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Vallier & Cie

Founded in Zürich, 1892

Vallier & Cie is not a watchmaker. It is a private institution — a house of time, ceremony, and belonging. Since 1892, we have created one-of-a-kind timepieces that are not sold but adjudicated. Each piece is assigned to one individual, by name, by reason, and by moment. Never repeated. Never marketed. Never made available to the public.

We do not respond to trends. We respond to lineage, silence, and heritage. Vallier & Cie does not exist to produce collections. It exists to preserve dignity.

The Lineage

The house was founded in Zürich by Étienne Vallier, a banker’s son with no interest in commerce. He believed that time was not to be traded but entrusted — and that certain objects should bear no price, only a signature.

He commissioned only a handful of timepieces during his lifetime, most of them for clients he refused to name. Each carried a story. A return from exile. A birth out of tragedy. A secret marriage. An apology between brothers.

Étienne died in 1938, leaving behind twelve watches, a sealed red ledger, and a phrase written in his hand:

“Let time be deserved, not owned.”

Today, Vallier & Cie is overseen by Samuel — a distant relative of the founder, and the only man authorised to adjudicate the creation of a Vallier timepiece.
 
He does not bear a title. His name is not printed. His surname is never disclosed.
He is not a businessman. He is not a public figure.
He is the Curator of Adjudication — a man whose decisions are final, and whose silence carries more weight than applause.
 
Samuel is what one might call an engineer of culture.
He builds nothing visible. He designs nothing commercial.
But through each adjudication, he erects a structure of meaning, permanence, and restraint.
 
All correspondence is handwritten.
Replies — if any — are sealed, unsigned, and final.
 
Under his exacting vigilance, Vallier & Cie remains not a maison of luxury, but a sovereign institution.
 
A closed circle of judgment and time.
Where nothing is sold, and everything is meant.