Known as a the "King of the complex simplicity", Vianney Halter can turn ordinary mechanical movements into paradoxical design solutions.

Vianney Halter was born in 1963 in a small town located 60 km west of Paris. After studying at a watchmaking school, he moved to Paris, where he continued his studies and at the same time was engaged in the restoration of antique watches. However, for Vianney, this was a rather boring job, so he decided to leave Paris, go to Bangkok and open his own business there. In the mid-1980s, hardly any watchmaker could have imagined that his name would be associated not with the masterpieces of the past, but with his own creations.

The Antiqua Perpetual Calendar was inspired by the science fiction novels of Jules Verne, ancient scientific instruments and 17th century marine chronometers. For its time, it was an incredibly bold watch, completely unlike any other

A significant event in Halter's life occurred in 1990. François-Paul Journe, a talented watchmaker of the same generation invited Halter to join his company THA (Techniques Horlogères Appliquées SA) in Saint-Croix, where Halter created watches for Breguet, Audemars Piguet, Mauboussin, Franck Muller and other established brands. The collaboration of the two French watchmaking masterminds did not last very long, and after 4 years Halter founded his own manufacture in Saint-Croix, named Janvier after the French watchmaker Antide Janvier, who lived in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Vianney Halter presented his first watch called Antiqua in 1998 at the Baselworld watch fair. The Antiqua Perpetual Calendar was inspired by the science fiction novels of Jules Verne, ancient scientific instruments and 17th century marine chronometers. For its time, it was an incredibly bold watch, completely unlike any other: four portholes of various diameters were asymmetrically placed on the round case, each of which displayed the time and indicators of the perpetual calendar. Thanks to Antiqua, Halter applied to join the AHCI (The Académie Horlogère des Créateurs Indépendants) and soon became a full member.

However, Halter became widely known among the watch enthusiasts after the famous Opus 3 project made for Harry Winston and presented at Baselworld in 2003. At Baselworld, the watch became a real sensation, and soon after that Opus 3 was awarded the Innovation prize at the Grand Prix d'Horlogerie de Genève.

Today, Vianney Halter develops and produces watches exclusively under his own brand, despite the fact that he receives many requests for collaboration from many popular watch brands.