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Did you know, Singer Reimagined might have never existed if Marco hadn’t had that conversation?
During a conference given at the HEAD, Marco asked Jean-Marc Wiederrecht, founder of Agenhor, to share his experience with the students.
Marco was far from imagining that this conversation would save him.
The idea of creating a brand in collaboration with Singer had already come a long way. It had come so far that the designs were there, but her revolutionary idea had one major problem: it lacked a movement that could bring it to life!
When Marco shared his project with Jean-Marc, time stood still. Marco’s problem was about to be solved, but he didn’t know it yet. Jean-Marc and his teams were already secretly developing a chronograph movement that met the needs of the project. How could he not be surprised when he heard Marco explain his problem.
“Who told you about it?”
“About what?” replied Marco.
“Don’t look any further, I have what you need.”
I couldn’t have asked for a better introduction. Returning to Singer Reimagined to shoot a video, I took another step into the heart of the brand.
Here is my journey.
Winter is coming to an end, the clouds are low and the temperature is slowly rising. But I don’t pay attention to all these details. That day, I am focused on one question: how to reinterpret traditional codes to propose something new?
This is the red thread that will guide me throughout the day.
The video equipment is in our bags, the batteries are charged, the questions for the interviews are in my notebook: we can finally take the road. We leave our lodging to go to Carrouge, a city of the Canton of Geneva, where the offices of Singer Reimagined are. While the kilometers are passing, I look for the answers Marco could give me.
I can say that I know the brand quite well having handled their pieces several times and having talked to Marco more than once. I know its story and yet deep inside me there is this doubt. Something is missing.
As we arrive, this doubt grows. It is a pleasant moment because your concentration is fully deployed to capture every piece of information. You live in the moment because you are inhabited by your quest. I am like an explorer on a mission. The information Marco gives me are like clues that will guide me and help me reach a treasure: capturing the heart of the brand.
It was during this interview that Marco shared the previous anecdote with Jean-Marc Wiederrecht. Without this episode, the brand could not have been born. Your projects, our projects, can become reality, while they were at a standstill, thanks to a meeting, a banal discussion.
Each piece of information becomes a clue that allows you to move forward only if you analyze it. You can see the discussion between Jean-Marc and Marco as a stroke of luck. But this would only be taking into account a part of the information. It is necessary to perceive the perseverance Marco had to show throughout his research. The enthusiasm he has for his project has been diminished more than once by the many rejections he has had to face.
Is that all? Is perseverance the only clue we have from this information?
As Marco explains how he came up with the idea of creating a chronograph that tells the time, the image of the Track 1 comes to mind. More precisely, I see the case back like a labyrinth from which only the initiated can get out. I only saw a movement in it, but in reality it is a real mechanical poetry.
Finally, I have it: Love. Here is the second clue! It’s the love of experience you need to remember. The experience is what you will experience when you move your project forward. But also, what you will experience with the watch. It’s both the moment you’re going to time, but also what you’re going to feel when you’ll linger on your watch. Marco is an experience creator. His watches are just keys to those timeless moments you experience.
Perseverance and love, these are the two clues. This is what has motivated Marco since the beginning of Singer Reimagined. As you can imagine, these two clues are not enough to reach our treasure.
Our red thread takes us from Marco to Agenhor. This is where the product comes to life.
We are welcomed by Laurent and Nicolas Wiederrecht, Jean-Marc’s sons and the current managers of the company.
If some see a movement as only a means to indicate information, Laurent and Nicolas, as well as the whole Agenhor team, see it as an opportunity for poetic creation. Every bridge, every cam, every gear can be redesigned to take a poetic shape.
As we ask Nicolas about the work done with Singer Reimagined and how they went about creating this central chronograph, I find myself lost in the details. Every component has its technical name and I am a visual person. When the interview ends, I’m happy to leave the room and slide my head over the watchmaker’s shoulder. Names become shapes that match each other in a perpetual movement.
But what I remember is not the names but the relationship between the team members. When Laurent accompanies us to the watchmaker, we don’t witness a relationship of subordination: they are on the same level. They are all driven by this desire to give the best of themselves.
Laurent explains to me that this relationship was able to take shape when he was able to find his place by being himself. Taking over the family business with his brother was not an easy task. The latter was forged by their father who made it grow throughout his career. It was almost part of his person. He did not have to play a role since he had created his own mold.
By taking over the family business, Laurent and Nicolas wanted to replicate what they had always seen. But their father’s personality was not their own, and this was quickly felt by both customers and staff. This situation did not last because they decided to do it their way, just as Marco reinterpreted the codes of the chronograph.
It is both this complementary vision of watchmaking and their experiences that make the Singer Reimagined – Agenhor pairing so unique. To reach our treasure, we had to leave the product and focus on the people. We were able to get closer to our treasure through this experience and I hope that it allowed you to look at this brand we hold dear in a new way.
Since the treasure has not yet been reached, we must continue our quest.
See you in our next adventures with Singer Reimagined!
