Oct 26, 2022
Interview: Thomas Funder by Made in Bienne
Thomas Funder is based in Zurich. As such, his watches can’t be said to be “made in Bienne”. However, the reason I was so keen to interview him for this blog is that, as a watch designer, Funder truly is “made in Bienne”. It’s here that he evolved from being an intern in a watch design agency to a highly sought-after professional encouraged by experts in the industry to create his own brand.
His first collection, Måne, Moon in Danish, his mother tongue, was launched earlier this year. As you can guess from the name, it revolves around variations of the moonphase. I’m personally a huge fan. The design is stunning, extremely unique while seeming almost obvious. It’s also clever, with an interchangeable case, module and strap. Finally, it’s very affordable, meaning many people are given the opportunity to own an extremely special automatic Swiss watch with a moonphase complication. Like many of us, I am sensitive to such “democratization” of high quality watchmaking.
As I work in Zurich, we could have easily met there for the interview. But we both felt that to do it right, it had to be in Bienne. We got together at Café Farel on a Friday afternoon, ordered some funky non-alcoholic drinks, played with the Måne watches on the coffee table in front of us, and started to talk.
Read the interview here
