Born in Damascus, he made his name in Swiss watchmaking and became the first in history to dare to do what no one before him had done — divide the watch dial into 30 parts instead of 24. Jihad Bakkoura, founder of the Bakkoura watch house, created the world’s first mechanical watch operating according to a different logic of timekeeping and gave it the name Chronofagon — Chronofagon.
Imagine looking at a watch, but it displays something different from what you are accustomed to. Not the 24 divisions humanity has grown accustomed to, but 30. Each division lasts 48 minutes. A watch dial that lives according to a different logic.
It is not merely an idea or a theoretical concept. It is a real mechanical watch, created in the Canton of Geneva by a man named Jihad Bakkoura.
Jihad Bakkoura was born in 1974 in Damascus, Syria. Today, he is the first person from the Arab world to establish a luxury watch brand in Switzerland combining high jewelry art with mechanical art. His experience in the luxury industry spans more than twenty years. He founded Rich Time Group, the official distributor of independent Swiss watch manufacturers in Russia, including Cvstos, Franck Muller, H. Moser & Cie., Jacob & Co., Carl F. Bucherer, MCT and HYT, and many others as well. It is a school that cannot be bought with money.
In 2003, he founded his own watch company — Bakkoura. He later acquired the Spanish watch brand Franc Vila. The production facilities of both brands are located in the Canton of Geneva, granting them Swiss Made status and placing their products within the watchmaking traditions of the region listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site.
But it is not only about production.
The Bakkoura and Franc Vila collections include a minute repeater, a hidden tourbillon, and jewelry finishing worthy of the most distinguished individuals. However, the central concept in Jihad Bakkoura’s philosophy is the 30H concept.
It is the world’s first mechanical watch whose dial is divided into 30 parts. The traditional 24-hour grid, imposed upon the flow of time since ancient times, is replaced here by another system. Each part equals 48 minutes. There is no equivalent in serial production. It is a unique development of the brand.
And here appears a new word that Jihad Bakkoura is introducing into the vocabulary of watchmaking: Chronofagon — Chronofagon.
It is a category, like the word chronograph. It is derived from the Greek word ἀγών, meaning competition or struggle. In other words: “the one who fights the chronophage.”
Chronophages are a term used in time management to describe “killers of efficiency” — those who steal our time: endless notifications, other people’s priorities, and the chaos of everyday life. It is a word familiar to anyone who has ever wondered: Where does the day go?
The Chronofagon is a category of watches that, simply by existing, reminds us that time can be measured differently. And that time can be controlled.
Bakkoura watches based on the 30H concept are the first Chronofagon in history.
Jihad Bakkoura’s work is not limited to watches. Among his innovations is the concept of synchronized marriage for a wedding: two matching watch mechanisms, one for the groom and one for the bride. When the button on the two pieces is activated, a synchronized countdown of “shared time” begins. The innovation is positioned as an alternative to traditional wedding rings and as the first concept of its kind in the watchmaking industry.
Another project is Watchering, the first technology project to combine four essential functions for the watch industry:
* A proprietary search engine, trained to provide the highest level of relevance in specialized watch-industry searches.
* An aggregator and marketplace for offers to buy and sell watches and related maintenance services.
* An information system and database covering brands, watches, markets, and industry trends.
Beyond the workshop and meeting rooms, Jihad Bakkoura leads the Bakkoura Global Time Research Center — BTRC, a research center conducting interdisciplinary studies on human perception of time, involving psychologists, sociologists, and physicists.
The work is based on publishing open data and conducting discussions about the influence of temporal processes on human beings. The center also collaborates with experts in quantum physics and logotherapy. A mobile application has been developed combining time management with specialized scientific materials about time.
All these projects — the watch brands, the research center, and the luxury projects — come together under the umbrella of the management company Bakkoura Dynasty, led by Jihad Bakkoura.
Since 2026, jewelry and perfumery lines have been launched under the management of the brands, and much has been written about the nature of time from a new perspective that had never been presented before. Jihad Bakkoura is also preparing a new book about the matter of time, entitled:
Timecure by Timebiotic.
Media Contact
Company Name: Bakkoura Watches
Contact Person: Jihad Bakkoura
Email: [email protected]
Country: Switzerland
Website: https://www.bakkoura.com/
