An independent watchmaker that is simultaneously traditional and contemporary, AKRIVIA is inspired - in style, craft and technique - by the splendid history of watchmaking in Geneva. The workshop’s origins, on the other hand, are distinctly modern: AKRIVIA was established by exile who fled his hometown to escape war, finding sanctuary in Switzerland – and his calling as a watchmaker. The Atelier AKRIVIA was founded in 2012 by Rexhep Rexhepi, who started as an apprentice at Patek Phillipe, just three years after arriving from Kosovo. Rexhep’s time at Geneva’s grandest watch brand has shaped his vision for AKRIVIA, which is essentially a disciplined reliance on the artisanal methods widely practised by watchmaker before the Quartz Crisis of the 1970s. A particular specialty of AKRIVIA is finissage, or movement finishing - perhaps the singular element that elevates watchmaking from mechanical engineering to art. At the ATELIER AKRIVIA, this is done almost entirely by hand, resulting in movements with an ethereal, metallic glow.