There is something special about watching two exceptionally talented watchmakers, each with very different backgrounds and areas of expertise, come together to create something new. I have known Dominique Renaud for decades, going back to his years as one of the industry’s leading movement innovators. But in 2024, when he introduced me to his new partner, Julien Tixier, I had the pleasure of seeing an entirely different side of his creativity. Meeting Tixier was a highlight in itself, but watching the two men interact, exchange ideas and play off one another’s strengths was both rewarding and enriching.

Now, two years after launching their independent watch brand, Renaud Tixier, the duo unveils its newest creation: the Monday Skeleton. And it is a watch that takes the mechanical innovation of their original Monday and presents it in an entirely different light. Why does it matter? In addition to the fact that the duo had never planned a skeletonized watch, so this is an intriguing development, is the fact that it really is a deft blend of craftsmanship, horology and art that spans generations.

Renaud Tixier Roots

When Renaud and Tixier established their brand in 2024, they had an ambitious concept: create seven watches, each named for a day of the week and each introducing a different mechanical innovation. Their first creation, Monday, tackled the traditional micro-rotor winding system with an inventive patented automatic winding system designed to address one of the limitations of traditional micro-rotors. Unlike a conventional full-sized oscillating weight, a micro-rotor is integrated into the movement, helping keep the caliber thinner. However, its smaller size and lower inertia can make winding efficiency more challenging, particularly when wrist movements are brief or irregular.

Renaud Tixier’s solution was to place a flywheel and propulsion spring, nicknamed “the Dancer,” inside the micro-rotor. The system is designed to capture energy from wrist movements and release it to assist the winding process.

“The idea behind the Dancer came from a simple observation: a traditional micro-rotor offers a considerable advantage in terms of space, but its winding efficiency can be limited, particularly with small wrist movements,” explained Renaud in an email interview. “The principle is to temporarily store energy as movement varies, then release it as a mechanical impulse.”

The patented winding system also incorporates a disengagement mechanism designed to protect against shocks. That same invention remains at the heart of the new Monday Skeleton, but the movement has been reworked to showcase its mechanics in an entirely different way.

The Partnership That Spans Generations

What makes this partnership so intriguing is the combination of two generations of watchmaking expertise. Renaud, who co-founded Renaud Papi, the renowned movement specialist later acquired by Audemars Piguet, has spent more than four decades developing complicated movements and challenging conventional mechanical solutions. Tixier brings exceptional expertise in traditional watchmaking, prototyping and hand finishing, along with his own creative approach to the craft.

“I bring my experience and ideas, sometimes rather wild ones, and Julien has the extraordinary ability to bring them to life through remarkable craftsmanship,” Renaud wrote in an email interview. “We are not trying to reinvent the watch simply for the sake of novelty. We want to understand what can still be improved.”

Interestingly, Renaud is also pursuing another avenue of watchmaking innovation under his own name. Earlier this year, he launched the Dominique Renaud brand and introduced the Pulse60, a watch powered by a movement operating at an unusually low frequency of 1 Hz, with a large 20mm balance wheel. Both the Dominique Renaud and Renaud Tixier brands operate within the broader DR Group watchmaking enterprise, giving Renaud different platforms through which to explore his ideas.

A Closer Look At The Renaud TIxier Monday Skeleton

The new Monday Skeleton houses the automatic Caliber RVI2025, a fully skeletonized evolution of the original RVI2023 movement. While the first caliber wasn’t initially conceived for skeletonization, its relatively open architecture provided a starting point for the new design.

“The real challenge was to remove material without sacrificing performance,” Renaud explained. “When skeletonizing such a movement, you cannot simply open up the bridges to let the light through. You have to reconsider structural balance, rigidity and support points while preserving the movement’s mechanical qualities.”

He also explained that the objective was to make the movement’s mechanics easier to appreciate without compromising the original design philosophy. The resulting caliber exposes much of its mechanical architecture, including the patented winding system. But what makes this watch especially interesting is the extraordinary amount of hand finishing involved.

According to the brand, all 262 components are individually finished and decorated by hand using traditional techniques including black polishing, beveling, Côtes de Genève, sunray finishing and circular graining. There are also 238 hand-finished inward angles, a particularly demanding aspect of haute horlogerie finishing.

“With 238 inward angles finished by hand, the work demands extraordinary precision and patience. Every angle must be perfectly defined, every surface must interact with the light, and the slightest imperfection is immediately visible,” Tixier told me. “What sets this skeletonized Monday apart is that it does not merely expose more of the mechanics. It reveals an architecture, highlights an invention and creates harmony between volumes, transparency and finishing.”

The caseback offers another perspective on the movement, including a decorative bridge over the barrel ratchet that is hand engraved and chased, with grand feu enamel accents coordinated to the watch’s color.

The Monday Skeleton is being introduced in two versions, each limited to just 15 pieces and priced at CHF 129,000. Both feature 40.8mm cases crafted in 18-karat gray gold, with hand engraving along the case sides and between the lugs. One version has petrol blue accents, while the other features green. The colors appear on the satin-finished small-seconds counter, skeletonized dauphine-style hands and peripheral chapter ring. Each watch is fitted with a matching hand-stitched alligator strap. The Caliber RVI2025 operates at 18,000 vibrations per hour and offers a minimum 72-hour power reserve. Water resistance is 30 meters.

For me, though, the appeal of this creation goes beyond the skeletonized architecture or the number of hand-finished components. Having seen these two watchmakers together when their venture was just beginning, I appreciate how their different perspectives contribute to the finished watch.

Tixier perhaps sums it up best: “With Dominique, nothing is considered set in stone. We can question watchmaking solutions that have been used for generations while maintaining profound respect for traditional skills. This new Monday shows that craftsmanship and innovation are not opposites. On the contrary, they enrich one another.”