Geneva Watch Days 2026: GENUS “Les Flux du Temps” Is Where Grand Feu Enamel Meets The Flow Of Time

At Geneva Watch Days 2026, independent Geneva watchmaker GENUS unveiled a creation unlike anything it has produced before. “Les Flux du Temps”, meaning “the flow of time”, marks the brand’s first venture into the demanding world of Grand Feu enamel, bringing together GENUS’s unconventional approach to displaying time with the centuries-old traditions of Swiss decorative craftsmanship.

Limited to just five pieces, the creation is based on the GENUS GNS2 and features Grand Feu Cloisonné and Champlevé enamel, developed in collaboration with Lausanne-based enamel artist and designer Matteo Stauffacher. The project has been led by the Tad Kozh Association, a Geneva-based nonprofit dedicated to preserving and passing on watchmaking expertise and artisanal knowledge. The five watches will be unveiled during Geneva Watch Days 2026 and presented at the GENUS booth at Hôtel Beau-Rivage Geneva, Suite 422 on the fourth floor.

A New Artistic Territory for GENUS

GENUS has built its identity around challenging conventional ideas of how a mechanical watch should display time. Rather than relying on traditional hands, the independent manufacture uses articulated, moving elements to indicate the hours and minutes, creating a display that is constantly in motion.

With “Les Flux du Temps”, that philosophy becomes the canvas for a completely different form of expression. For the first time, GENUS has ventured into Grand Feu enamel, allowing the movement of its unusual display to interact with a handcrafted decorative technique in which every detail demands patience and precision.

The creative direction was entrusted entirely to Matteo Stauffacher, a Grand Feu enameller and designer based in Lausanne. Trained under renowned Swiss enameller Anita Porchet, Stauffacher was given complete artistic freedom to reinterpret the GNS2 and translate the philosophy of GENUS through his own visual language. The result is not simply an elaborately decorated watch. Instead, enamel becomes part of the identity of the timepiece, creating a dialogue between contemporary mechanical watchmaking and traditional craftsmanship.

Waves That Represent the Passage of Time

The visual language of “Les Flux du Temps” is built around waves, an appropriate motif for a watch whose very mechanism is designed to create a constantly moving interpretation of time. The two 18K gold half-moon dials framing the central display are decorated using the Grand Feu Cloisonné technique. Each is constructed with approximately 12 centimetres of 24-karat gold wire, measuring just 0.2 mm in width. The fine gold wires form the individual compartments of the design, defining the flowing wave pattern before enamel is introduced.

Ten colours of transparent enamel are used across the dials. Each half-moon requires between eight and ten separate firings, with the enamel exposed to temperatures exceeding 800°C. With every firing, the material develops greater depth and intensity, while the transparency allows the gold structure beneath to remain an integral part of the composition. Once the firing process is complete, the enamel is painstakingly hand-polished to produce a mirror-like surface. In total, the production of the enameled components alone required more than 100 hours of work.

The Precision Behind Grand Feu

Cloisonné enamel is one of watchmaking’s most exacting decorative crafts. The process begins with fine gold wires that are shaped and fixed onto the dial to create individual sections. Enamel powder is then carefully placed within these compartments before the dial is fired at extremely high temperatures.

The challenge is that enamel is an unforgiving material. Every firing can alter its colour and appearance, while imperfections may become visible only after the piece has undergone several stages of work. There is little room for correction, with the artisan required to work with extraordinary precision at every stage.

“Les Flux du Temps” also incorporates Champlevé enamel for the hour and minute displays. Here, the enamel is applied into recessed sections of the surface, creating another layer of depth while maintaining the visual connection between the moving components and the decorated half-moon dials.

For Stauffacher, the project represented an opportunity to work directly with a watchmaker and explore territory neither had previously entered. “I had always dreamed of sitting down at a table with a watchmaker and saying, ‘Now, let’s try to create something we’ve never done before’.”- Matteo Stauffacher

The GENUS GNS2 as the Canvas

Introduced in 2024, the GNS2 represents the evolution of GENUS’s original GNS1 concept. Its redesigned display is more streamlined and symmetrical, but it retains the fundamental idea that defines the independent brand: time should be read through movement rather than conventional hands.

