South Korea is normally associated with smartphones, cars, K pop and an almost frightening ability to make technology smaller, faster and shinier. Watches, rather unfairly, tend to get left out of the conversation. This is beginning to look like a mistake. Beneath the enormous machinery of Korean industry sits a small group of independent watchmakers doing something rather more interesting than simply producing another watch with a familiar logo on the dial. They are making tiny mechanical objects that feel personal, experimental and occasionally gloriously eccentric. And this is precisely where things become interesting for collectors. While the Swiss have spent generations perfecting the art of making a watch look expensive, these Korean independents are asking a slightly more dangerous question: what if a watch could actually look like the person who made it?
Eugène Kim and the Vertixphere X1
Eugène Kim is one of the most intriguing names emerging from South Korea’s independent watchmaking scene. Kim describes himself as a self taught watchmaker, and his route into horology was anything but conventional. After years of studying and working with metals, he developed his own approach to mechanical watchmaking and eventually created the Vertixphere X1 with architect and designer Tayeb Boussalia. The result is the sort of watch that makes you wonder whether somebody accidentally removed half the conventional rules before starting the design process.
The Vertixphere X1 is built around the hand wound EKTB 01 calibre, developed by Kim and Boussalia. It features a vertical balance and escapement, a retrograde small seconds display and an openworked architecture, with its base and bridges made from titanium. The double barrel provides an extraordinary 144 hour, or six day, power reserve, while the movement beats at 28,800 vibrations per hour and uses 45 jewels. The case is made from Grade 23 titanium and measures 40mm by 13.2mm, with the crown unusually positioned at 12 o’clock. A domed sapphire crystal provides a wide view of the movement, while the power reserve indicator sits on the reverse. Limited to just 30 pieces, the Vertixphere X1 is priced at US$35,000.
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Minhoon Yoo and the Carved Piece
Then there is Minhoon Yoo, who has taken the rather radical decision to treat a watch dial like a piece of contemporary art. Yoo operates a one person studio in Seoul and studied metal art and design at Hongik University. He originally considered a career creating art furniture before discovering independent watchmaking and realising that a mechanical watch offered something wonderfully addictive: the ability to combine engineering with complete artistic self expression.
His Carved Piece is built around the idea of ambiguity. Instead of using conventional geometric guilloché, Yoo hand carves the silver dial, allowing the pattern to remain deliberately unpredictable. The dial comprises five silver plates, ten blue screws and twelve applied indices, making 27 components in total. Each index is black polished and hand bevelled. Beneath it sits a heavily modified Peseux/ETA 7001 manual winding movement, complete with an original click spring and hand decorated components. The nickel silver bridges feature convex anglage over a frosted surface, while the case measures 37mm in diameter, 7.3mm thick and is made from 316L stainless steel. With a 42 hour power reserve and a price of US$18,000 before tax, the Carved Piece is less about shouting for attention and more about rewarding somebody who actually bothers to look.
MOI Watch Brings Korean Craft Into Haute Horlogerie
MOI Watch occupies a rather different corner of Korean independent watchmaking. Founded by Han Moi Kim, the Seoul based atelier has been involved in manufacturing, restoration and repair of high end watches and mechanical clocks, with Kim eventually designing and producing his own timepieces. The atelier describes itself as a luxury watchmaking operation rooted in Korean sensibility and influenced by the traditions of independent Swiss watchmaking.
One of its most distinctive signatures is the use of traditional Korean mother of pearl craft, known as najeonchilgi. Rather than treating Korean cultural identity as decorative wallpaper, MOI Watch incorporates the technique directly into its watchmaking. Kim began the company in 2009 and subsequently developed creations including the MOI Tourbillon II, while his work has also extended into restoration, watchmaking education and specialist tools. His technical credentials are not merely theoretical either; he has worked in watch authentication and customisation and has collaborated with Swiss brand ArtyA on mother of pearl dials and a tourbillon project.
Radcliffe and the Tayeb Boussalia Connection
Now here comes the slightly awkward bit. Tayeb Boussalia is not actually a South Korean watchmaker. He is an architect and designer based in Oxford and the founder of Radcliffe Watch Co. But his inclusion matters because his collaboration with Eugène Kim on the Vertixphere X1 demonstrates how porous the independent watchmaking world has become. A Korean watchmaker and a British based architect can combine their ideas and produce something that neither would necessarily have created alone.
Boussalia’s own Radcliffe watches are built around architectural ideas, particularly the dramatic domed sapphire of the Le Dôme collection. The Le Dôme Classic uses the dome not merely as decoration but as an optical and structural feature, while the Le Dôme Tourbillon adds a flying tourbillon beneath the curved crystal. Recent versions have introduced crystallised titanium dials, including the highly individual Cristal Tropical treatment in which no two dials are exactly alike.
And that collaboration is perhaps the most interesting thing about this emerging Korean scene. Independent watchmaking is not about geographical purity. It is about ideas travelling between people who are prepared to ignore the instruction manual.
Why Collectors Should Be Watching South Korea
The appeal of these makers is therefore rather different from buying another predictable luxury watch. Eugène Kim brings experimental movement architecture and an extraordinary six day power reserve. Minhoon Yoo approaches the dial like an artist. MOI Watch connects mechanical watchmaking with Korean craft traditions, while the Vertixphere project demonstrates what can happen when Korean horology meets an architect’s eye for structure and proportion.
South Korea’s independent watchmaking scene is still small, which is precisely why collectors should pay attention. There is no enormous catalogue, no army of marketing executives and no need to pretend that a slightly different shade of blue constitutes a revolutionary invention. Instead, there are individuals making watches in small quantities, often by hand, and attempting to establish what Korean independent horology can actually mean. For collectors, that is the good stuff. Because finding the next important watchmaker before everyone else discovers them is, after all, half the fun.
