efore the Second World War my grandfather Antonio had a workshop on the Rialto Bridge in Venice, where he repaired pocket watches and clocks. Then, at the end of the 1950s, a client asked him to look after his private collection. At the client’s request, he moved his entire family to the shores of Lake Como.”

Massimiliano Quintavelle, the current head of the firm founded by his ancestor, likes to dig into the family history to ensure the company remains aligned with its spirit and heritage, while accommodating the tastes and techniques of the present day.

Flora and Fauna - a unique piece, a blend of precious materials, craftsmanship and technique.

By 1974 Antonio’s son, Leopoldo, had joined the workshop and Antonio, who by this time had created a number of artistic clocks, decided to found his own brand. He named it La Vallée as a tribute to the French-speaking roots of watchmaking, as well as referencing the family name. That same year, the brand took a travel clock to the Basel Fair.

Massimiliano Quintavalle represents the third generation at the helm of La Vallée.

As the years passed, one exquisite project followed another, including an entirely customised creation standing two metres high, decorated with crystals and precious stones. This led Leopoldo Quintavalle, once he became CEO, to refocus production exclusively towards made-to-measure and top-of-the-range creations for major collectors with a taste for unique pieces. To achieve this, he relied on the talents of the craftsmen and goldsmiths working in the workshop.

“Since then, we have combined Italian goldsmithing skills, which are still in danger of dying out, with Swiss Haute Horlogerie, with the aim of creating true works of horological art,” Massimiliano Quintavalle explains. His ultimate aim is to preserve these rare crafts by training up a new generation of practitioners, even though the right candidates are not easy to find.

Every time the clock strikes the hour, the Attimo Golf replays the winning shot.

But La Vallée’s exclusivity had one major disadvantage: it made the company’s work virtually invisible to the general public. That’s why Massimiliano Quintavalle, who has now taken over as director, has decided to offer a selection of new, still highly limited series, which demonstrate how La Vallée has evolved technically. The brand wants to infuse its chosen segment with innovation.

A key step was the design and development of the MR30TP movement in 2019 by La Vallée’s R&D manager. “Luciano Sasso is an engineer and inventor with an innate talent and ability to revolutionise the status quo of mechanics and watchmaking,” Massimiliano Quintavalle confirms. This mechanical ‘platform’ serves as the basis for several of the workshop’s creations.

At a metre and a half long and with 1,280 custom-made components, the M30TP is a revolutionary perpetual calendar that links minutes, hours, days, months and years in a fascinating display.

This unconventional one-and-a-half-metre mechanism is notable for its 5-minute flying tourbillon, designed and manufactured in-house, with a 5-minute winder and magnetic suspension, but most of all for the ingenuity of its patented perpetual calendar, which is reliable, easy to use (it was tested by a five-year-old child!) and open to a wide range of interpretations.

It’s a prime example of the plethora of possibilities watchmaking can offer, beyond the ubiquitous wristwatch. “Building on this foundation, next year we will unveil a new timepiece that is quite simply exceptional,” promises Massimiliano Quintavalle.

While La Vallée continues to offer made-to-measure unique pieces – a vocation encoded in the firm’s DNA – the limited editions developed in recent years, such as the Attimo Golf and the Attimo Polo, are bringing the brand back into view of a wider circle of enthusiasts.

“All these items are offered with a very high level of personalisation. We’re not just talking about the colour or the engraving, because we want to avoid taking a standard approach. Our goal is to connect the timepiece to you, deeply and emotionally,” Massimiliano Quintavalle explains. What this means in practice is that the owner of an Attimo Golf or Polo can have his own portrait, from his face to his shirt or shoes, reproduced on his timepiece! And for an even more intimate customisation, the 5-minute tourbillon can be set to the owner’s resting heart rate.

Attimo Golf has been designed to be personalised with your image, right down to your favourite shoes, golf bags and clubs!

These limited editions, with prices starting at 120,000 francs, have afforded La Vallée entrance to some of the most prestigious points of sale in the world. For their part, the retailers appreciate the opportunity to display something utterly unique in their boutique. It’s a totally different way of doing watchmaking.