The outer elements indicate the hours, while the elements following the brand’s distinctive figure-eight trajectory indicate the minutes. As they continuously travel along their prescribed paths, the components create an almost hypnotic representation of time passing.

At the heart of the GNS2 is the Manufacture Caliber 260Rh-2, a hand-wound movement designed and developed by Master Watchmaker Sébastien Billières and assembled in GENUS’s Geneva workshop. Comprising 285 components, the movement operates at 18,000 vibrations per hour and provides approximately 50 hours of power reserve.

For “Les Flux du Temps”, this mechanical architecture becomes something more than a technical foundation. The moving, articulated elements become part of the artistic composition, making the challenge of incorporating enamel considerably more complex.

“I could never have imagined taking on a project which included moving, articulated enameled pieces. That’s the beauty of this kind of collaboration the artist’s inspiration combined with our thirst for uncharted territory.”- Sébastien Billières

A Collaboration Built Around Craft

The project is the first collaboration of its kind for Tad Kozh, the nonprofit organisation founded in Geneva in 2026 by Alix and Baudouin Van Es. The association takes its name from the Breton word for “grandfather” and is built around a simple idea: watchmaking is not only about mechanisms and complications, but also about the people and skills that make those mechanisms possible. The founders previously launched the media platform Tourbillon Watch in 2019, with a focus on the people behind watchmaking. Tad Kozh takes that philosophy further by creating direct collaborations between watch manufacturers and artisans.

The association organises two collaborations each year, bringing a watchmaker together with an artisan to create a limited series that highlights a traditional craft while giving the artisan an opportunity to push their expertise in a contemporary context. Each artisan becomes a genuine creative partner rather than simply a supplier. They study the identity of the participating watchmaker and develop a concept that reflects both their own artistic language and the brand’s DNA. Editions are limited to between five and ten pieces and are sold by subscription.

For the watchmaker, the collaboration opens the door to an unfamiliar artistic discipline. For the artisan, it provides an opportunity to explore their capabilities without compromising their creative vision. And for collectors, the result is a timepiece that carries a deeper human and artisanal story.

Five Pieces, More Than 100 Hours of Craft

“Les Flux du Temps” is ultimately about the meeting of two very different approaches to watchmaking. GENUS brings its experimental mechanical architecture and unconventional display, while Stauffacher brings the discipline and visual richness of Grand Feu enamel. The result is a contemporary interpretation of time in which the flowing movement of the GNS2 is mirrored by waves formed from gold wire and layers of translucent enamel. It is a particularly fitting collaboration for a brand that has consistently questioned traditional notions of time display.

With only five examples to be produced and a price of CHF 83,000 excluding taxes, “Les Flux du Temps” is as much an exercise in artistic craftsmanship as it is a mechanical watch. And perhaps that is precisely what makes it compelling: the watch does not simply measure the passage of time. Through its moving elements, flowing forms and painstakingly fired enamel, it attempts to visualise it.

3 SEO FAQs

1. What is GENUS “Les Flux du Temps”?
“Les Flux du Temps” is GENUS’s first creation featuring Grand Feu enamel. Based on the GNS2, it combines the brand’s unconventional moving time display with hand-crafted Cloisonné and Champlevé enamel.

2. How is the Grand Feu enamel on “Les Flux du Temps” made?
The 18K gold half-moon dials use 24K gold wire and ten colours of transparent enamel, with each dial requiring eight to ten firings at temperatures above 800°C. The enamel components took more than 100 hours to create.

3. How many GENUS “Les Flux du Temps” watches will be made?
Only five pieces of “Les Flux du Temps” will be produced. The limited-edition watch is priced at CHF 83,000 excluding taxes and will debut at Geneva Watch Days 2026.