Dominique Renaud, for those who can hear a heartbeat

Most modern watches are in a hurry. They beat four times per second, sometimes five, and we have learned to call that progress. On the night of the 26th Grand Prix d'Horlogerie de Genève, on 7 November, the jury gave the Horological Revelation Prize to a watch that goes the other way.

The Pulse60 by Dominique Renaud beats at 1 Hz. One beat per second. 7,200 vibrations per hour. It is the rhythm of the precision regulators that once kept time in observatories, and it is the rhythm of a resting heart.

I like it for exactly that reason. It is a watch built on an idea, not on a trend.

A slow beat, done properly

Slowing a balance down is easy. Keeping it precise is not. A slow balance is more sensitive to shocks and to the position of the watch, and that is why the industry moved to faster beats decades ago.

Renaud's answer is size. The Pulse60 uses a balance of 20 mm and a hairspring of 15 mm, enormous by wristwatch standards. According to the press release, it runs with an amplitude above 360 degrees without overbanking, and it uses a patented offset regulation index. Power reserve is four days.

The calibre is called BUA2024. It measures 33 mm, sits in a case of 40 by 44 mm and 12 mm thick, and is offered in titanium or in pink gold with titanium. Water resistance is 30 metres. This is not a diver. It is a lesson.

What you actually read on the dial

At 9 o'clock there is a natural dead half second. Because the balance is so slow, the seconds hand moves in clear, distinct steps, without any extra mechanism to make it jump. It looks like a quartz watch, and it is the exact opposite of one.

At 3 o'clock there is a torque indicator. Not a simple power reserve, but a display of the force actually reaching the regulating organ. For a watch that is all about stability, it is the right thing to show.

The watch is made in Tolochenaz, in the canton of Vaud, where Jean-Luc Errant presides over the manufacture.

Who is Dominique Renaud

If you collect, you know the name even if you have never seen one of his watches. Dominique Renaud is the "R" in Renaud et Papi, the complications workshop he co-founded and that later became Audemars Piguet Renaud et Papi. A generation of grand complications passed through those benches.

He left the industry for many years. When he came back, it was not to make another tourbillon. It was to rethink the regulating organ itself. The Pulse60 is the result of that obsession.

A few things worth knowing

• A seconds pendulum, the heart of the old precision regulator clocks, also marks one beat per second. Renaud is not inventing a new rhythm, he is reclaiming an old one.
• The Horological Revelation Prize is the GPHG category for new names and new approaches. It is often where the next important independents are first noticed.
• The same night, Rexhep Rexhepi took the Aiguille d'Or with his Chronograph Flyback. Independents had a very good evening in Geneva.

Where to see it in Portugal

Honestly, nowhere yet. Dominique Renaud has no retailer in Portugal that I know of, and production is tiny. If you are serious, the conversation starts directly with the manufacture.

In the meantime, Lisbon now has a serious independent culture around the Avenida da Liberdade, and the people behind the counters there follow these watches closely. Ask them. Good watch people love to talk about other people's movements.

My take

The GPHG often rewards beauty. This year, in this category, it rewarded thinking. The Pulse60 is not the most decorated watch of 2026 and it does not try to be.

What it does is ask a question the industry stopped asking fifty years ago: what if slower is better? I do not know yet if the answer is yes. But I want to wear the question on my wrist.

For those who can still hear a heartbeat in a mechanism, this is the watch of the year.