Akrone
PURPOSE SHAPES THE WATCH
Founded in Nantes in 2015 by Jean-François Kerboul and Erwan Kerneur, AKRONE develops watches around a simple idea: first understand how a watch will be used, then design it accordingly.
Diving, aviation, professional environments or everyday wear: every project begins with practical requirements. Legibility, ergonomics, movement, materials, durability and precision are then developed around those needs.
The name Akrone is inspired by the French word achrone, meaning “outside of time”. The K refers to the surnames of its two founders.
That idea still guides our work today: creating watches designed to be worn for years, maintained and serviced in our own workshop.
For more than 10 years, the experience gained from each project has shaped the way we approach watchmaking.
BUILT FOR THE FIELD
PROFESSIONAL PROJECTSA significant part of our experience comes from projects developed directly with the people who wear our watches.
Armed forces, aviation, security units, companies and institutions: Akrone has completed more than 100 bespoke projects.
These include projects with ALAT (French Army Light Aviation), the French Foreign Legion, GIGN, BRI and PSIG, as well as with pilots and airlines.
Every project begins with a specific use case and a set of technical requirements. The environment and the profession then determine the choices to be made: legibility, weight, water resistance, ergonomics, materials, movement and functions.
These projects expose us to new requirements, challenge us to find solutions and build experience that we then bring back into our collections.
Some projects also help support welfare and mutual-aid organisations associated with the units concerned. More than €100,000 has been donated to date.
For Akrone, the field is not a backdrop. It is a source of experience.
FROM CONCEPT TO REFINEMENT
This experience takes shape in our Nantes workshop.
This is where we develop our watches, produce their technical drawings and define their specifications. Prototypes are assessed, solutions refined and each watch progressively brought to its final form.
Components are produced by specialised partners selected according to the requirements of each project.
They are then sent to Nantes for the stages we have chosen to keep closely within our team: assembly, regulation and inspection.
After-sales service and maintenance are also handled in our workshop.
This approach allows us to follow a watch from its first sketches through to delivery, and to work on it again years later when servicing is required.
Development, assembly, regulation, inspection and servicing: this continuity defines the way our workshop operates.
MECHANICAL PERFORMANCE & PRECISION
A movement is not selected for its name, but for what it brings to the watch.
Depending on the project, we work with Sellita, Soprod and Miyota calibres, selected according to their architecture, precision, power reserve, functions and long-term serviceability.
The work then continues in Nantes.
The relevant movements are regulated by hand and their timekeeping performance checked in multiple positions. For the three-hand calibres concerned, our regulation target is an average of −4 to +6 seconds per day across six positions.
Our regulation methods have also been refined through our work with the Besançon Observatory, particularly in the fields of precision and chronometer certification.
Choosing a calibre is a design decision.
Regulating it, testing it and understanding how it performs once fitted inside the watch are all part of our work as watchmakers.
MATERIALS & PERFORMANCE
Steel, titanium, ceramic, carbon and sapphire: every material is selected for what it brings to the watch.
Lightness, strength, comfort, legibility and durability: the choice always depends on the intended use.
These materials are complemented by solutions developed for specific projects, including DLC coatings, luminescent systems and specialised constructions for diving, aviation and other professional environments.
Technology is never an end in itself. It must serve the purpose of the watch and contribute to its character.
GUIDED BY EXPERIENCE
SINCE 2015Akrone has grown project by project.
Frédéric Swierczynski’s dives at La Mescla and Red Lake, our work with the Besançon Observatory, projects developed with the armed forces and aviation, and our participation in the Solitaire du Figaro have exposed us to a wide range of uses and constraints.
Some experiences have taken us underwater. Others into cockpits, out at sea or into demanding professional environments.
Each one has required us to approach precision, materials, movements, construction and ergonomics differently.
The principle, however, remains the same: understand the intended use, learn from the project and turn that experience into practical solutions.
That is how our collections evolve.
And after more than ten years, it is still how we develop our watches in Nantes: using what each project has taught us to shape the next one.
