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  THE LIVING LEGEND

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Looking for the very best watchmaker in the world ? Want to know everything about the Dufour Simplicity ? Welcome to the non-official Philippe Dufour web site !


Philippe Dufour  

4, rue du Village
CH-1347 Le Solliat
Switzerland
 
Fax : +41 21 845 41 95 / e-mail : dufour AT bluemail.ch

Please, do not use this tel/fax number and e-mail address without a good reason : Mr Dufour fortunately spends most of his time working on his watches !
 
This independant site, created for art lovers looking for the very best of watchmaking, mostly aims at giving "up-to-date" links to the interesting sites devoted to Philippe Dufour creations.

 


Who is Philippe Dufour ?

--- CLICK HERE TO UNDERSTAND WHO IS P. DUFOUR ---

Philippe Dufour is an AHCI member living in the Vallée de Joux, a very nice place considered as the cradle of high-end mechanical horology. He is clearly one of the most respected, most inovative and most talented master watchmakers working nowadays. His creations are considered as the quintessence of watchmaking, above everything that can be bought from known and respected companies.

Philippe Dufour was born in the Vallée and went to the Sentier technical school when he was 15 years old. He became a watchmaker in 1967 and was employed by Jaeger-le-Coultre. The master watchmaker Gabriel Locatelli gave him a great knowledge of horology. He then worked in the Caribean islands and came back to Switzerland in 1974, employed by Audemars Piguet and Gerald Genta. He gave life back to old and very complicated watches, including quite a lot of repeaters, working for the Osvaldo Patrizzi workshop. He also made five "grandes sonneries" for Audemars Piguet and, then, decided to produce watches under his own name in 1989.

Since that time, Philippe Dufour is one of the most sought after independant watchmaker. His search for perfection is what makes him so special in this world ! He is working alone (with the help of his daughter and of a young assistant) in his workshop, making nearly all the parts of his watches by himself and focusing on an incredible level of finishing and precision that can probably be found nowhere else today.


His watches

Basically, Philippe Dufour made three different watches under his own name:

  • the Grande Sonnerie

  • the Duality

  • the Simplicity

    All of them were (or are being for the third one) produced in very small series. Their outsdanding quality can be seen from the first glance but becomes even more impressive under a microscope. Because Philippe Dufour has both an exceptionally deep understanding of how a watch works and a philosophy of excellence, he spends a lot of time on each watch and makes it a unique product. A Dufour simply cannot be compared with a Patek Philippe (or any other serious company): it is not an industrial product, it is a "one man" work of art.


    Photo Gallery

    Please, look at my Visit to Philippe Dufour to catch my Simplicity !!!

    I decided to offer my simplicity a new blue strap.

    A few other nice pics (with the kind authorization of the owners):

  • Simplicity 1,
  • Simplicity 2,
  • Simplicity 3,
  • Simplicity 4,
  • Simplicity 5,
  • Simplicity 6.


    Prices (not official)

  • Simplicity 34 mm, rose gold : CHF. 48'000.00
  • Simplicity 34 mm, white gold : CHF. 48'000.00
  • Simplicity 34 mm, platinum : CHF. 62'000.00
  • Simplicity 37 mm, rose gold : CHF. 50'000.00
  • Simplicity 37 mm, white gold : CHF. 50'000.00
  • Simplicity 37 mm, platinum : CHF. 64'000.00

    Please, notice that those prices are just orders of magnitude. This is not an official web site and Philippe Dufour is free to change his prices whenever he wants ! Furthemore, it is possible (likely and desirable) that the simplicity will remain a very limited edition (anyway it takes so much time to make it that there will never be thousands !). Some combinations could therefore not be available anymore.


    Press and books

  • There is a book on Philippe Dufour ! You can find some informations here and order it here.

  • There are many articles on Philippe Dufour, describing him as "the greatest watchmaker among the greatest watchmakers". I will soon put here some scans.


    Links

  • SteveG's simplicity - FANTASTIC pics of the simplicity

  • Ron DeCorte's review - FANTASTIC pics of the simplicity from TZ

  • Ron DeCorte and Julian Peh go inside the Simplicity - FANTASTIC pics of the simplicity from Goldarts

  • Peter Chong visits Philippe Dufour - FANTASTIC article from TZ

  • SteveG compares a Dufour to a Patek, a Lange, etc. - VERY INTERESTING pics to understand why is a Dufour so much "better" than any other watch...

  • Harry Tan website - Nice pics of the Simplicity and Duality

  • Paul Boutros visit to Dufour - Great pics from ThePurists

  • Ming takes a look at duality - Great pics of a great watch on ThePuristS

  • Saturdays with Dufour - Very nice pics of Philippe Dufour's workshop, from ThePuristS

  • The Purists interviews Dufour - great to discover the philosophy of the master (nice pics)

  • Chronomania interviews Dufour - a fantastic jump into the world of watchmaking (nice pics). In french.

  • Europastar interviews Dufour - nice to know the latest thoughts of the master

  • Timezone interviews Dufour - nice anecdotes

  • Peter Chong interviews Philippe Dufour - 1 - good to read this !

  • Peter Chong interviews Philippe Dufour - 2 - Is a $600000 watch a madness ?

  • The Pursists thoughts on Dufour - quite informative

  • Watches-lexic's Dufour page - interesting input

  • Studiocana's Dufour site - nice place if... you speak japonese !

  • Alberto's simplicity - Nice pics from ThePurists

  • Simplicities' delivery - a funny report from ThePurists

  • The Philippe Dufour owners club - if you already have one !

  • ThePurists AHCI forum - a great place to discuss with other watch lovers interested by independant creators

  • Timezone's AHCI forum - another place for this

  • Horomundi's AHCI forum - a very promising forum for independant watchmaking !