3 December 2025

4:15 PM – 5:50 PM

Grand Kursaal

Alain Sauter

A former lecturer in geography at the Sorbonne, Alain Sauter swapped teaching for craftsmanship in 2018, becoming one of the last manufacturers of globe and celestial globes in Europe. Passionate about geography and precision, he has revived a historic craft, inspired by 15th-century techniques and enhanced with modern tools. After months of experimentation, he founded Globe Sauter & Cie, a workshop located on Rue du Cercle in Besançon, a city renowned for its watchmaking. Today, the company, with a team of five artisans, combines scientific rigor and aestheticism, offering custom-made globes for individuals, major companies, cultural venues, and research projects. Winner of the Prix Métiers d’Art Bourgogne-Franche-Comté in 2022, nominated for the Talents du Luxe award in 2025, and supported by the Remy Cointreau Foundation since 2023, Alain Sauter is perpetuating a rare heritage by using local materials and traditional techniques. His unusual career path, combining science, art, and tradition, makes him a unique figure in French artisanal heritage, acclaimed for his approach that is both poetic and technical.

In this age of luxury, has time itself reached its limits?

This round table discussion on luxury offers an immersion into the heart of Franche-Comté, a region whose identity has been profoundly shaped by the mastery of time. Here, the measurement of time is not just a tool: it becomes matter, thought, culture, and a driving force for transformation. Anchored in a centuries-old watchmaking heritage, this region has established itself as the capital of time, an incubator for microtechniques and technological expertise capable of creating the infinitely small. Limits, landmarks, and time markers become points of reference for understanding the evolution of a constantly changing biotope in Franche-Comté and Besançon. Around the table, a geographer, a high-frequency entrepreneur, the inventor of silicon micromotors and The Time Changer watch, designers, and luxury artisans will share their perception of time and how it is linked to the world of watchmaking. Together, they will offer a cross-disciplinary reading of the roots, ruptures, and innovations that today fuel technical luxury excellence and the vision of tomorrow.