This year, Revolution turns 20. Two decades of chronicling watches, people and ideas have given us a front-row seat to a remarkable story: how an age-old craft has both preserved its soul and reinvented itself for the 21st century. To celebrate, we’ve chosen over 100 names and milestones that, for us, define the era so far. From leaders to watches, you can see the whole list here.

When Philippe Dufour introduced the Simplicity in 2000, he offered a quiet counterpoint to an industry chasing spectacle. The late-1990s vogue for stacked tourbillons and chiming showpieces had become a kind of arms race. Dufour — already celebrated for his Grande Sonnerie and the dual-escapement Duality — proposed another measure of greatness: a three-hand watch that would prove how far craft alone could carry an idea. He wasn’t simplifying; he was distilling.

The project began with conversations that shaped its purpose. Collectors, particularly in Japan, asked for a simple watch made to the highest traditional standard. Dufour took that brief literally. He set out to build a movement that felt inevitable in its architecture, finished entirely by hand, with nothing disguised by coatings or machine shortcuts. Every bridge had to flow, every bevel had to catch the light, every interior angle had to be cut by file, not milled. Years spent restoring antique mechanisms had taught him that longevity comes from clarity rather than tricks; the click spring would be beautiful, its geometry singing each time the crown was wound.

Philippe Dufour Simplicity

Even details that might have been expedient became tests of principle. When clients asked for a 37mm version to accompany the original 34, he did more than scale the drawings. He re-proportioned wheels and bridges so the movement sat as harmoniously in the larger case as in the small. The dial spoke the same language of restraint — creamy lacquer or subtle guilloché, dauphine hands, a discreet small seconds — chosen not to dazzle but to read as calm, confident timekeeping. The point was not novelty; it was proportion, poise and the quiet authority of restraint.

Philippe Dufour Simplicity

Over a dozen years, a few hundred Simplicities left his bench, each a lesson in hand finishing. Collectors responded first with quiet admiration and then with extraordinary demand, pushing auction prices to levels usually reserved for far more complicated pieces. Yet the watch’s importance is cultural rather than commercial. It reset the horizon for modern independents, proving that the deepest impression can be made with the simplest brief, provided the execution is uncompromising.

What was Dufour hoping to achieve? To remind an impatient era that timekeeping can be intimate, tactile and slow. And to ensure future watchmakers see that excellence is a habit of attention, repeated daily, at the bench.

Philippe Dufour Simplicity

Tech Specs: Philippe Dufour Simplicity

Movement: Manual winding Caliber 11, fully hand finished, with traditional Vallée de Joux bridge layout; 52-hour power reserve
Functions: Hours, minutes and small seconds
Case: 34mm or 37mm, both with 8.4mm thickness; 18K white gold, pink gold or platinum; water resistant to 30m
Dial: Lacquer or guilloché finish
Strap: Alligator leather with 18K gold pin buckle