Vianney Halter trained at the Paris school of watchmaking and the Diderot school. He worked through the 1980s and early 1990s in Parisian restoration ateliers and as a movement-finishing specialist for the Geneva manufactures. In 1994 he founded his own workshop, initially making movements as a sub-supplier under contract; by 1998 he had moved to Sainte-Croix in the Swiss Jura and launched his first signature piece, the Antiqua Perpetual Calendar.
The Antiqua case used four riveted porthole-style subdial windows and visible screws around the bezel, deliberately referencing 19th-century industrial machinery. The watch became one of the most-photographed independents of the era and is widely credited with establishing the 'horological steampunk' visual language. Later signature work includes the Classic (a stripped-down dress watch) and the Deep Space Tourbillon (2013, a triple-axis tourbillon mounted on a transparent dial). Halter is a long-standing member of the AHCI.
