Sylvain Pinaud is a French independent watchmaker, born in 1978 near Grenoble to a watchmaker father, who works from his own workshop in Sainte-Croix, in the Swiss Jura. He set up independently in 2018 and says he invents, crafts and assembles every watch by hand in that workshop, producing them in very small numbers. Pinaud holds the Meilleur Ouvrier de France title, and his work combines in-house movement design with traditional hand finishing.
His first in-house model, Origine, was presented in March 2021 after three years of research and development. Its hand-wound movement places a large balance at 6 o’clock in an asymmetric, horizontal layout, and the watch won the Horological Revelation Prize at the 2022 GPHG. Pinaud then developed a monopusher chronograph with Massena LAB, shown at Geneva Watch Days 2023 and made in a limited edition of 10 pieces; the Sylvain Pinaud x Massena LAB Chronograph Monopoussoir won the Chronograph Prize at the 2024 GPHG. Variants of the Origine have included a Ste-Croix edition and a unique piece for the Only Watch charity auction.
