Alain Silberstein: The story of the legendary French design watchmaker

Alain Silberstein, a French architect turned watchmaker, revolutionized watchmaking with bold colors and geometric designs.

Founded in 1987, his brand produced iconic models such as the Krono Bauhaus before it closed in 2012.

Silberstein's collaborations with MB&F and Louis Erard revived his legacy and solidified his cult status among collectors.

Today his watches are highly sought after and are valued both as mechanical timepieces and as portable works of art.

In the world of haute horlogerie, tradition often takes precedence. Swiss and German manufacturers are celebrated for their heritage, technical mastery, and dedication to centuries-old craftsmanship. Yet, every now and then, a visionary emerges who dares to challenge conventions and rewrite the rules of design. One such figure is Alain Silberstein, a trained architect who opened a bold new perspective to watchmaking in the late 1980s.

Instead of adhering to established conventions of understated elegance or mechanical conservatism, Silberstein transformed the wristwatch into a canvas for artistic expression. His creations, instantly recognizable by their vibrant colors, playful geometric forms, and Bauhaus-inspired lines, blurred the lines between functional timekeeping and wearable art. For collectors and enthusiasts, Alain Silberstein is a rare example of a brand that successfully combined design innovation with traditional Swiss watchmaking, leaving behind a legacy that is as distinctive as it is influential.

The founder: Alain Silberstein
Alain Silberstein was born in 1950 in Besançon, the historic center of French watchmaking. Growing up in a city where watchmaking had long been an integral part of cultural life, he was exposed to the finest craftsmanship from an early age. However, his early ambitions led him in a different direction. Silberstein studied interior design and architecture, graduating in the 1970s. This training honed his eye for structure, proportion, and the relationship between form and function. Unlike many traditional watchmakers who approached horology through apprenticeship and technical mastery, Silberstein brought a designer's mindset, viewing watches as both mechanical instruments and aesthetic expressions.

For over a decade, he worked as an interior designer, developing a deep appreciation for modernist principles. His influences ranged from the rigorous functionalism of the Bauhaus to the playfulness of postmodern design. Movements like De Stijl and the works of artists such as Piet Mondrian sparked his fascination with primary colors and geometric reduction. These elements would later reappear on his wrist in the form of vibrant red, yellow, and blue hands in triangular, circular, and square shapes. For Silberstein, a watch dial was never just about legibility, but also about creating a visual dialogue between color, form, and movement.

The transition from architecture to watchmaking was driven by both circumstance and passion. In the 1980s, the Swiss and French watch industries were still recovering from the quartz crisis, a time when many long-established manufacturers struggled to redefine their identities. For Silberstein, this climate of uncertainty opened up new possibilities. He believed that mechanical watches could not survive by copying the past, but through creativity and individuality. His vision was that a watch could be more than just a timekeeping instrument; it could be an object that evokes emotions, a wearable piece of contemporary art.

This conviction ultimately led him to found his own brand in 1987. Inspired by his architectural training, he applied the same principles of line, volume, and proportion to his watch cases, treating the dial like a miniature canvas. The result was a radically different aesthetic that immediately stood out from the conservative designs of Switzerland and Germany. Alain Silberstein was not just a watchmaker, but a designer who brought art and playfulness to an industry that often subordinated these qualities to tradition.

The birth of the brand (1987)
In 1987, Alain Silberstein founded his own watchmaking workshop in Besançon, his French birthplace. Unlike the large manufacturers of Switzerland or Germany, his workshop was small and independent, but his goal was ambitious. Silberstein wanted to open up a completely new perspective to the world of watchmaking and combine Swiss watchmaking craftsmanship with a distinctive artistic design language.

His very first collection demonstrated the boldness of his vision. While most luxury watches at the time favored classic dials, muted colors, and understated cases, Silberstein presented something radically different. His designs were characterized by:

Primary colors – bright red, blue and yellow hands that immediately caught the eye.

Geometric shapes – triangles, circles and rectangles – replaced traditional pointer shapes.

Playful case shapes – cylindrical or angular forms that incorporated architectural principles.

Unconventional details – crowns, pushers and even bracelets featured unusual details.

Source: barringtonwatchwinders.com