Massena LAB and Vianney Halter Team Up for the “Old Soul”

Before there was MB&F, before there was Richard Mille or Greubel Forsey or De Bethune, there was Vianney Halter. Alongside brands like Urwerk, Vianney Halter helped to reimagine what watches could look and feel like coming into the 21st century. Writing in 2025, it’s hard to think of a time when the weird and wonderful wasn’t a core part of watch collecting, and Vianney Halter deserves no small amount of praise for his role in bridging the gap between a more traditional interpretation of independent watchmaking and the wide-open world of watch design we now get to enjoy.

Still, nearly three decades on from the release of his first watch in 1998 (the inimitable Antiqua Perpetual Calendar), Vianney Halter is still working, and his latest release, the Old Soul — designed and executed in collaboration with William Massena and Massena LAB — is a sterling reminder that the old master isn’t out of tricks just yet. Like Halter’s last collaboration, the Louis Erard x Vianney Halter Regulator, which was released around Thanksgiving last year, the Old Soul leans into Halter’s Steampunk sensibilities, but blends the unique aesthetic with Massena’s signature eye towards historic watch design. The resulting piece is something both classically beautiful and wholly contemporary.

Cased in a sedate and handsome 42mm, 12mm thick steel case, the Old School by Vianney Halter and Massena LAB is powered by the Minerva calibre 17’22, a vintage pocket watch movement first introduced in the 1920s. In its standard configuration, the 17’22, which was produced regularly into the 1940s, was a time-only watch with a small seconds display at the nine o’clock position. Here, the vintage calibre has been re-finished and modified to great effect, adding a sub-dial at three o’clock to read the hours, and then again to support a transparent “mystery” disc minute hand. The result, again, is a watch that melds Halter’s avant-garde steampunk taste with Massena’s classical inclination without feeling like a concession towards one or the other.

The Old School by Vianney Halter and Massena LAB is available in a limited edition of 47 pieces starting today, with price available on request, and the watch will be on display at Geneva Watch Days, if anyone happens to be in Switzerland on or around September 4. Massena LAB

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