The 2024 edition of Homo Faber, a biennial fair held in Venice to celebrate superior craftsmanship, opened Sept. 1. And among its exhibitors are independent watchmakers and several high-end brands, all celebrating their skills in métiers d’art and art-related projects.

Miki Eleta, a self-taught Swiss clockmaker who typically produces just one piece a year, is showcasing two of his recent table clocks: the Minute Muncher, a gold-plated brass automaton that symbolizes the brevity of life by having a small black fantasy creature appear to eat away at the minutes, and BY 21Dez12ME, a complex U.F.O.-shaped structure populated by miniature green aliens. The intricate piece has several complications, including jumping hours, in which the hour hand jumps, rather than sweeps, to the next hour; moon phase; and world time.

“I am proud to share my two pieces during the Homo Faber exhibition in Venice,” Mr. Eleta wrote in an email. “I create art; a piece made by me must speak my language, express my thoughts and philosophy.”

Frank Jutzi, another Swiss independent maker, also is presenting a table clock, but in a more classic style: featuring a hand-engraved mainspring barrel and drive wheel, powered by a tourbillon (a mechanism that helps the clock counter gravity’s effect on timekeeping) and encased in a rectangular glass case.

Given that Homo Faber is organized by the Michelangelo Foundation, the brainchild in 2016 of Johann Rupert, the chairman of the Swiss luxury goods group Richemont, and Franco Cologni, a former Richemont executive, perhaps it should be no surprise that Richemont’s watch brands are participating.