We had the Rudis Sylva RS14 Titane Harmonious Oscillator on hand for the best part of the month, and here is our in-depth comprehensive review of this amazing watch.

Review: the amazing Rudis Sylva RS14 Titane

The Rudis Sylva RS14 Titane retails for approximately CHF 200,000 before taxes, as the watch is highly customisable and final pricing depends on the selected finishing.

The backstory of Rudis Sylva

My historical link to Rudis is also rather long, though it does not go as far back as the turn of the last century. Nevertheless, I think the way I got to be introduced to Jacky Epitaux is interesting. It was probably Baselworld 2016 or maybe even 2015. I bumped into Philippe Dufour, as one tends to do in Basel, and he grabbed my hand, and said, “Peter! I need to introduce you to someone! Fantastic work from the Jura. Best of the best. You will understand the level of craft!”. And he led me to the Rudis Sylva booth, and introduced me to Jacky. He spent a few minutes to explain why the watches were exceptional, and left me with Jacky. And thus began my friendship with Rudis Sylva and Jacky Epitaux.

I visited Les Bois on November 13, 2024, and was shown around the village tucked up in the Swiss Jura. Jacky is a wonderful resource, with great passion for watchmaking and was the perfect guide for the area. He knew each house, who occupied it, and what horological significance it had historically. From the early beginnings of what was to become Nivarox, and the birthplace of Baume et Mercier, to specialist artisans like guilloché specialist Georges Brodbeck (in Saignelégier nearby), engraving masters Sylvian Bettex and Bertrand Degiorgi, and enameler Sophie Cattin Morales (in Les Barrières also close by).

I came home with an RS14 in titanium as a review loaner. I got to know the watch quite well, have spent the best part of the month wearing, admiring and photographing this magnificent beast.

The case, dial and hands

On first encounter. The Rudis Sylva RS14 is a big watch. The case measures some 44m in diameter with a domed crystal bringing the height to 14.3mm. There is no hiding the presence of this watch. But more than mere girth, the watch is fetching. The model which we chose, Jacky was kind enough to offer a few for me to loan, is in a black DLC titanium case, with bright red accents.

Large as the dimensions may suggest, once on the wrist it is immediately comfortable. The lugs wrap around the wrist, and for a flat 19.5cm wrist like mine, it was completely at home. See the last photograph of the wrist shot. And as the case is in titanium, it is also very light, contributing to its comfort on the wrist. The entire watch with movement, crystals, strap and buckle weighs in at 70.9g, so it is barely noticeable when worn. The bezel is very thin, and is matte finished in the same style as the case middle. The horns are also similarly finished, and feature a raised edge with a textured interior. And are welded to the case middle. This provides the contrasting finish to the vertical satin finish of the case middle, blessing the case with a lively and nuanced dimensionality. The crown is ribbed and features a red ring to tie in the visuals with the rest of the dial.

And most impressive is the dial, or the face of the watch. The hours and minutes are carried on a sub-dial, whose diameter is slightly larger than the radius of the dial opening. It sits offset towards the traditional 12 o’clock position. And this sub-dial is matte black with red markers. Roman numerals call out the 12/3/6/9 positions and sticks in red. The sub-dial is donut shaped, with a bombé (convex) surface, and raised edges to give some dimensionality. The red pad-printed indices are made thick and stand slightly proud of the surface they are inked on, again extending the impression of space. The hands are also quite massive in proportion to the sub-dial, and are fir shaped and hand-finished on both sides with bevelling on the flanks.

This sub-dial is suspended, above the rather open-worked dial side of the movement. We can see the half plate, which is opened to show the twin barrels and part of the keyless works.

On the lower half of the dial, the magnificent Harmonious Oscillator is displayed. And it sits, seemingly to float over the main plate. The plate is decorated with the beautiful guilloché hand work of Georges Broadbeck. In our example, this features 60 tapering pyramids to form a mesmerising motif which catches the light beautifully.

