THE CREATOR
GILLES ROBERT
Gilles Robert has watchmaking in his genes and creativity in his blood. He works instinctively, intuitively, guided not by method but by the object itself, shaping and feeling his way, attuned to a quiet certitude, an inner voice that can no more be explained than ignored – his gaze.
THE BIRTH
They are his markers along the road of life. His career has been a string of adventures, shaped by the unexpected, a constant eclecticism. One thing is certain: the Watchmaker has always expressed himself. Already, as a young boy, Gilles Robert was captivated by mechanics and by sewing, stripping down a moped to build something entirely new or experimenting with fabric. Self-taught, he learned by doing, by observing each gesture, his own and those of others, trusting his instinct, his one and only guide.
GEMMOLOGY AND JEWELRY
A MECHANICS OF THE HEART
TIME
AFTER THE PRECIOUS STONES
From jewellery to watchmaking. Clients came looking for his expertise, his instinct, his vision and his particular grasp of materials and volumes. He advised, designed, created for others. Without even realising, the mechanisms of time had caught up with him. Always.
Where Everything
START AGAIN
And so in 2002, he came home. To Robert&Fils. Continuation, not duplication. Rekindle the flame, as he likes to say. Reconnect with a language that is written in his family line: the language of time. Express himself, at last. For Gilles Robert, watchmaking isn’t a profession; it is a way of existing in the world. Never content to simply measure, his watches question and reinvent. Over and over, he returns to a design, rearranging its parts to find the perfect resonance. Each of his creations contains the trace of a same vibrato — that of a man who, since childhood, has listened to movement. A notion which, literally and figuratively, he has made his own.