You should never judge a book just by its cover and you should never judge a watch just by its name.

Maurice de Mauriac, admittedly not the first brand that springs to mind when talking about Swiss watches, is owned by passionate watchmaker Daniel Dreifuss, who counts some of the wealthiest and most famous people as his clients, and all before he began Maurice de Mauriac.

Swiss watch brand  – more specifically and unusually – Zurich watch brand Maurice de Mauriac was founded in 1997 by Daniel Dreifuss. With Maurice de Mauriac, Daniel’s aim is to sell high quality watches to real watch fans around the world, not just to celebrities and the rich.

Daniel designs each piece himself, and fits them with some of the best movements money can buy: Valjoux 7750s for the chronos and a range of ETA automatics for the non-chronos.

With some of the Maurice de Mauriac watches you can change the bezel on the watch which changes the look and feel of your watch without actually purchasing a new piece. It takes the strap-swapping concept one step further. Your bezel can be red, white, or black. Or, you can speak to Daniel himself when ordering your piece and customise your Maurice de Mauriac to suit your style.

Chronographs and automatic watches are Daniel Dreifuss’s speciality where he excels as an artistic watchmaker who puts passion into everthing he does.

The brand is strongly committed to the design and creation of its Swiss watches that are distinctive and unique. The Ask Men watch snob will tell you they are derivative and that the logo font has been stolen from Richard Mille, but everybody goes through somebody else to create and find inspiration. I don’t see much if any correlation between Maurice de Mauriac and Richard Mille so for me, this is not a worry at all.

Daniel Dreifuss’s devotion to producing chronographs originating from the Swiss watch making industry is defined by this quotation from Daniel Dreifuss: ‘I only create chronographs, which I love. And I construct each timepiece slowly for the most prestigious clients in the world’.

For sporty, fashionable and alluringly masculine watches, the Maurice de Mauriac range is definitely worth checking out. And for a guy who leaves Baselworld on a bicycle, you know that here at least is a watchmaker who doesn’t allow his ego to be more inflated than his wheels.

Baselworld 2012 pictures by kind courtesy of Bhanu Chopra