Nousseima Baraket founded Buci in 2022 with a Kickstarter campaign that funded her first collection aptly and simply named “Garde-temps” or “timepiece.” Baraket is of African and French origins, with her parents hailing from Tunisia and raising her and her siblings in the French watchmaking region of Franche-Comte, located on the northwest border with Switzerland.
The name Buci comes from a street in an artistic area of Paris, a city Baraket later lived in and used as a source of motivation and inspiration to create her own watch brand (but more on that later). In addition, her North African roots also help lay the foundation for the literary-inspired watches she’d create. “My parents grew up in a farming community in an area known for its olive trees,” Baraket shares, “Neither of my parents went to school. So, for me and my siblings, education was very important. My mother would take us to the library every week and encourage us to read. As I got older, I would also go to museums to learn about authors and poets. So, poetry and literature were always very important to me.”
Watches were also a big part of Baraket’s life. “Growing up in this part of France on the Swiss border, watchmaking was all around us. In my family, we began to give watches as gifts for birthdays or special occasions, and a lot of my friends went on to work at watch companies in the area.” Still, it wasn’t until Baraket was working in Paris and wanted to make a watch purchase for herself that she came up against the issue that many women face when looking for a timepiece. “When I would go to retailers, they would show me only the watch with a pink dial or with designs like butterflies, but I knew exactly what I wanted, and it wasn’t that,” Baraket confirms. “Finally, my boss at the time said to me, ‘if you can’t find the watch you like, maybe you should just create your own watch.’ She was joking,” clarifies Baraket, “but it got me thinking this could be a possibility – I grew up in this watchmaking region, and I have connections to some of the manufacturers. So, I started making some phone calls and taking steps, then ultimately, I quit my job and launched Buci.”
I didn’t discover the brand until two years after its founding when Buci teamed up with seconde/seconde/ for a limited edition. The model immediately caught my eye because of the ink spill across the dial between 3 and 6 o’clock – flip the watch over and the exhibition caseback is printed with a definition of poetry reading, “bloodsport where a daring soul fiercely fights a blank paper.” Those who appreciate the intersection of watchmaking and poetry are a very small subset of people – I had to learn more about this watch, the brand, and the woman behind it. Fast forward a few weeks, and I found myself in Geneva for Watches and Wonders. I learned Buci was exhibiting at one of the adjacent fairs in the area, so I made a point to visit her booth. Baraket and I got to talking about our shared passion for both poetry and watches and connected instantly – I went on to buy one of the last remaining examples of the collaboration with seconde/seconde/ on the spot, and I’ve been a huge fan of Baraket and Buci watches ever since.
I’ve always felt my affinity for both poetry and watches was no coincidence. For me, both mediums accomplish a great deal in a very small amount of space – every detail counts, every element has a purpose, and so much is communicated with very little. There’s also a balance between form and function, artistry and technicality with each being equally important. Perhaps most challenging to articulate is the inherent intimacy of a poem or a watch. Still, Baraket opened my eyes to new parallels between poetry and watches I’d never considered. “Early on when I was working on creating my brand, I was reading Samarkand by Amin Maalouf. It’s this historical fiction novel centered on the 11th-century Persian poet Omar Khayyam,” she recalls. “I observed how his words were still relevant and resonate hundreds and hundreds of years later, and I saw this as a bridge to watchmaking. An author’s words are passed on for generations just like a watch may be passed down through generations.”
Most of Buci’s models aren’t quite as literal about their connection to poetry or literature as the collaboration with seconde/seconde that I purchased. However, the brand has some subtle, signature design language that extends from the watches themselves to the packaging reminiscent of books that remain anchored in bridging horology to the literary world. One of these is the distinct paper texture dials seen across the collections from the original Garde-temps to other limited editions and now, Buci’s new line debuting on Kickstarter: Nouvelle. “With this next chapter, I wanted to go beyond poetry and explore literature more broadly,” describes Baraket. “So, the name Nouvelle is like a novella or short story. There is a very famous short story in France by Guy de Maupassant called ‘The Necklace,’ which is at its core about a woman who loses a necklace,” she continues. “I love how most short stories really focus on the ordinary moments like this, the same ordinary moments we share everyday with the watches we wear.”
The Nouvelle collection will feature some new details from what we’ve seen in previous models. For instance, the indices have typically been a mix of classic stick hour makers with stylized indices at 12, 3, 6, and 9 inspired by the shape of a fountain pen nib. The new line now features Arabic numerals in a font designed exclusively by a Parisian calligrapher, which brings a whole new personality to the dial. However, the fountain pen nib imagery is still present and takes a different form as the hour and minute hand converge once every hour to reveal the shape. Other literary elements are infused throughout the design like the fluted mid-case, inspired by the layered edges of the book page. The Nouvelle is powered by a manual rather than automatic movement. This not only allows for a thinner profile to match the slimmed down 36mm proportions but also brings the wearer back to meditating on those ordinary everyday moments while winding the watch.
The Nouvelle is offered in two iterations: Essential, which reprises the classic color and texture of aged paper we’ve seen throughout Buci’s catalog, and Contemplation, which incorporates a new color into the catalog with a deep blue dial inspired by the quiet hours of the night. Across both dial variants, there’s the option of four interchangeable straps to choose from, one in either cream or blue grained calfskin leather alongside one in smooth brown calfskin leather and one in grey nubuck leather.
International pre-orders open today on Kickstarter and will run through November 15, 2026, with these launch editions limited to 300 individually numbered pieces. The Kickstarter price for the Nouvelle is €1,550 (approximately $1,780 at the time of publication). However, the future retail price will be slightly higher at €1,850 (approximately $2,120 at the time of publication). For more information, you can head over directly to Buci.