MCT Watches

MCT: Avant-Garde Horology with Mechanical Theater Built In

MCT isn’t a brand for everyone.
 In fact, it was never meant to be.

Short for Manufacture Contemporaine du Temps, this now-defunct Swiss independent focused on hyper-technical mechanical display systems, wild case architecture, and a signature style that looked like it came from the future — but was engineered like a traditional haute complication.

If you’ve ever looked at a standard dial and thought “this is too flat, too obvious, too easy,” MCT had your answer — in the form of rotating prisms, jumping hours, and layered sapphire displays.

Brand History: Indie Innovation with Real Watchmaker Firepower

MCT was founded in 2007 by Denis Giguet, a former engineer with a background at Harry Winston’s Opus project and Jaeger-LeCoultre. The goal? Create a new mechanical language for telling time, one that fused art, architecture, and traditional Swiss engineering.

The first release — the Sequential One (S100) — dropped jaws. A square case, sapphire front and back, and a proprietary movement that used four rotating prism modules to display the jumping hour, with a rotating central minute track that pointed to the active hour.

From there, MCT continued to push boundaries with:

  • New case materials (titanium, DLC, red gold)

  • Movement updates and skeletonized variations

  • Sequential Two and Sequential One EVO iterations

  • The Frequential One, which replaced the prisms with an exposed regulator

Sadly, the brand ceased operations around 2019, but its watches remain collector cult items.

Collector Highlights: If You Know, You Know

  • Sequential One (S100 / S110 / S110 EVO) – The original concept. Jumping hour via rotating prism display, minutes shown with a large central disc. Still one of the most innovative dial layouts of the 21st century.

  • Sequential Two (S200) – Round case version of the S1, slightly more wearable but with the same mechanical display. Rotating sapphire minute ring, jumping hour prisms.

  • Frequential One (F110) – Manual-wind, exposed balance at 6 o’clock, central regulator layout. No jumping hours, but pure openworked watchmaking with high finishing.

  • SKT Editions – Skeletonized variants of their core pieces, often in ultra-lightweight titanium or DLC finishes.

All watches were produced in very small batches, with in-house calibers (built and finished in-house or in collaboration with haute horology suppliers) and cases machined to architectural levels of precision.

Why Collectors Should Care

  • Truly original time display system — not derivative, not rehashed

  • Low production, high execution — typically under 50 pieces per model

  • Mechanical engineering at its boldest

  • Strong design DNA — instantly recognizable from across the room

  • Now discontinued = rarity baked in — these aren’t coming back

This is indie horology at its most unapologetic — and some collectors love that.

What They’re Making Now: Nothing (But That’s the Point)

MCT ceased production around 2019, and there are no signs of a revival.
 The original website is down. The brand has no social presence. It is, for all practical purposes, a closed chapter in the indie horology world.

But the watches are still out there — quietly circulating on the secondary market.
 And for collectors in the know? They’re neo-grail material.

Fed’s Take

MCT was one of the wildest, smartest, most mechanically playful indies of the 2000s–2010s.

The Sequential One is like a kinetic sculpture for your wrist. The prisms click into place with this soft, deliberate motion that just makes you watch it happen. The central rotating minute track? Feels like a UFO.

I’ve sold a few, and every time, the buyer was someone deep into the scene — people who already owned Journe, Urwerk, or De Bethune and wanted something different.

If you’re building a collection of watches that actually make you think when you check the time?
 MCT should absolutely be in that conversation.

Gone, but Still Orbiting in Collector Space

MCT didn’t last. But what they made? It mattered.
 And it still does — to the right kind of collector.

Delray Watch occasionally sources MCT watches — especially Sequential One and Sequential Two models.

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