Our Take

Do you hear that? The mesmerizing silence while you scroll through the images of the Akrivia AK-06. Words couldn’t describe how we felt about the recently updated model from Akrivia. Featuring a new anti-reflective sapphire, a perlage main plate, and a hand hammered dial, our jaws dropped at a recent dinner with Rexhep and Xhevdet Rexhepi when we got our hands on this beauty. For a moment we thought we could touch the vivid dial if we didn’t run into the crystal.

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. With a slimmer and smaller case than previous AK models and a sublime open-worked dial, the AK-06 is symmetrically designed—a signature touch of Rexhepi and no doubt influenced from his days at FP Journe.

The new caliber from Akrivia features a single barrel 100 hours of reserve with an indicator at 12 o’clock. It also features a clever hacking-seconds and reset to zero feature activated by a heart shaped cam that stops the balance wheel and resets the seconds indicator to full zero making accurate time setting a beautiful process. Talk about enjoying winding your watch over morning coffee!

The synchronous combination of the dial side architecture, the animation of the movement and the various hand finishing and decorating techniques make the AK-06 a collector’s classic.

The Details

Brand: Akrivia

Model: AK-06 Stop Seconds Reset to Zero

Movement: Manual winding AK-06 movement created, developed, decorated and assembled by Akrivia. 100 hours power reserve using a jeweled, single barrel. Akrivia variable inertia balance wheel using 4 adjustable weights combined with Breguet overcoil. Frequency of 18,000 vph

Dial: Hand-hammered upper dial with perlage decorated lower main plate.

Functions: Hours, minute, seconds, power reserve indicator and hacking seconds reset to zero function

Case: 41mm Titanium

Crystal: Anti-reflective coated front and back

Decoration: The entire movement’s visible and non-visible parts have been hand-finished to the highest Genevan traditions using several traditional techniques: black polish, Côtes de Genève, hand polished and brushed surfaces, Rhodium treatment, beading and hand engraving and bombé anglage finishing.

From the Source

BIOGRAPHY

Rexhep Rexhepi was born in 1987 in a very small agrarian village, called Zheger, situated on the Karadak River in Kosovo. During his childhood, his father had to move to Switzerland for work, but every time he would come home, Rexhep would try to steal his Swiss watch to open it, which was the beginning of his horological passion. It was only several years later that Rexhep and his brother Xhevdet were able to join their father in Geneva.

After completing his apprenticeship at Patek Philippe, Rexhep continued working there for two years. Later he worked at BNB Concept as a watchmaker. Within a period of a year, he became the atelier manager; he was leading a group of 15 watchmakers in the complications department at only twenty-one years old. After three years at BNB Concept, he went on to work at F.P. Journe’s atelier, where he assembled various watches from the Chronomètre Souverainto the Chronomètre Resonance.

It was in 2012 that he decided to create his own atelier under the name AkriviA. “The idea had been in the back of my mind since my studies at Patek. I had the choice between doing the same kinds of operations on watches day in and day out, or take on the challenge of creating my own watches and accepting all the risks involved. In the end, it turned out to be the best choice I ever made.”