Hands-On: Biver Returns With The New ‘Automatique’ And A Proprietary Micro-Rotor Movement
Last year, Jean-Claude Biver and his son Pierre Biver surprised the watch world with the first release from their new brand, the eponymous “Biver.” The brand itself was of little surprise – JCB (as he’s referred to in the watch world, even by Pierre) had teased the news back in February 2022. But the $550,000 base price Carillon Tourbillon made in the traditional établissage style – outsourcing components and assembling and finishing them centrally – shocked a lot of people.
Two gem-set Carillon Tourbillon pièce unique watches from Biver, each with a price tag of around CHF 1,300,000. One has already sold.
Less than half a year later, the brand started producing the same watches but in gem-set and experimental formats. Of the 50 planned pieces, 36 have sold; $19,800,000 in income in one year seems like an overwhelming success. But there has been a lot going on behind the scenes as well. Biver made a gem-set art watch for Only Watch, with no hands on the dial, and withdrew the watch during the charity auction drama. Pierre Biver has shifted roles from CEO (in practice) to creative director, with James Marks leaving Phillips to take on the CEO position. JCB remains chairman and Pierre is still on the board. Why all the changes? To put the brand on the most solid footing for the future. And the future has arrived for Biver with their second watch, the “Automatique.”
It’s a beautiful watch and a thoughtful second release from the brand, with many major improvements. The more you look, the more you see the attention to detail. I’ll certainly give you more thoughts, but I also took as many pictures as possible so you can see the watches and make up your mind. Regardless of what anyone might say, there’s no denying that the watch will also likely be a success.
The watches average CHF 99,500 across configurations (ranging from CHF 75,000 in rose gold with matching dial to CHF 121,000 for the obsidian dial, platinum case, and platinum bracelet) and measure 39mm by 10mm – a marked improvement on the Carillon Tourbillon. Compared to another recent independent darling, the Xhevdet Rexhepi Minute Inerte, at CHF 80,000, it’s a different proposition for a different buyer. Despite the hefty price tag, all but four of the 86 examples are already allocated to clients and retailers. They’re not “sold out,” Pierre Biver quickly reminded me, and they can still be bought through some of the retailers that have committed to the allocations. But it’s a heck of a vote of confidence from their partners and supporters.
I covered both the launch and hands-on with the Carillon Tourbillon. Because of what I hope was a balance of critique and honesty about their first launch, Biver wanted me to come by their atelier and visit their new movement supplier, Dubois Dépraz, to see their watch and the watchmaking behind it. Pierre Biver told me that if I thought the watch wasn’t worth talking about by the end of the tour, then so be it – even more so, he wanted me to call them out on it. This time, I think there’s far more to love.
The Atelier And Dubois Dépraz
If anything, Dubois Dépraz is probably best known in the watch space for its chronograph modules. The Vallée de Joux-based manufacturer has worked with some of the biggest names in the business, though many they’d never confirm. Rolex, Omega, Audemars Piguet, and more all owe a lot to Dubois Dépraz. But the company also both develops and manufactures complete movements, including its integrated chronograph calibre 540.
Some of the movements Dubois Dépraz has made.
The Carillon Tourbillon was made with a movement designed and modified by Le Cercle des Horlogers. Speake-Marin uses a similar movement (without a tourbillon), and Armin Strom also has a repeater from Cerle. This time, Dubois Dépraz has created a proprietary micro-rotor movement in partnership with Biver. It’s unusual to see inside a company like Dubois Dépraz because of their confidentiality agreements with their clients. Much of it reminds me of other high-end manufacturing, but you can’t deny the creativity of their designers, who have been able to be problem solvers for major brands.
A presentation of Dubois Dépraz’ manufacturing.
Movement designers at work.
Watchmakers in the workshop doing high-end construction and manufacturing.
Machining movements.
Two prototype movements in gold.
Biver maintains complete control over the caliber JCB-003, shown above, so if other brands come calling, they will have to decide if they want to sell the movement with Dubois Dépraz. The cases are made by Efteor SA, which has made cases for Lange, JLC, and Zenith. The dials are by LM Cadrans SA, which has made dials for brands like MB&F and Louis Moinet.
When the parts are finished, they’re delivered to the Biver atelier in Givrins, halfway between the Vallée de Joux and Geneva. There, a small team of movement finishers and constructors work on all the brand’s watches. While I was there, they were mainly working on completing the last of the Carillon Tourbillon before starting the first Automatique models.
Constructing a Carillon Tourbillon in the Givrins atelier.
Perlage on the movement.
Anglage on the bridges of the carillon tourbillon.
All of the watchmakers have come from other brands like Patek Philippe, Vacheron Constantin, and Cartier. All of them were quite open with the fact that the variety of tasks that they’re responsible for at Biver allowed them to think outside the box and practice techniques and finishes that they weren’t getting to use at their former employers. It makes sense that the larger the company gets, the more specialized each employee is. Here, they get to be creative.
