A one-person brand, and proud of it.
Modus makes automatic watches built on Seiko movements, with 316L stainless steel cases and sapphire crystal, regulated in our French watchmaking workshop. Not a manufacture: one workshop, one watchmaker, and movements anyone can repair.
Modus Horlogerie started here.
“Lyon is a city of craftspeople. Of workshops. Of people who make things. Modus couldn't have started anywhere else. This is where we regulate movements and where our catalogue watches ship from. No office in Paris. No showroom. Just a workshop, tools and work.”
The founder
Modus started from a simple idea: offer serious watches without the margins of the big houses or the fragility of entry-level pieces. The site is published by INOVEA GROUP SAS, whose legal details are listed in our legal notice.
The guiding principle fits in three words: remove, don’t add. We keep the 316L stainless steel case, the sapphire crystal and the proven Seiko automatic movement. We drop everything else.
What that rules out, too: no in-house movement, no shop to try watches on, no phone advisor. One email address, one person answering it.
Modus Horlogerie
Lyon workshop
After-sales is what really matters.
Most microbrands send faulty watches back to their supplier abroad. Expect six to twelve weeks, with nobody to talk to. That’s where we chose the opposite from day one: your watch comes back to Lyon, gets diagnosed within five working days and is on its way back within ten to twenty.
It comes at a cost: it limits volumes, and our series regularly sell out. We’re fine with that.
Read the full procedure →Reliability
Seiko NH35, NH34 GMT, NH70 skeleton and VK63 meca-quartz movements. Well-known Seiko calibres that can be repaired anywhere in the world.
Regulation
Our catalogue watches ship from our Lyon watchmaking workshop, regulated on a timegrapher in 5 positions.
Fair price
316L stainless steel, double anti-reflective sapphire, premium components. No marketing mark-up. The price reflects the watch.
Five steps, one watch at a time.
It’s the least glamorous part of the job and the one that matters most: binocular magnifier, pressure chamber, timegrapher. Each step is detailed on the workshop page.
See the five stepsFind yours.
Dive-style, GMT, chronograph or skeleton: six series, all through the same workbench.
