Pragma
Transparency. Innovation. Swiss Made.
Transparency. Innovation. Swiss Made.
Pragma is a Geneva-based independent watch brand founded by watchmaker Christopher Wegener and designer Kai Hsuan Liu, built around a single, very literal idea: transparency. Every component of the brand's debut P1 – Perseverance carries a public record of its manufacturer, supplier, material and recycled content, published as a full technical annex alongside the watch itself, down to the percentage of the movement's own volume any single part represents.
Wegener trained at Rolex's watchmaking school from the age of fifteen, then spent years working under François-Paul Journe and Laurent Ferrier before co-founding Akrivia with Rexhep Rexhepi. Liu, a Taiwan-born, Lausanne-trained industrial designer with a background at Hermès, joined as art director; the Perseverance is his first complete watch design from concept to production. The case reflects that design-led thinking: built from parts finished and serviced individually rather than as a single assembly, an approach the pair trace as much to Alpine cabin construction and the work of architect Peter Zumthor as to any watchmaking precedent.
Materials get the same rigour. The case is machined from Solar Steel, produced by Swiss supplier Panatère by melting recycled industry offcuts using concentrated sunlight rather than an electric furnace, and the strap's inner lining uses Forager, a compostable leather alternative grown from mycelium in under two weeks. Pragma's ownership model is equally unconventional: buyers of the twelve-piece rose gold Perseverance receive a 1% equity stake in the company itself, making them collector-shareholders rather than customers.
Pragma was founded by watchmaker Christopher Wegener and designer Kai Hsuan Liu, who met and began developing the brand around the start of the pandemic. Wegener, trained at Rolex from age fifteen and later at François-Paul Journe and Laurent Ferrier, had previously co-founded Akrivia with Rexhep Rexhepi. Liu, an industrial designer from Taiwan trained in Lausanne with experience at Hermès, brought the design language; the Perseverance is his first complete watch project.
Pragma publishes a full technical annex for each component of the P1 – Perseverance, naming the manufacturer, supplier, material, recycled content, and the percentage of the watch's total volume it represents, down to the date disc. Most brands describe sustainability in general terms; Pragma's annex lets a buyer trace individual parts, including the Solar Steel case and the mycelium-based Forager lining inside the strap.
Buyers of the limited twelve-piece rose gold Perseverance receive a 1% equity stake in Pragma itself alongside the watch, making them shareholders rather than customers. Wegener has described it as a deliberate alternative to crowdfunding, built to create long-term collector relationships rather than a one-off transaction.