation: the Subcraft. Inspired by “fluid design”, the Subcraft reflects the absence of ornamentation and brings out the harmony that is found between form and function. This aerodynamic timepiece is also a representation of shapes found in Nature, for example - the majestic dance of a Manta Ray. Devoid of any straight lines, this time giving sculpture allows this futuristic concept to come to life with an innovative and highly sophisticated mechanism. 

The Subcrafts’ flawless aquatic dance is the result of a meticulously crafted Grade 5 titanium or black PVD-coated titanium case. Designed to minimize resistance to motion, the case houses an ingenious mechanical movement created for RJ-Romain Jerome by Agenhor. The Subcraft hides its true heart under its smooth, flawless case, revealing Manuel Emch and Jean-Marc Wiederrecht’s mechanical collaboration with the creation of a unique movement that brings this new timepiece to life. This highly sophisticated movement combines four different complications – lateral, linear, jumping and retrograde – and represents one of the most complicated indications of time ever made to date.

On both models, the hour display is read laterally, under a cambered glass, highlighting the curves of the case to perfection. The minute display has been placed on the lid of the watch, under a black sphere glass mirroring the fluid design of the Subcraft. The minute counter has been traced in white featuring sporty designed numerals. Finally, the crown has been tucked at the extremity of the case creating a protective shell over it. 

Additionally, an all new black smooth calf cuff embraces the unique shape of the Subcraft inducing the comfort of the watch. The cuff has been designed with an opening under the watch’s case-back, allowing the wearer to see the “RJ X Alain Silberstein” signature and which limited timepiece he owns, out of the 99 available worldwide. 

The new Subcraft plays with the aesthetic of the brand’s iconic Spacecraft, yet this new addition to the Collaborations collection flirts with underwater mysteries and reveals a new fluid look that will transport you on another RJ-Romain Jerome quest. 

MANUEL EMCH | Born in Switzerland in 1972, Manuel Emch studied design at the Art Center in La Tour-de-Peilz before gaining a Master’s Degree in business at Lausanne University’s Faculty of Business and Economics (HEC). The winner of several watch design awards, Manuel Emch is gifted with considerable skills in the field of establishing and consolidating brand identity. He ably demonstrated this as CEO at Jaquet Droz, which he revived and repositioned as one of the finest references in the field of Haute Horlogerie. 

On January 1st 2010, Manuel Emch joined RJ-Romain Jerome as CEO in order to give it a fresh creative impulse and to establish the credibility and reputation of this youthful brand that shakes up the conventions and clichés often associated with watchmaking.

In parallel with his activities in the watch industry, Manuel Emch, has for over 20 years, nurtured a passion for Contemporary Art and has built up an eclectic collection. 

JEAN-MARC WIEDERRECHT | Born in 1950, Jean-Marc Wiederrecht is a contemporary watchmaker little known to the public at large, but highly appreciated by the greatest watch companies for his expertise. When he completed his watchmaker’s training in 1972, a time when the industry was in the grips of the quartz crisis, Jean-Marc Wiederrecht joined the Châtelain company, where he remained for six years. In 1978, he began a new phase in his career by turning to freelance and specialising in the assembly of extra-thin movements. Ten years later, Jean-Marc Wiederrecht developed his first retrograde perpetual calendar – which would become one of his specialities. In 1996, he founded Agenhor SA, a Geneva watchmaking manufacturer specialising in the development of mechanical modules, and in 2007 he was awarded the Best Watchmaker Prize at the Geneva Watchmaking Grand Prix. 

Jean-Marc Wiederrecht currently works with the biggest names in the watch business, and the list of tailor-made complications he has developed is a long one – as indeed is that of the Swiss, European and international invention patents he has registered.

ALAIN SILBERSTEIN | Born in 1950, Alain Silberstein’s personal history is not as one would expect. At the end of the 80s, this Parisian interior architect changed fields to become a watch architect in Besançon and created his own watch company. It was not only his passion for watches, but also a little bit of luck and circumstance that helped him to bring his vision to life… 

At a time when the disappearance of mechanical watchmaking seemed almost inevitable, he joined the very exclusive club of Swiss manufacturers who were plotting the rebirth of the mechanical watch with innovative designs and complications. 

His first creation in 1987 paid tribute to the Bauhaus Art Movement that originated in Germany between 1919 and 1933 , which was driven by major artists such as Gropius, Itten, Moholi-Nagy, Kandinski, Klee, Albers, Bayer and Mies van der Rohe – artists whose works continues to influence modern-day graphic design, architecture and design in general. Alain Silberstein has since continued to explore the world of watchmaking, which for him lies somewhere between art and craftsmanship and where rigorous shapes, innovative materials and evocative colours come together in harmony.