Kim Djapri might be a young watchmaker (born in 1979, Cologne, Germany), he nevertheless already has quite a resumé. 

After finishing training in Furtwangen (Black Forest), he worked as a watchmaker for Lang & Heyne in Dresden until 2014 – and Lang & Heyne is not what you can call a low-end manufacture. They do impressive watches, with a strong respect to traditions and a lot of attention to details. Working there, he learned from a great watchmaker, Marco Lang – also member of the AHCI.

Kim began constructing his own watch at the end of 2013. He designed and built the first prototype in October 2015 and subsequently he presented his work to master watchmakers Kari Voutilainen and Paul Gerber. Both are members of the AHCi and, impressed by the work of the young watchmaker, they decided to be Kim’s godfathers at the Academy. 

He’s now in the candidate process for entering the AHCI membership. But the main success for him was to be invited to present his watch on the AHCI booth during Baselworld 2016, getting to show it to both the other members of the Academy, to specialized press and to potential clients – and rare fact, he already sold a few watches to collectors. 

It was also the occasion for him to meet with Dufour, who said that his watch was “a very well made watch” – and knowing Philippe Dufour, this is not a small compliment.