Savour International

The ex-banker turned artisan watchmaker who makes Maurice de Mauriac watches tick

Daniel Dreifuss started out as a banker, but now he’s a watchmaker. In his Zurich studio, Daniel takes on the giants of the timepiece industry. The son of Jewish parents, he was a banker by trade, until he decided to bid adieu to the financial industry for good.

Today he is one of the few artisan watchmakers who is successful in the extremely competitive luxury watch market. His company, Maurice de Mauriac, has been making customised luxury watches for over a decade now. And for his clientele, it’s love at first sight when they see his timepieces.

Daniel’s goal is to make watches that embody the inner life of the wearer.

 

The long path to success

Daniel mainly wanted to make stylish mechanical chronographs that exhibited chronometer-like accuracy. After making numerous design drawings, he fabricated a series of prototypes and began looking for suitable suppliers.

And now he’s been at it for ten years, during which time he has been quite successful. In his lovely retail outlet not far from Zurich’s Paradeplatz square, he has on display the first automatic chronographs featuring mechanical ETA-Valijoux movements, a precise realisation, and a classic watch design.

Daniel has extensive watchmaking know-how, all of which he acquired on his own through research, and by extensively picking the brains of watch suppliers and other watchmakers.

Some of his customers ask Daniel to make a watch to their exact specifications. The Maurice de Mauriac watch collections, which are in the medium price segment, are based on a modular system that allows for the realisation of a broad range of variants.

 

Daniel’s designs and methods are minutely precise, and are adapted to the specific part of the timepiece he happens to be working on. His secret: a steady rest/gasket assembly that is designed in such a way that it is interchangeable – which means that, for example, a black PDV or 18 carat gold steady rest can be integrated into a steel watch.

Daniel loves talking about the creative aspect of his work, and about the ideas that make him tick, so to speak, such as his being very much of a colour person and only being able to work in striped shirts.

Today, Maurice de Mauriac makes a broad range of luxury watches that are genuinely a joy to behold and that reflect Daniel’s long years of hard work. For his achievement is considerable: he’s established a small watch company in Zurich that is successfully competing with the giants of the industry.

 

To learn more information about Maurice de Mauriac, visit www.mauricedemauriac.ch