The movement

The movement is the in-house conceptualised, patented Harmonious Oscillator. The entire movement is constructed by Rudis Sylva, and Jacky tells us that only 7 parts, namely the escapement, the stones, the springs (both mainspring and balance springs), the Incabloc are purchased from outside sources. On the case back, the half plate is scalloped to show the center wheel and two barrels, with an engraving of a sun-dial on the top plate. On this plate is also engraved the words “Ultimata Forsan”, a  Latin phrase translating to “perhaps the last”. The intention of the phrase is to evoke a feeling of loss or an inevitable end, but it can also express a hope that shines through. Perhaps a good commentary on the state of high end watchmaking this day and age. Also engraved on the plate is are the initials “I-P-F 1750″ and A.J-P 1942”. These engravings stand for one of J.Jean-Pierre Froidevaux ancestors, who built the 1750 farmhouse from which the solar calendar design was taken from; and for Able Jobin Pelissier who was a subsequent owner of the farmhouse and recalculated the solar calendar in Zurich Polytechnicum in 1942. The farmhouse is currently owned by Jacky’s business partner at Rudis Sylva, who is also his brother-in-law.

Movement finishing on both sides – dial and case-back are exceptional. Not only in the multitude of crafts selected to be portrayed in the movement, but also in the extreme high level of excellence it attains. The main plate, visible from the dial side features the guilloché work I described above. The bridges which are visible are hand-decorated, with bevelling and circular graining and vertical brushing. The entire gear train features circular graining with diamond polished corners. But the most spectacular is the titanium carriage and bridge which carries 28 inward corners and beautiful bevelling.

The Harmonious Oscillator

The RS14 features the more complicated Harmonious Oscillator. This oscillator is initially developed by Romain Gillet and the completed by Finnish watchmaker Mika Rassinen. I understand a patent is registered under either Rudis Sylva or Jacky Epitaux. Two barrels are arranged in parallel, one to each side of the second pinion, powering the single wheel train. The movement has only a single escapement with a single pallet positioned at 90 degrees. However the energy escapes through two coupled balance springs on two toothed balance wheels whose teeth mesh to each other. The two balance wheels rotate in opposite directions, with each hairspring breathing the opposite way from each other. This provides instantaneous correction for irregularities in the spring’s breathing.

And to provide even better chronometry, the entire escapement, with the twin balance wheels are mounted on a platform which makes one rotation every 60 seconds. This arrangement is like a traditional one minute tourbillon, but with two balance wheels instead of the classical one. The carriage is very large, measuring 17.4mm in diameter and is prominently displayed on the lower half of the dial.

We do note that in 2023, Rudis Sylva released the RS23, which carries a simplified version of the oscillator. They found a way to eliminate the tourbillon carriage, and fixed the escapement to the base plate. The claim is that the performance is not affected at all, but the simplification allows the RS23 to achieve a lower asking price of approximately CHF 80k.

Competitive Landscape

As far as we know, and Jacky tells us too, that this style of movement with a single train driving a single escapement driving two toothed, tightly coupled balance wheels is unique.

Concluding thoughts

Having worn the watch, with great care I must add, I think I have come to become quite familiar with it. The watch seems rather loud on initial approach – large, thick, with the highly visible black and red colour palate. But it grew on me. The crystal is very large, and domed, allowing a good amount of light to reach the dial side. And there is so much to admire. The donut shaped sub-dial with the high contrast red accents floating over the partially skeletonised plate, the magnificent guilloché on the main plate are a feast for the eyes. And of course, the pièce de résistance: the harmonious oscillator itself, dancing below its magnificent bridge.

The asking price is not low, but I do not reckon this to be an expensive watch. The level of clever watchmaking at the highest levels, and the superlative finishing makes a good argument that the CHF 200k to seem very reasonable. If your wallet allows the purchase of this very exclusive timepiece, Jacky tells us that he makes no more than 20 watches in total a year, this is an excellent consideration. For those with a less generous budget, perhaps the RS23 might be a good consideration. A full review is due here soon.

I am also particularly very impressed with how Rudis Sylva leverages on its excellent, if largely lesser-known, historical roots in Swiss watchmaking. And the excellent way Jacky uses the skills which are abundant in the region to craft these exceptional watches.

Photo Notes

All photographs of the RS14 were taken with the Fujifilm GFX 50S II mounted on the Sinar X via a special adapter. Lens is the Nikkor SW-90mm f/4 large format lens. Profoto strobes. This is the same system used for the photographs used in the SEVENFRIDAY ME1/02 and the Christopher Ward Bel Canto Viola. I think this camera setup, cumbersome and complicated that it may be, produces exceptional photographs with a very strong 3D pop and excellent colours. Though not without its drawbacks. I will do a breakdown of the setup and discuss the image quality in a future post.