time-business


McGonigle: pioneering Irish Haute Horlogerie

March 2023


McGonigle: pioneering Irish Haute Horlogerie

Far from the watchmaking epicentre in the Swiss Jura, Ireland seems like an unlikely breeding ground for master watchmakers. In Stephen McGonigle, however, the Irish nature and nurture have produced an artiste who is propagating its Celtic horological pedigree.

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reland has a surprisingly long history of horological advancement. A colossal Stone Age sundial, known as Newgrange in Boyne Valley, an UNESCO World Heritage site, is thought to predate Stonehenge in England and the pyramids in Egypt. Fast-forward five thousand years and the Emerald Isle has a new timekeeping legend in the making. With a giant leap through civilisations, it takes us into the micro-engineering of timepieces. And that is the specialty of Stephen McGonigle.

McGonigle hails from the country’s most notable watchmaking family and is one of the finest horologists working today. His older brother, John, is a master watchmaker and a former member of the prestigious AHCI (Académie Horlogère des Créateurs Indépendants). Another brother was the chief instructor at a first-rate watchmaking school in Asia where he is now working for himself. With few watchmakers displaying the desire or courage to become truly independent, having more than one from the same family is rare indeed.

Stephen McGonigle
Stephen McGonigle

Stephen and John co-founded the McGonigle brand in 2006. Together they created watches from their respective workshops in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, and Dublin, Ireland. With its meticulous craftsmanship and spectacular finish, their inaugural timepiece - the Tourbillon - was nothing short of a masterpiece. And it set the tone for the McGonigle brand amongst the watch collecting world’s most demanding connoisseurs. “I do like doing complications,” says Stephen. “After the Tourbillon, very quickly I knew a minute repeater was on the cards because that’s what I did during all my time in Switzerland working for other brands.”

The market had other ideas, however, with the 2008 financial crisis putting a dent in many collectors’ appetite for spending. As a result, the minute repeater didn’t materialise until 2016. It was worth the wait. In a nod to its chiming function, the new model was named Ceol after the Irish word for “music”. Selling for CHF 280,000, each bespoke piece is hand-made in a painstaking 283-part construction, a reflection of McGonigle’s flair for intricate micro-mechanics. “It is obviously more complicated [than the Tourbillon]. In comparison, everything from Patek is 380 [thousand] upwards,” says McGonigle, giving it an haute horlogerie context. “It’s a funny world we’re in, now that the complications seem to sell quite easily; and just a small detail, the McGonigle repeater is waterproof and a Patek is not.”

The Ceol water-resistant minute repeater by McGonigle
The Ceol water-resistant minute repeater by McGonigle

This is not pure Irish pride speaking. It was McGonigle’s talent for horology that won him a scholarship to practice in Switzerland after studying at Dublin’s Irish-Swiss Institute of Horology (1965-2004). He was classically trained in traditional techniques and practices for three years on his homeland. “It was more intense and comprehensive than the WOSTEP (the famed ‘Watchmakers of Switzerland Training and Educational Program’), which would only require eighteen months back then,” he explains.

At the age of 23, McGonigle began working under Christophe Claret in complications - a coveted high-end niche with few opportunities at that time. He spent the next five years rising through the ranks at Franck Muller and Breguet before striking out on his own when he set up an atelier to create complications for prestigious houses. When it comes to Irish craftsmen, only Stephen’s brother John has blazed a similar trail straight to the heart of the Swiss Jura. Proud of their heritage, it made sense then to channel their independent spirit into creating Ireland’s only haute horlogerie brand.

The Tuscar Bánú is a limited edition of 20 pieces in rose gold.
The Tuscar Bánú is a limited edition of 20 pieces in rose gold.

Touted as “Swiss engineering with Irish design”, the McGonigle collection has Celtic-inspired features noticeable to those in the know. “I’m proud to be Irish and, of course, definitely flying the flag for Ireland,” says McGonigle. Keeping it in the family, the stylised fonts on the dials and engravings on the exposed mechanisms are designed by Stephen and John’s artist sister, Frances McGonigle. Within the artwork she created for the Ceol is one of the best-known Celtic motifs, the Trinity Knot. “It is an ancient Irish symbol that appears throughout the design,” notes McGonigle, adding, “Birds also held very strong symbolism in ancient Irish history and work really well in this pattern.” That, too, inspired a signature McGonigle feature, the unique balance cock in the shape of a beak.

The stylised fonts on the dials and engravings on the exposed mechanisms are designed by Stephen and John's artist sister, Frances McGonigle. Within the artwork she created for the Ceol is one of the best-known Celtic motifs, the Trinity Knot (see the red arrow for an example).
The stylised fonts on the dials and engravings on the exposed mechanisms are designed by Stephen and John’s artist sister, Frances McGonigle. Within the artwork she created for the Ceol is one of the best-known Celtic motifs, the Trinity Knot (see the red arrow for an example).

Look carefully and there are more ancestral references. Not only do the grooves and notches on the watch crowns provide a grip for winding, but they are also carved in Ogham script, an early medieval Irish alphabet. And on the Ceol presentation box, the Ogham words read “McGonigle” and “Ireland”. With or without recognising their roots, these subtle Celtic elements give the brand its distinctly individual style. “If people spot that the watches are influenced by my culture and heritage, that’s absolutely fantastic,” says McGonigle.

But for one brand to perpetuate the Irish horological lineage, it may seem like a big ask. Luckily, there are other forces on the horizon. At the top end of the scale is Stephen McDonnell of MB&F fame (read more here) who McGonigle describes as “a freak” and whose genius, he says, is “up there with only one or two others”. Trained at WOSTEP, McDonnell shared a workshop with McGonigle for ten years before he returned to Belfast in Northern Ireland. “He is phenomenal,” exclaims McGonigle. “The work he did for MB&F, everything from start to finish – I don’t think people really realise.”

 While Stephen himself continues the McGonigle brand with a new time-only watch in the works, he has also launched a separate, more accessible label called Magon.
While Stephen himself continues the McGonigle brand with a new time-only watch in the works, he has also launched a separate, more accessible label called Magon.

At the other end of the spectrum, Sidereus is a high-end entry level brand founded in 2020, which uses the Irish landscape and historic sites such as Newgrange as inspiration for its limited-edition watches. In that same year, John departed the namesake brand and has since set up his own fine watch crafting project called Oileán, which is Gaelic for “island”. While Stephen himself continues the McGonigle brand with a new time-only watch in the works, he has also launched a separate, more accessible label called Magon. The debut watch, the Magon Fórsa (Irish for “force”), is an everyday chronograph built to high standards in ultra-small production. It exudes quality from the column-wheel calibre by La Joux-Perret with custom decoration, down to the strap by the manufacturer who supplies Richard Mille. As well as its Gaelic name, the new model also features a crown inscribed with Ogham, as the only visible link between the two brands.

McGonigle: pioneering Irish Haute Horlogerie

These pioneering endeavours are not the only ones celebrating the country’s rich timekeeping heritage. The Irish Museum of Time, which opened in 2021, houses the largest collection of archaic Irish-made clocks and watches in the world. Located in Waterford, the museum also highlights a little-known historical link between the area and a group of Swiss artisans in the 18th century. These Protestant revolutionaries planned to flee capture in their native Geneva to set up a community on the southern Irish coast. Although the settlement fell through, the story and the name for the area ‘New Geneva’ remain. Perhaps the museum will serve to inspire the next generation of McGonigles or McDonnells and usher in a new chapter for Ireland’s watchmaking story.

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