The Icons- AkriviA's AK-06

Read time: 4 min

We’ve known Rexhep Rexhepi since the earliest days of AkriviA. One of the leaders of the young generations of independent watchmakers, the man and his team have over-delivered on expectations since the brand’s arrival on the scene more than a decade ago. With eight timepieces since the brand’s inception, it’s a challenge to pick a single icon in the catalog. For us though, the AK-06 holds a special place in the growth and development of one of the craft’s most beloved watchmakers. Today, we’re diving into the aspects that define the AK-06 as an icon in modern independent watchmaking.

The Icon – Unpacking the AK-06

The AK-06 was released in 2017 and marked the long awaited first non-tourbillon wristwatch of the Akrivia collection on the brand’s fifth anniversary. On every level, the timepiece calls the collector to take a closer look. This may be a “simple,” time-only watch, but there’s only depth to be found in examining all of the AK-06’s elements. 

The open-worked dial showcases the intricacies of three mechanisms – the power reserve, the keyless works, and zero-reset for the seconds. With any open-worked watch, the challenge is always finding an arrangement that doesn’t leave the dial overly cluttered.. Here, the execution is so seamless that it completely obscures the long, hard design process to ensure that the AK-06 welcomes excitement and curiosity without overpowering the eye with complexity, textures, and colors.

It’s not only the dial that strikes a balance between too little and too much. The AK-06’s case is much more elaborate than comparable haute horlogerie, time-only watches. It’s composed of multiple components and inserts, creating a tonneau shape, and features chamfering and polishing along the edges. This was also a step toward smaller cases found on the most recent Chronomètre Contemporain timepieces – the AK-06 is 41mm x 9.9mm compared to the 43mm cases on earlier AkriviA watches. It’s fascinating in combination with the open-worked dial and movement – a refreshing modern case enclosing such an aesthetically classical movement.   

The movement is the aspect of this timepiece that generates the most admiration in the watch community. While dials and cases have varied throughout the life of AkriviA, Rexhep has a very well-defined design language for movements. Movements are often symmetrical with highly visible center-wheels. For a time-only watch, the AK-06 caliber provides tremendous depth with the bridges, then barrel, and finally going train in the central recessed cavern of the movement. Offered in two materials, a yellow-gold gilt and rhodium-plating, the level of finishing is astounding with all the fixings of haute horlogerie – anglage, Côtes de Genève, and deep countersinks with polished screw heads.

What makes the AK-06 iconic

The thing about AkriviA, nearly every one of the brand’s timepieces can easily qualify as a grail to nearly every collector of independent watches. So the question is, what about the AK-06 makes it stand out amongst an entire catalog of big hits? 

To us, the icon status for the AK-06 is heavily connected with how well it balances modernity and tradition, simplicity and complexity, chaos and symmetry. It removes all of the tension between these extremes and does it so seamlessly that many don’t even see that tension exists. When we zoom out though, it becomes more clear that this time-only watch fits into its own aesthetic category. It’s not of the same cut as “classical” time-only watches in the luxury segment, fitting a profile that usually includes enamel or guilloche dials, 36-39mm cases with mirror polishing and tear drop lugs. That profile defines the category and originates with some of the other most iconic, time-only watches like Dufour’s Simplicity and Voutilainen’s Vingt-8. Unapologetically modern in its composition, the AK-06 is an icon because Rexhep found a way to deliver a time-only watch with a different flavor than the other titans in the same category of timepiece.

There’s another argument to be made that it’s an iconic timepiece as a symbol of evolution in Rexhep’s journey in modern independent watchmaking. It’s a bridge between earlier AK and later Chronomètre Contemporain timepieces – the middle ground between the experimental, modern, highly complicated origins of the brand and its more streamlined, classical aesthetic in recent releases.

Coming back to it again, it’s difficult to set the variables for what creates an icon in independent watchmaking. If there was one central idea though, it’s that most icons find their origin by carving out new space in old categories. Fundamentally, that entails going against the grain of dominant technical and aesthetic norms at the time of release. Maybe not immediately, but as time passes, each icon makes us rethink what is excellence, just as the AK-06 does in the “time-only” category.