“In Kosovo, we didn’t have a lot of toys and if you wanted to play, you would need to construct your own toys,” Rexhepi explains. He moved to Geneva to join his father in 1998, and what the stars had already spoken was made manifest as the 11-year-old boy found himself in the watchmaking epicentre of the world. Just four years later, Rexhepi began his apprenticeship at Patek Philippe at the tender age of 15. His prodigious talent was duly noted as the young lad rose to become one of their best-performing apprentices. Rexhepi was swiftly rewarded when he was subsequently recruited full-time, thereby beginning his professional watchmaking career at one of the world’s most respected watch brands.
Some say he is the next Philippe Dufour. But Rexhep Rexhepi is just grateful to live his passion. The watchmaking wunderkind opens up on why it took six years to finally put his own name on his watches.
SINGAPORE (Jan 10): With a catchy name like Rexhep Rexhepi, one would almost certainly be destined for stardom of sorts. All eyes are on watchmaking’s rising star as much for his beautiful expressions of mechanical excellence, as for his fetching features and boyish charm, more so after he won the prestigious Men’s Watch Prize at the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG) in 2018. Born in the small village of Zheger in Kosovo, Rexhepi’s interest in watchmaking was sparked at a young age whenever his father, who worked in Switzerland, returned home. Each time, Rexhepi would make a stealth attempt to unlock the secrets of his father’s Swiss watch when his dad was asleep. His affinity for the mechanical, however, was as much innate as it was an environmental necessity.
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