Artisans de Genève Black Stone in spinel on a Patek Nautilus 5711A

When we visited Artisans de Genève, the team told us that Black Stone began much further away from Geneva, during its owner’s expedition through Alaska. It was there that he encountered Blackstone Glacier, a memory he later brought with him when discussing his first customisation with the workshop.

His own Patek Philippe 5711A became the starting point. Rather than recreating the glacier literally, the idea was translated through materials, with black spinel, smoky sapphire and touches of green eventually shaping the character of the watch.

The moment you wanted to pick it up

We first saw the finished piece lying on a table in front of us at Artisans de Genève. There were several watches around it, but this was the one that immediately caught our attention.

From a distance, it was actually difficult to understand what was surrounding the dial. The bezel was black, but the stones didn’t immediately register as gemstones and could almost have been another material altogether. It was only when we got closer and the individual facets started catching the light that we understood what we were looking at, and that was the moment you wanted to pick it up.

Thirty-two black spinels

The team explained that the bezel had been set by hand with 32 black spinels from Tanzania. Black gemstones surrounding a Nautilus could sound quite extravagant on paper, but in person they have almost the opposite effect.

The spinels are so dark that in softer light they begin to blend into the watch. You still see the shape and depth of the bezel, but it isn’t immediately obvious that you’re looking at individually set stones. As you move the watch, the facets start picking up narrow reflections and suddenly the construction becomes much clearer.

That was one of the things we liked most about Black Stone. The gem-setting doesn’t constantly fight for your attention. You notice it, lose it and then notice it again depending on the light.

Once we put the watch on, the familiar proportions of the 5711A took over. This is already a case that sits incredibly well around the wrist, almost like it was shaped for it, and none of that has been lost in the customisation. What changes is the character of everything within those familiar proportions.

The smoky sapphire dial

The dial is cut from a single block of smoky sapphire before receiving a smoked-black metallisation. Beneath it sits the skeletonised calibre 330, while applied white-gold hour markers and hand-finished white-gold hands provide contrast above it.

This might be our favourite part of the watch.

The movement isn’t presented to you all at once. In darker light, the dial can appear almost black and the calibre recedes into the background.

Move the wrist and more of the architecture begins to appear through the sapphire. Bridges, wheels and finishing that were barely visible a moment earlier suddenly become part of the dial.

It gives the watch a surprising amount of depth without making it feel busy. You find yourself moving it around just to see what appears next, and combined with the way the black spinels react to the same changes in light, the entire front of the watch feels much more alive than photographs suggest.

The white-gold hands were trimmed, bevelled and satin-brushed by hand before receiving a palladium treatment, while the sandblasted seconds hand ends with a bright white tip. Green Super-LumiNova adds the only obvious colour reference to the original story, although we handled and photographed the watch in daylight and didn’t see it illuminated.

The calibre in front and behind

As the Artisans de Genève team walked us through the movement, the amount of work behind that dark appearance became much clearer.

Calibre 330 has been fully skeletonised, bevelled and finished by hand. From the front, much of that work is deliberately filtered through the smoky sapphire, but turning the watch over gives you a much clearer view of what has been done:

• The yellow-gold rotor has been skeletonised and hand-bevelled with a circular satin finish.
• The balance bridge began as a solid block of steel before being carved, rounded, bevelled and mirror-polished by hand.

These are the kinds of details that are easy to reduce to specifications when looking at a watch online. With Black Stone in your hand, they become much harder to ignore. The more closely you look at the calibre, dial and bezel together, the more you begin to understand the amount of work required to make something this extensively modified feel coherent.

That is also where the original Blackstone Glacier story starts making more sense. There is no literal image of Alaska on the dial and no miniature glacier worked into the movement. The connection is much more subtle, carried through the darkness of the spinel and smoky sapphire, with green appearing through the Super-LumiNova.

Seeing Black Stone in person

Black Stone is one of those watches that photographs can explain technically but struggle to explain visually.

Our strongest memory is still seeing it on the table for the first time and not immediately understanding what the bezel was made from. That sense of discovery continued once we had it in our hands.

The spinels changed as they caught the light, the calibre moved in and out of view beneath the smoky sapphire and details that initially seemed almost hidden became increasingly obvious the longer we spent with it.

On the wrist

On the wrist, the contrast becomes even more interesting. You have the proportions and comfort of a 5711A that already fits almost like a glove, but visually it feels like something we hadn’t encountered before. Despite the skeletonised movement and 32 gemstones surrounding the dial, there is still a subtlety to the watch that we weren’t expecting.

More than anything, we came away impressed by the work of the Artisans de Genève team. There is an enormous amount happening here, from the gem-setting and sapphire work to the skeletonisation and hand-finishing of the calibre, yet none of those elements feels like it belongs to a different watch.

For the owner, the story started with a memory of Blackstone Glacier in Alaska and eventually became something made specifically for his wrist. After having the opportunity to see and handle the finished result ourselves, we can only imagine how satisfying that moment must have been when he finally received it.

Price and availability

Production. A one-off customisation commissioned by the watch’s owner.

Price. The cited Artisans de Genève project page does not publish the cost of this private commission. (as of Sep 2026)

Under its own terms the workshop sells a customisation service rather than a watch, and the client supplies the timepiece.