Who founded Trilobe?

Trilobe was founded in Paris by Gautier Massonneau, with the ambition of overturning the traditional way of reading time.

A graduate of Université Paris Dauphine and École des Ponts et Chaussées, Gautier Massonneau began his career in infrastructure project finance, notably in Japan and the Middle East. At the time, nothing pointed him towards watchmaking.

As he approached the age of 25 and wanted to acquire his first collector’s watch, he set himself a personal challenge: to design and create his own watch. With no formal training in watchmaking, he approached this world with a fresh perspective and began by questioning one of its most established principles: why read time the way we have for centuries?

Rather than following traditional codes, he imagined a new way of reading time, without hands, where the hours, minutes and seconds are set in motion. An approach that does not seek to be different for the sake of it, but reflects a desire to question conventions and transform constraints into sources of creativity.

During the development of this first watch, Gautier Massonneau met Jean-François Mojon, former R&D Director at IWC and founder of the Swiss Manufacture Chronode. This encounter marked a decisive step in transforming this personal project into a true Haute Horlogerie Maison.

Trilobe was thus born from a desire to do things differently, while respecting the exacting standards of Haute Horlogerie. A philosophy that continues to guide the Maison today: rethinking intuition, questioning conventions and forging its own path.