In Depth: Renaud Tixier Monday

Reconceiving the Micro-rotor and Haute Horology Along With It

Renaud Tixier is a relatively new independent watch brand founded in 2023 by Dominique Renaud and Julien Tixier. It was born from a years-long friendship between two watchmakers whose skills and mindsets complement each other. Through their combined work, they are raising the bar for haute horology—delivering both exceptional finishing and true watchmaking innovation, starting here with the micro-rotor.

Dominique Renaud along with a 1990 ad for Renaud & Papi's complicated movements.

For his part, Dominique Renaud brings four decades of horological invention, having co-founded Renaud & Papi in 1986 and developed over 25 movements for major brands including Audemars Piguet, Richard Mille, and IWC.

Tixier, just 31, trained as a restorer before going on to build watches from scratch—crafting parts, tools, and cases entirely by hand in his Vallée de Joux workshop.

Julien Tixier and Dominique Renaud at Tixier's workshop.

Their collaboration began in 2016, when Tixier was captivated by Renaud’s experimental DR01 movement. That meeting led to a series of increasingly ambitious joint projects—most notably the Tempus Fugit, a secular perpetual calendar accurate for 9,999 years. That watch, which rethought the fundamental architecture of calendar systems, was nominated for the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève in 2022 and eventually formed the foundation for Furlan Marri’s Only Watch entry.

With Renaud Tixier, the two now work together as a combined R&D lab and high-complication workshop, blending Dominique Renaud's raw invention with Julien Tixier's handmade execution. And through their watches, the pair are setting out to rethink seven foundational principles of mechanical horology. Each of their planned seven watches will bring to life one of those innovations and be named for a day of the week. The Monday is day one—the starting point of the series.

The Dancer Micro-rotor

The Monday introduces the first of Renaud Tixier’s seven innovations: a patented energy system called the “Dancer.” At first glance, it appears to be a traditional micro-rotor. But inside, the architecture has been completely re-engineered to improve winding efficiency and mechanical resilience—two long-standing weaknesses of micro-rotor designs.

In a conventional automatic movement—whether it uses a full rotor or micro-rotor—energy is only transmitted to the mainspring while the rotor is physically rotating. Once that rotation stops, winding stops. What Renaud has done with the Dancer is rethink that assumption. Here, a central platinum inertia wheel is suspended inside the rotor and paired with a spring-loaded “heel” mechanism. As the rotor moves, that inertia wheel stores kinetic energy—and continues to spin even after the rotor itself has slowed or stopped.

Crucially, that stored inertia doesn’t go to waste. It is directed through the gear train to continue winding the mainspring even after the initial impulse has ended. In essence, the Dancer extends the winding window beyond the rotor’s physical motion, capturing and converting residual movement into usable energy. At the same time, the system includes a mechanical decoupling feature that disengages the flywheel under shock, preserving the integrity of the movement. Once the shock subsides, the mechanism re-engages automatically.

The result is a winding system that’s more sensitive to low-amplitude motion, more efficient over time, and better protected under real-world conditions. It’s not just a better rotor—it’s a more thoughtful approach to energy in wristwatch mechanics.

Caliber RVI2023

To house the Dancer, the brand developed Caliber RVI2023—a 274-component movement measuring 36.8mm across and 6.69mm thick. It runs at 2.5Hz with a palladium balance wheel, delivers 60 hours of power reserve, and uses a platinum micro-rotor and flywheel. The bridges and balance cock are made of titanium for strength and weight savings, while the mainplate and barrel bridge are fashioned from untreated German silver.

A serious collector inspects the finishing under magnification.

Finishing is extensive, but never ornamental for its own sake. There are 187 hand-executed interior angles, black-polished titanium surfaces, polished bevels, circular graining, and Côtes de Genève. The barrel ratchet is particularly notable: it’s finished with three layers of pigmented enamel and two layers of translucent enamel for depth—applied entirely by hand.

Case, Dial, and Wearability

The Monday’s case is 40.8mm in diameter and 10.5mm thick (12.6mm with crystal), available in white or rose gold. Both sides of the case are engraved by hand using a burin, and the space between the lugs features additional hand-engraved inserts. The front and back sapphire crystals provide full visibility of the dial and movement. Water resistance is 30 meters.

The dial—available in silver or salmon—is grained and chiseled, with three-faced applied indices in rose or white gold. The hands are diamond-cut and finished on all visible surfaces: brushed, polished, and sandblasted. A small seconds is placed at 4:30, and a cutout at 9 o’clock offers a window into the Dancer in motion.

The watch is paired with a hand-stitched strap in grained calfskin or alligator, lined in beige Alcantara and assembled using a traditional wallet-fold technique.

Setting Out on a Different Path

The Monday stands apart from most independent haute horlogerie watches in one key way: it leads with innovation, not ornamentation. Many brands focus on mastering the expected—polished bevels, dramatic bridges, skeletonized tourbillons. Renaud Tixier checks those boxes too, but that’s not the point. The Monday isn’t about repeating accepted forms with higher finishing; it’s about rebuilding the very architecture of watchmaking from first principles.

This is the rare debut that introduces a real mechanical advancement with practical implications. The Dancer micro-rotor addresses long-standing limitations of automatic winding and sets a tone for the six watches that will follow. Each will aim to do what the Monday has done: take something familiar, question it thoroughly, and re-engineer it with clarity and purpose.

The Renaud Tixier Monday is available for special order at collectivehorology.com. Contact us anytime to build your watch. Thanks as always for supporting independent watchmaking.