One example is a custom acoustic box invented by an employee. The brand has set frequency ranges for the Carillon Tourbillon. When a repeater is serviced, customers often complain that the watch sounds different. Not only can the brand set parameters for the tones, but they can also record the acoustics and make sure the watch sounds the same after every service. Now, back to the Automatique itself.
The Biver Automatique
The Biver Automatique is a subtle but striking improvement in aesthetic over the Carillon Tourbillon. It makes sense; the brand is still in its infancy and developing its design codes. While Pierre Biver told me the brand has a 10-year roadmap for upcoming watches, it expects to deliver a new core release pretty frequently, which means the designs should evolve rapidly with the feedback they get. He also said that he hopes to look back in 10 years and think that each design improves on the last. In one year, I think they’ve made a big step forward.
The Biver design-to-market timeline is fast; the development of the Automatique started just two years ago. This is a bit counter to most independents, who promote how long they work on each model. But the business model is different. The design and idea are centralized, the parts are chosen from the best partners, and the watches are constructed in-house. That certainly speeds things up. While only 86 watches will be made of the four configurations you see here, the Automatique is planned as a core piece in different variations for some time. They also seem to take feedback quite well from clients and trusted friends, so I expect future versions of the Automatique will have some interesting designs while sticking close enough to the original to make sense. As I was photographing the Automatique, Pierre came into the room with a sketch and asked me which design I liked better for an upcoming watch (and why). Then, he went straight back to the watchmakers to see how possible my idea was.
At the heart of the brand’s “vibe,” so to speak, is an austere and sort of Germanic style. It’s also very strongly a 21st century design. The two main pieces in the collection feature tonal cases and dials, in rose gold with rose gold dial or platinum with white gold dial, both finished with a quasi-sector bullseye effect. The mix of circular and vertical brushing is done by hand. I called their first release a bit “cold,” but I had difficulty putting my finger on why. I think the stone dials just lacked some contrast with the tonal indices.
The movement is more than just a simple new engine. The JCB-003 was developed with Dubois Dépraz, but it wasn’t just meant for this watch. They have plans to use the movement to power modular components like calendars or chronographs for future releases. With that in mind, the movement measures 4mm tall and 30mm wide. The movement features a zero-reset mechanism (somewhat akin to Rexhep Rexhepi’s Chronometre Contemporain II) for accuracy, and while the brand doesn’t submit their watches for testing, in their atelier trials, the watches exceed chronometer certification parameters. The watch runs at 3.5Hz, with 65 hours of power reserve.
I think the finishing and stylistic choices of the movement struck me the most. Because of the micro-rotor and the location of the rest of the bridges, traditional Côtes de Genève wouldn’t achieve much of a result. Instead, the brand decided to cut away a lot of the movement to expose the balance, drive train, and mainspring barrel. The “guitar”-shaped bridge is cut away to reveal the click wheel or tambour de barillet for the manual winding. It’s a page out of the book of a grande sonnerie and maybe the first time a winding click like this has been implemented in an automatic watch. They then hollowed out a line to create a definitive edge between the side of the plate and the interior, then used Clous de Paris on the top of the bridge. All of this has anglage and black polish we’ve come to expect for high-end independents. Even the jewel for the escape wheel features a shock absorber, which feels over-engineered in a good way.
The drop-off in the lugs allows the watch to sit on its lugs, not the caseback, when laid flat. It also gives a very comfortable shape on the wrist despite the 47.5mm lug-to-lug. The crown is also important, not necessarily for the design but because the movement was designed for the tactile feel of manual winding. I would call the click nice and strong, with good resistance – not the level of a Simplicity, but much better than any automatic movement I remember.
On the wrist, the watch is incredibly comfortable. Despite being 39mm with that 47.5mm lug-to-lug, it looks larger. On the flip side, the choice to drop the lugs so severely results in a comfortable wearing experience. The brand takes a lot of inspiration from Pierre Biver’s favorite Patek ref. 3448, with the distinct case shape and angular lugs. He also mentioned the ref. 2523 as well, with the flat edge that drops down to the rest of the lug. I don’t see that as much, but then again, design isn’t my strong suit. Either way, I love the 3448 as well and the similarity is apparently.
We’ve largely focused on the core collection, but one of Jean-Claude Biver’s demands was to always produce a few stone dials. These are a part of their Atelier Collection. Below, you can see the blue Pietersite dial in the rose gold case (CHF 89,000, a 14,000 premium over the standard) and a sanded grey obsidian dial in platinum (CHF 92,000 over 78,000 for the core). In either the core or Atelier versions, the rose gold was my favorite. The warmth of the case and, in the instance of the stone dial, the contrast was just tough to beat.
