Watch Industry Legend Jean-Claude Biver Launches An Eponymous Brand

I’ve been writing about watches for a long time, which gives me some unique insights into the watch world and into the people in this world. Easily one of my favorite people, and possibly the favorite of everyone who has met him and spent any time with him, is Jean-Claude Biver. A true legend, Biver has led many successes over the years and is credited with bringing certain brands, like Hublot and Blancpain, to iconic status.

Having battled cancer and a bad accident that had him laid up for months, having regularly led his cows up and down the mountains to make some of the most incredible cheese you will ever eat, and having built not only top-notch brand successes, but also an international following, the 74-year-old Jean-Claude Biver is still not ready to sit back and enjoy.

Prior to the recent Watches & Wonders Geneva exhibition, Jean-Claude, along with his now 23-year-old son Pierre, launched a new line of watches designed to reflect the sound of time. The first edition of what are destined to be true collector watches: The Carillon Tourbillon Biver.

Retailing for $550,000 and housing a complex three-hammer minute repeater, titanium-caged tourbillon and micro-rotor the three initial versions underscore Biver’s long love affair with the chiming watch and with his desire to endow a timepiece with soul.

“What I would like to bring to the world of watchmaking is soul. I want our brand to deal not only with watchmaking technology, but also with the art of watchmaking. The art of watchmaking, like any art, has a soul within it and this soul was transmitted to the object by the artist,” said Jean-Claude Biver. Later, during a private interview, adding “A watch is emotional, a watch is spiritual, a watch has a soul it carries with it and this is what we are doing here, we’re giving birth to the soul of the watch.”

When someone like the 74-year-old Jean-Claude Biver, who has almost 50 years invested in the watch industry, launches a timepiece, everyone takes note. I was in Geneva for Watches & Wonders and attended the launch at the Biver workshops and farmhouse. So did about 100 select journalists from around the world and many a watch brand CEO. From Max Busser of MB&F to Eduard Meylan of H. Moser & Son and even Kari Voutilainen, the attendee list read like a virtual Who’s Who in watchmaking – underscoring the deep respect the industry has for Biver.

Witnessing the father-and-son duo on stage was also intriguing. You could tell they are passionate about this new endeavor and both are deeply committed to the new Biver line of exclusive and prestigious watches.

Biver Watches

Without having a manufacture, the Bivers naturally turned to the best specialists in the industry to build their watches. From dial makers to makers of hands, cases, bracelets and more, the new watches took shape – morphing from Biver’s mind to reality.

Jean-Claude Biver has always had a love of minute repeaters that chime the time – noting the hours, quarter hours and minutes with hammers that hit a gong using different pitches and tones. But the traditional two hammers was not enough for a Biver watch. Three hammers are employed in this complicated watch to accomplish the best possible sound. In fact, the automatic caliber, wound by a meticulously decorated micro-rotor, consists of 374 individual components and 44 rubies.

The 42mm watches are offered in titanium or in rose gold, or in a combined rose gold and titanium version. Each has something uniquely special about it that goes beyond the sound and complexity of the watch. The dials are wafer-thin slabs of genuine stone – no easy feat to accomplish but necessary in order to render each unique. For the gray version, Biver turns to silver obsidian (said to offer comfort, dynamism and optimism) and for blue, the brand uses Sodalite (said to impart courage and confidence as well as having a protective aspect).

“We chose these stones for their spiritual attributes, for the energy they radiate,” says Pierre Biver. “It’s also a way to reconnect with the energy of the Earth. We also opted for a tourbillon with a titanium cage, which makes it lighter but also more challenging to decorate, as well as modern bridges; and to power the watch we have a micro-rotor.”

The watches are finished with a specially made five-row link bracelet that is super supple and catches the light just right with every move of the wrist. Adding to the desirability of the watches, they are highly wearable thanks to a water resistance of 50 meters.