Svend ANDERSEN was born in Denmark in 1942. He absolved normal and practical school and a four years’ apprenticeship as watchmaker. With his diploma from the Danish Watchmaker School integrated in the Royal Technological Institute of Copenhagen, he went to Switzerland in 1963 in order to see how the world’s best watches were made.
He first worked at Gübelin Lucerne in the after-sales service and in 1965 he joined Gübelin Geneva. He was also responsible for the shop service because of his excellent knowledge of languages. In 1969 he made, as a hobby, his first Bottle Clock which was displayed at the “Montres et Bijoux” Show. This unique performance had brought him the renowned “Watchmaker of the impossible” as it was mentioned in the international press. Indeed, nobody had ever realized such a clock.
Patek Philippe were interested in ANDERSEN’s creations and, in 1969, Svend ANDERSEN joined their ‘Atelier des grandes complications’. Svend ANDERSEN opened his own workshop in the late 70’s after having spent 9 years at Patek Philippe. He started his career as independent watchmaker by first manufacturing cases for Italian collectors. Satisfied with the high quality of the work, the watch collectors started to ask for their own bespoke timepieces (called ‘pièce unique’). Since then ANDERSEN Genève has been developing complicated watches like the annual calendar, perpetuel calendar, and jumping hour calendar.
Andersen Genève on MrWatchMaster: