About
My name is Pierre, and I am an independent watchmaker and enameller. Ever since childhood, I have been fascinated by mechanisms. I would take objects apart to understand how they worked, while developing a deep appreciation for drawing and making things by hand.
For several years, watchmaking developed alongside my engineering career, becoming an increasingly central passion. I first explored watch repair and movement decoration before turning to the dial as a true space for creative expression.
Discovering Grand Feu enamel was a defining moment. The depth of its colours, the light captured within the vitrified material, and the possibilities offered by the different enamelling techniques gave me a way to unite horological precision with the artistic sensitivity that has always been part of who I am.
Japanese art has always held a special place in my imagination. Ukiyo-e prints, with their ability to evoke a landscape, a season, or an atmosphere through an apparent simplicity, became a natural foundation for this project. They embody the quiet, poetic, and understated beauty that I seek to express in my dials.
Since 2020, I have been creating dials entirely by hand in my workshop. The enamels are prepared, applied, and kiln-fired through a slow process in which every detail matters. Some creations use cloisonné, with gold wires shaped and positioned one by one, while others explore enamel through more restrained and minimalist compositions. In 2025, I left my engineering career to found UKIYO and devote myself fully to creating mechanical watches with Grand Feu enamel dials.
Grand Feu Enamel
Grand Feu enamel is an exceptional material, both timeless and alive, lending watch dials an unrivalled brilliance and depth. Resistant to oxidation and light, it retains its vibrant colours across the centuries, as demonstrated by Egyptian artefacts and the medieval enamels of Limoges. This ancestral technique, cherished in fine watchmaking, embodies a rare balance between beauty and exacting craftsmanship.
The process begins with a mineral powder similar to glass, produced by melting silica and metallic oxides. Applied in thin layers to a raw dial—silver, or gold for unique pieces—the enamel powder is fired at between 750 and 850°C. It melts and vitrifies, revealing colours of remarkable intensity. Every firing is a challenge: a single bubble, crack, or impurity can undo dozens of hours of work.
This is why the most prestigious watchmaking houses reserve Grand Feu enamel for their most exclusive creations. Its inherent unpredictability makes every dial a unique work of art, shaped as much by the material itself as by the hand of the artisan.
The Floating World
UKIYO was born in 2025 as the natural continuation of my approach: creating handcrafted watches in which the art of Grand Feu enamel meets Japanese aesthetics.
Ukiyo (浮世), literally “floating world,” is a state of mind centred on the present moment and the beauty of the ephemeral. It inspired ukiyo-e (浮世絵), the prints that celebrate landscapes, seasons, and the poetry of everyday life—from Hokusai’s Great Wave off Kanagawa and Hiroshige’s journeys to Utamaro’s portraits. Where prints seek to capture a fleeting moment, enamel preserves its beauty in a material made to withstand time.
The “Ukiyo” Logo
Our logo takes the form of a round hanko seal, like those used by the masters of Japanese printmaking. Deceptively simple, these seals follow precise conventions: ancient Chinese characters are carved in a specific style of seal script, often Tensho-tai. In the Hokusai print shown below, the round hanko reads “Hokusai,” while the square seal means “the Old Man Mad About Drawing.”
Created by a master artisan in Tokyo, our seal bears the characters 浮世 (“Ukiyo”). Its design brings the two characters together within a circle in a fluid composition while respecting traditional typographic rules. It was then hand-carved into a stick of precious wood.