The titanium sodalite (right) and obsidian (left) dials. Silver obsidian symbolises rebirth while sodalite represents harmony and peace.
In the spirit of the watch collector that is Jean-Claude Biver, and in that of the lover of historical watches that is his son Pierre Biver, the making of the new BIVER watch takes you back to the origins of watchmaking.
Doing things differently also means choosing to start with complexity, so the Bivers chose the mechanism known as the minute repeater as the first chapter of the book that they are now writing.
Montage Titanium Sodalite“We are starting with the minute repeater because it is a quite high level of complication. It’s not the highest, it’s stage number eight out of 10, I would say (to simplify). Ten would be for me the Grande Sonnerie, and nine would be the Small Sonnerie and eight, the minute repeater,” Jean-Claude elaborates.
(A minute repeater is a device in which the current time is announced by means of a combination of sounds that represent the hour, quarter, and minute, usually activated by a button).
But then how do you make the minute repeater, a mechanism invented in the 18th century, contemporary, one may ask?
“For the minute repeater, we have different stages. We have chosen a minute repeater that has a carrillon, which means three hammers, three sounds we have chosen to add a tourbillon (with a titanium cage which makes it lighter), and we have also chosen to make it with a micro-rotor.
“This is of course an addition of complications which makes our minute repeater among the most difficult. We started with the minute repeater in order to make our first statement to be at the top. It’s important what you show first,” says the industry icon.
“It was important to me, to bring first the minute repeater. Plus, the minute repeater is the watch that I personally love. It’s my favourite watch, I don’t have many, because they cost a fortune, but I love the sound, I love vibrations. Life is a vibration. We are vibration. The sound is life. Life has a sound. The sound is everywhere.
“The minute repeater is a great watch. So that’s why we start with the minute repeater.”
Face ObsidianAnother feature, Jean-Claude adds, are the stone dials, and goes on to explain that stone in general has played a big role five thousand years ago in people’s beliefs.
“People had beliefs that this stone brings luck, brings strength; they believed in the physical and psychological role of stones, and I think it’s very interesting. Although many don’t believe in the stones anymore, I still do. This is why some people have a stone in their pocket or bracelets,” he says.
“So stones plays a role in the watch, the stone can only be in the dial. So this is why I decided that our first watches will be exclusively with stone dials. The stone we use the most is called sodalite.
“Sodalite as a stone is a well-known anti-depressive. It is a stone that makes you dynamic, that takes the depression away, that gives strength.
“And what is even more beautiful is that no stone dial will be the same, because every stone is different.”
Also important for Jean-Claude is that the watches are user friendly, made for the collector to enjoy them on a daily basis.
“The minute repeater is water-resistant to five atmospheres in theory, which means (down) to 50m.”
And as we are in the 21st century, the latest materials and technology are used to “make the watch wearable, because people are afraid to wear an expensive watch as they are afraid to damage it or scratch it. So we thought it is important to make our watch wearable.”
Distribution plans for the BIVER watches will be pretty exclusive and, of course, limited.
“We will have five partners in the world. That is my ultimate objective, not having a mass distribution, but having a refined concentrated distribution.”
For the moment they have four – one each for Japan, South-East Asia, America including Mexico, and Europe. I would like to have five partners, and together we divide the world in five.
It has been announced that one of those exclusive retail partnerships is with The Hour Glass.
