A Student’s Watch Wins the F.P. Journe Young Talent Prize

Name Thomas Aubert

Age 23

Lives in Maîche, France, a small town near the border with Switzerland

Claim to fame Mr. Aubert won the 2024 edition of the F.P. Journe Young Talent Competition, an annual contest organized by the brand to help students and recent graduates establish themselves in the world of independent watchmaking.

The winning watch Séléné, named for the Greek goddess of the moon, is a 43-millimeter timepiece that is wound with a key. “When you release it,” he said, “a shooting star rapidly moves across the sky” on the back of the stainless steel case.

One of the prize’s jury members, the Swiss independent watchmaker Marc Jenni, wrote in an email that Mr. Aubert had “outperformed in his approach to translate and display the technical aspect of the movement into a beautifully and well-designed wristwatch. He pushed the boundaries of aesthetical balance and sharp design. All details are meticulously finished.”

Its development Mr. Aubert made the watch — known as a montre-école, or school watch — during his seventh and final year of the prestigious program at Lycée Edgar Faure in Morteau, France. (The 2023 winner, Alexandre Hazemann, also graduated from that program.)

A challenge From the initial sketch to the watch’s completion took seven months of work — two weeks of which was spent solely on boring two small keyholes in the glass over the case back, one to wind the watch and the other to set the time. “I had to find a manufacturing process that would allow me to cut through the glass precisely enough without breaking it,” Mr. Aubert said, adding that he cracked more than 10 pieces of glass before succeeding.

The prize With the prize money of 50,000 Swiss francs ($55,675) that he received in April, Mr. Aubert is planning to buy a small CNC (computer numeric control) machine to make watch parts.

His interest in timepieces His grandfather was a self-employed watchmaker who repaired watches in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland. “As soon as I was old enough to stand on my own two feet, he would take me to his workshop for the day,” Mr. Aubert said. “Watching him manipulate all those little parts to assemble a timepiece fascinated me. He’d give me old movements that I’d torture with a screwdriver. From then on, watchmaking and watches became my passion.”

A typical day After their graduation in June 2023, Mr. Aubert and Alexis Ramel-Sartori, a former classmate, opened a prototyping workshop in Le Russey, France. Watch brands and makers such as Simon Brette hire them to make or to decorate small collections of watch parts. “We only use traditional and manual machines that are twice our age,” Mr. Aubert said.

They like to arrive at the workshop by 7:30 a.m. each day, and each afternoon they take an hourlong bike ride through the nearby woods. (“We’re lucky enough to have our workshop in the countryside,” he said, “which gives us the peace and quiet we need to concentrate on our work and find our source of inspiration around the workshop.”)

And, next … One day, Mr. Aubert said, he would like to take on employees so he and Mr. Ramel-Sartori could focus on creating a watch. “The prize did not change my career plans, but it certainly accelerated things,” he said.