Collection: Beaubleu

Beaubleu was founded in Paris in 2017 by Nicolas Ducoudert, a designer who came to watchmaking from automobile and luxury-product design. The maison sets itself three rules: challenge the status quo, defend creative freedom, and make objects durable enough to be worth keeping.

The circular hands are why the watches look like nothing else on a tray. Ducoudert treats the circle as the starting point for any way of thinking about space, and on the dial that becomes two open rings crossing each other, their intersection marking the hour and the minute. It asks something of the wearer - you read a Beaubleu rather than glance at it - and every watch in the line carries them.

The permanent collections run the Miyota 9015 Slim automatic, a slim, well-regarded Japanese caliber with a 42-hour power reserve. The exception is the Seconde Française, which runs a France Ebauches movement genuinely manufactured in France, and is assembled in Paris.

A designer's answer to the dial

Nicolas Ducoudert founded Beaubleu in Paris in 2017, arriving from automobile and luxury-product design rather than from watchmaking. That shows in what he changed first: not the case or the movement, but the hands. Where every other brand draws a line from the center, Beaubleu draws a circle, and the point where two rings overlap tells the time.

From limited editions to a permanent collection

The first Beaubleu watches - B01, Union and Vitruve - were limited runs that established the language. In 2023 the Ecce arrived as the brand's first permanent collection: a 39mm automatic with embossed dials in alabaster, blue and rose gold. The Figura followed, taking the same idea into a small square case.

Seconde Française, 2024

The Seconde Française is Beaubleu's most ambitious watch. It runs a France Ebauches automatic - a genuinely French-made movement, which is rare at any price - behind a dial of 18th-century Indo-Arab numerals and a railroad minute track, with a seconds hand that appears to float unattached above it. Each of the 888 pieces is numbered on the caseback, and the watches are assembled in Paris.

Ecce - Beaubleu's first permanent collection and the classic round Beaubleu: a 39mm 316L stainless steel case 9.5mm thick, a double-embossed dial that shifts with the light, a date at six, and the circular hands above it. Miyota 9015 Slim automatic, 42-hour power reserve, anti-glare sapphire, 50 meters, on interchangeable 20mm straps. $1,123 to $1,237.

Ecce Figura - The same idea in a square case, 30mm across and 39mm top to bottom and only 8.6mm thick, with the dial worked like a wax seal and a concave sapphire crystal stepping down to meet it. Miyota 9015 Slim automatic, 42-hour power reserve, 30 meters, on 18mm straps and mesh bracelets. $1,123 to $1,237.

Seconde Française - The 19.24, with a France Ebauches automatic made in France, 46-hour power reserve, in a 39mm case with the crown hidden at three. Double-domed sapphire over an enamel or grained dial, 18th-century numerals, and a floating seconds hand. Limited to 888 numbered pieces, assembled in Paris. $1,691.

Every Beaubleu is supplied with the maison's manufacturer warranty against defects in materials and workmanship, and Beaubleu services its watches from the Paris atelier. The Seconde Française 19.24 carries the longest published coverage in the line: 36 months on the watch and five years on the France Ebauches movement. A manufacturer warranty depends on the watch having been bought through an authorized dealer, so purchasing from King Jewelers keeps that coverage intact from the day it leaves the store.