Vanguart was founded in 2018 in Lausanne by three young watchmaking outsiders: industrial designer Thierry Fischer (formerly of Hublot and Audemars Piguet), watchmaker Mehmet Korkmaz, and engineer Jeremie de Witt - son of DeWitt founder Jerome de Witt. The trio set out to build a manufacture from scratch outside the established Swiss watchmaking centres, choosing Lausanne specifically to recruit from EPFL's engineering programme and to operate at arm's length from the Vallee de Joux ecosystem.
The brand spent three years in stealth before launching its debut reference in 2021: the Black Cherry Tourbillon. The watch combines a fully in-house central tourbillon calibre with a case forged from thermoplastic carbon composite (a process Vanguart developed in-house, layering carbon fibres in resin under heat and pressure to produce a case with the strength of titanium and a texture closer to volcanic rock). The dial-side aesthetic is unlike anything else in haute horlogerie: organic, almost biological, with bridges that suggest exoskeletal armour rather than the usual Geneva-stripe finishing vocabulary.
The Black Cherry Tourbillon launched at CHF 580,000 in a 50-piece numbered series - a price tier that placed Vanguart immediately among the high independents (Akrivia, Krayon, Ressence). The reception from collectors and critics was strong enough that the entire 50-piece run sold within months. Subsequent variants in different case-composite colours and a smaller-volume Black Cherry Skeleton edition have followed; production remains under 30 watches per year, hand-assembled in Lausanne.
