Julien Haenny is the CEO of Breva, the Geneva-based independent watch brand he relaunched in 2022 after acquiring the dormant name from its original founder. He studied watchmaking and has spent more than two decades in the Swiss watch industry across a range of commercial and creative roles, including positions at HYT — the hydrogen-powered watch brand — before deciding to pursue his own independent project.

Breva was originally founded in 2012 around the concept of measuring environmental phenomena — most notably the Génie 01, a mechanical wristwatch with a built-in barometric altimeter capable of indicating a weather forecast. The brand ceased operations in 2015, a victim of the development costs and pricing challenges inherent in building highly complex complications without the backing of a large group. Haenny, who had been aware of the brand since its founding, saw in it a foundation that combined a strong design identity, a clear DNA, and a name — borrowed from the Breva wind that blows across Lake Como — that carried genuine poetic resonance.

His relaunch has focused not on reviving the barometric complication immediately but on establishing the brand's design language and movement quality through the Segreto di Lario, a manually wound triple-retrograde watch with a seven-day power reserve developed with movement designer Jean-François Mojon. Haenny has been interviewed by The Subdial about the relaunch, the challenges of reviving a high-end independent brand, and his philosophy of making watches with genuine purpose and clear identity. He has described his approach as building from an existing pillar rather than starting from scratch, and his commitment to transparency about the making process and the brand's story as foundational to everything Breva produces.