The brand’s bracelet has also been slightly redesigned. The new bracelets (in rose or platinum) feature the same angled links that mirror the lug shape, but now they have straight end links (19mm between the lugs) for a more vintage feel. They’re an upgrade option for all the watches and don’t come cheap – CHF 19,000 in rose gold and CHF 29,000 in platinum. They’re comfortable and well-executed, but I liked the whole package on the strap better. It pulls the watch back toward the vintage inspiration rather than pushing it into a more modern space.
Much of the depth of the 10mm case is taken up by the depth of the dial, where the hands must clear the tall, three-dimensional indices. And yet, it remains quite slim. I liked the warmth and contrast on the rose gold better, especially on the Pietersite, which features a minute track and rose gold indices. The contrast on the rose-gold dial comes from the anthracite finishing on the 18k rose gold hour markers and hands. The hands are also hand-satin-finished and beveled with four interior angles. The minute track is also super detailed; it’s laser-cut and applied. On the platinum track, there’s a warmer hue because of the mix used for the white gold.
For all the vintage inspiration, the Biver Automatique feels like it’s confidently running counter to the prevailing winds of independent watchmaking. While the hyper avant-garde of MB&F and Greubel Forsey (all the way down to SpaceOne) and super traditional like Rexhep Rexhepi and Theo Auffret all have massive followings and represent a comfort zone for many collectors, this kind of 21st-century take on mid-20th-century Patek certainly fills a void in the market.
More than anything, the Clous de Paris on the movement represents a departure from tradition that took a while for me to appreciate. I’m generally not a fan, even on Patek’s ref. 6119G, but it’s certainly grown on me in the two weeks since I first saw it. The guilloché pattern is radial from the center post of the micro-rotor, smaller and tighter close to the post, and bolder at the edge of the bridge just below the crown.
I had a hard time identifying what the movement finishing reminded me of, and it felt like it was on the tip of my tongue. One person called it “industrial,” but I think that describes something entirely different. Then it clicked. The strong lines on the edge of the bridges and the pattern in the center have a futuristic-meets-ancient quality that reminded me of H.R. Giger, the Swiss artist behind the design for the film Alien. I don’t mean it as a slight. It’s a strong design language that doubles down on the mechanical nature of the movement while featuring more sloping, natural lines. If that’s not “biomechanical,” I don’t know what is.
It takes me a while to process a new watch – I try not to have a massive reaction one way or the other while I pore over the details. While there’s a lot to process with the Automatique – myriad small details – I’ve warmed up to it quite a bit. Pierre Biver was incredibly honest with me that the brand’s purest justification – the “why” – is that making these watches is something the family wanted to do. They’re not trying to “revive a lost art” or anything so exaggerated. While it’s not the deep, emotional storytelling that most brands would lean on, I respect that Biver decided to be honest about it rather than create some marketing mumbo-jumbo.
There’s more to it, of course; JCB’s drive to cement a legacy is one part. He also has major regrets about selling Blancpain all those years ago and seems to hope this is one last chance to build something from the ground up. Pierre also told me that he understands fully that because of his father’s history in the industry, certain roads (with suppliers, retailers, and collectors) may be smoother than others. But I came away convinced that there’s more than enough merit in what they produced to hope that the Internet will be more forgiving this time. A good watch is a good watch regardless of whether or not it’s got hype behind it, and I think that this will fit the mold for plenty of customers.
Making a watch like this isn’t easy, and Pierre and the team seem motivated to use every extra inch of leeway given to push even harder. It also seems ridiculous to think that 36 people have “thrown” over $550,000 at the Biver team for their first watch because they feel some personal or professional “obligation” to do so. The Biver family has sold almost every watch in Jean-Claude’s Talking Watches to fund the brand and is doing everything to ensure it wasn’t for nothing. Another independent watchmaker recently told me that commercial success is the great equalizer. If Biver has secured so many sales and commitments before the model’s launch, they have more time to continue growing and developing the brand. I can’t say that this is anything but a strong release and a major step forward. With what they’ve shown me as a preview, I’m excited to see what comes next.
Biver Automatique; 39mm diameter by 10mm thick 18k rose gold or platinum case, with 80m of water resistance. Standard dials in solid 18k white or rose gold – Atelier Collection dials in sanded obsidian or Piertersite; 18k white or rose gold hands, satin-finished and hand-beveled; 18k white or rose gold applied hour markers with anthracite finish. Proprietary calibre JCB-003 micro-rotor movement running at 3.5Hz with 36 jewels and 65 hours of power reserve. Leather strap, with platinum or rose gold pin buckle or five-row Biver bracelet, in either platinum or rose gold. Total of 86 pieces (25 per metal, plus 18 per metal for the Atelier Collection). Prices range from CHF 75,000 to 121,000.
Hodinkee
