{"id":34834,"date":"2019-11-14T13:02:02","date_gmt":"2019-11-14T11:02:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gmtmag.com\/?p=34834"},"modified":"2019-11-14T13:02:02","modified_gmt":"2019-11-14T11:02:02","slug":"the-akrivia-atelier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gmtmag.com\/en\/business-n-en\/atmosphere-2\/the-akrivia-atelier.html","title":{"rendered":"The Akrivia atelier"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">S<\/span>urrounded by uneven cobblestone streets and centuries-old buildings in Geneva, sits what is possibly Switzerland\u2019s smallest watch <i>manufacture <\/i>: the atelier of independent brand Akrivia. Based there since 2017, Akrivia\u2019s founder, Rexhep Rexhepi, has sought to make his workshop different from that of other watch brands. Intimate and homey, but powerful in terms of production quality, the Akrivia atelier is the rough diamond of Geneva\u2019s Old Town.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">In 2018, Rexhepi caught international attention when he was awarded the prize in the Men\u2019s Watch category for his Chronom\u00e8tre Contemporain at the illustrious Grand Prix d\u2019Horlogerie de Gen\u00e8ve. \u201cWhat surprised me even more [than winning] was discovering the amount of really passionate collectors around the world, who know so much about watchmaking,\u201d said Rexhepi. \u201cI love getting to know people who love watchmaking like I do, or even more, and just welcoming them into the atelier,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-large wp-image-34827 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gmtmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Capture-d\u2019e\u0301cran-2019-11-14-a\u0300-11.54.51-1024x512.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"512\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.gmtmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Capture-d\u2019e\u0301cran-2019-11-14-a\u0300-11.54.51-1024x512.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.gmtmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Capture-d\u2019e\u0301cran-2019-11-14-a\u0300-11.54.51-300x150.png 300w, https:\/\/www.gmtmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Capture-d\u2019e\u0301cran-2019-11-14-a\u0300-11.54.51.png 1100w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The Akrivia workshops are every bit as contemporary as Rexhepi\u2019s designs but also show clear signs of his love for traditional watchmaking. The walls look newly painted white, but the floorboards still creak beneath your feet, and the watchmaking stations are grouped together at in the center, like a kitchen island, flooded with light from the large windows looking out into the street. Rexhepi\u2019s station is on a slightly raised platform, where on his right he can look out onto an internal courtyard and on his left, he can oversee his team of watchmakers, popping down to advise on beveling here, engraving there. In a back room, the team has furnished the space with a coffee table surrounded by a few chairs and a cozy couch, where Rexhepi often welcomes friends and clients for an <i>ap\u00e9ro<\/i>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">In this space, guests are welcomed into a home and privy to a production mode that remains rare in this industry \u2013 one that highlights traditional craftsmanship from A to Z devoted to making modern pieces as Rexhepi envisions them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Surrounded by uneven cobblestone streets and centuries-old buildings in Geneva, sits what is possibly Switzerland\u2019s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":34831,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[108],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gmtmag.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34834"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gmtmag.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gmtmag.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gmtmag.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gmtmag.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34834"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.gmtmag.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34834\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34835,"href":"https:\/\/www.gmtmag.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34834\/revisions\/34835"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gmtmag.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gmtmag.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gmtmag.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gmtmag.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}