Maison Alcée is not a watch brand in the traditional sense. Founded by French engineers Alcée and Benoît Montfort, the brand focuses on teaching people about watchmaking in a tactile, immersive, and lasting way. Rather than starting with a finished product, Maison Alcée offers an experience via a kit, with 233 finely crafted components, 90% of which are made in the Jura, that you assemble yourself, slowly piecing together a mechanical clock that runs, ticks, and keeps time. It’s a clock and a gateway to watchmaking all in one box.
The project began as an educational experiment and has grown into a fully realized horological philosophy. Maison Alcée’s vision is that genuine enthusiasm for watchmaking doesn’t come only from owning a fine watch, but also from building one. In learning how wheels engage, how balance springs oscillate, and how energy is transferred and stored, you gain not just an object but also a hands-on relationship with each component. That perspective resonated deeply within the community of watch enthusiasts and educators, eventually earning Maison Alcée the GPHG Audacity Prize in 2023. For a small independent company to take home one of the most competitive awards in watchmaking was no small feat, and it signaled that this wasn’t just a curiosity — it was a serious and respected contribution to horological culture.
We love this experiential and personal approach to watchmaking and leaped at the opportunity to work with this young and exciting brand to create a limited edition take on the Persée clock, one we’re calling Fantôme.