The car drops you on a quiet residential street with elegant stone facades and discreet addresses. It is the sort of street you might glimpse in Swiss arthouse films, all shuttered windows and patinated stone. Tucked away discreetly at a corner, meanwhile, is the relatively newish home of Artisans de Genève, an independent workshop specializing in watch customization.

It has been a little over a year since the atelier moved to these expanded premises and just over 20 years since founder John Isaac first nursed the idea of a workshop dedicated to personalizing luxury timepieces by hand.

“I was inspired by my grandfather, who was a tailor,” John Isaac explains. “He dedicated his life to his clients, and I greatly admire that. It is something I wish to achieve with Artisans de Genève.”

John Issac, founder of Artisans de Geneve

For many of his clients, Artisans de Genève has accomplished just that by bringing their visions to life. Requests run the gamut from specific hand-finishings and gold oscillating weights to skeletonised movements such as those requested by Formula One world champion Rubens Barrichello and Columbian racing star Juan Pablo Montoya. None is deemed too big by the atelier’s dedicated team of artisans and watchmakers.

But make no mistake; the magic doesn’t happen overnight. Instead, it is a long intensive process that begins from the moment a client submits his request for customization and typically takes about eight months. More complex requests can stretch from 12 months to a maximum of two years.

“Everything starts from what our clients want and their watch of course,” says John Isaac.  Artisans de Genève, he explains, is not a watch brand and does not produce any watches. Instead, all watches to be customised are personal pieces provided by their clients.

“Sometimes, they have a very clear inspiration and idea. Sometimes, absolutely not, but they just know that they want to create something,” he shares.

In one instance, the team travelled to Arizona to seek out a unique spiderweb turquoise for a visually vibrant and unusual dial. Another project required a full two years to gather 36 sapphires of very specific hues that are perfectly harmonized, to create a gradient bezel. A seemingly innocuous request from a client to personalize his timepiece around a favourite color pushed the atelier to realize their very first red sapphire dial, paired with 36 stunning rubies.

To put ideas such as these down on paper and then transform their client’s watches into bespoke one-of-a-kind creations, Artisans de Genève has a trusted team in place that includes 52 artisans, up from just five at the bench in its early years. Each specializes in a different craft and skill such as guilloche, enamelling and hand-engraving. Since 2024, the atelier also has a dedicated dial and case workshop, which allows them to work on more elaborate and demanding projects such as a recent 2024 request for a Namibian meteorite dial, paired with a grand moonphase subdial in aventurine and mother of pearl. The realization of this project required the collaboration of multiple artisans and specialists within the Artisans de Genève workshop. Last year, the atelier expanded further, with newly created departments in gemotology and watch design to better cater to the evermore complex requests from clients.

More significantly, Artisans de Genève formalized a certification process with Geneva institution TimeLab the same year. This means that all watches leaving the atelier after customisation will be sent to the lab to be tested against rigorous standards, and upon certification, have a seven-year international warranty that’s honored by Artisans de Genève. There is a world-wide aftersales service, and each customized piece will also have its own certificate of authenticity, individually numbered, dated and signed, ensuring complete traceability.

“The watches are disassembled during the customization process so their original warranty will be voided,” explains John Isaac. “Our clients give us something that is very precious, and we want to give them the best care. So we added an additional month of testing at the TimeLab to ensure that each creation is fully compliant.”

Over the years, Artisans de Genève has garnered a loyal following mostly by word of mouth. Its A-list clientele includes the likes of Lenny Kravitz, Spike Lee, Adam Levine and most recently, Andre Agassi. John Isaac himself has overseen the customization of several watches, the most memorable of which is the one by Juan Pablo Montoya.

“We worked on that for two years,” he says. “The results were incredible and it changed the way people viewed watch customization.”

For John Isaac, his team at Artisans de Genève and their clients, the real satisfaction lies well beyond seeing the fruit of their labor in the flesh. It is in the experience of giving abstract ideas concrete shape, and making them real.

“It’s the journey of creating something together,” he sums up with a smile.

Artisans de Genève is an independent watchmaking workshop offering handcrafted timepiece customization and restoration services. Artisans de Genève is neither associated nor affiliated with the makers/brands of those timepieces. Artisans de Genève carries out work at the sole request of its customers, on their timepieces, for their private use only.