– By Arthur Touchot
“Will we one day see the birth of the Biver watch company?”
Jean-Claude and Pierre Biver received the question with a knowing silence and a wry smile. This was not the first time someone had brought up the subject, but perhaps the idea had recently progressed. We had just finished recording a video interview and presentation of the Biver watch collection, and Jean-Claude had just enjoyed a year away from the limelight following his decision to step down from LVMH’s executive board and effectively retire after more than forty years championing Swiss-made luxury watches.
During his illustrious career, the 74-year-old industry titan has occupied almost every top management position, expect for one. At Audemars Piguet and Omega, he proved to possess a knack for sales and a rare understanding for the product. He later showed his entrepreneurial spirit and management skills when re-launching and captaining Blancpain during one of the most turbulent times for traditional watchmaking. And who can forget the transformation and modernization of Hublot and later TAG Heuer under his embrace.
In every position he had excelled: as salesman, as a product manager, as a marketing director, and as a CEO. But could he launch a brand under his own name? If the desire to know hadn’t manifested itself earlier, it had recently been encouraged by another Biver. Pierre, 22, had grown up with watches. The youngest of Jean-Claude’s children had spent countless hours with his father talking about the watches he had helped launch or collected. He had always expressed an interest in following in his father’s footsteps, and, after completing a two-year internship with PHILLIPS in London, the time felt right to commit to that path.
The project entered a prolonged pupal stage from which it would emerge more than three years later. The BIVER watch brand was announced on February 4, 2022, on Swiss radio, by Jean-Claude Biver. “I found out at the same time as you and everyone else about the launch,” says Pierre, laughing at his father’s emboldened and unexpected announcement.
Pierre is aware that he currently occupies an enviable position as the latest mentee to one of the industry’s greatest business minds, however working with one’s father, especially one so successful and so admired, has certain disadvantages.
“It took time to find the right balance,” says Pierre. “We are different people, but right from the beginning we listened to each other a lot. He is an incredible leader and gives confidence to the entire team. At the same time, he knows when to put a shield in front of his team.”
Naturally, the father-and-son duo are drawing from very distinct visions of watchmaking to build the BIVER watch brand. Pierre’s youth and his interest in the future perfectly complements his father’s experience. When he was 22-years-old, Jean-Claude hadn’t seen or even heard of the Royal Oak or the Nautilus because Gérald Genta hadn’t drawn those watches yet.
“Pierre brings in the new century,” wrote Jean-Claude, in a press release announcing the launch of the brand’s first watches. “I don’t need the past because I embody it. I need the future. And I get it through Pierre, because I listen to him, because I believe him, because I understand him, because he is my son.”
To meet their incredibly high ambitions, the Bivers assembled a collective of outside talent, led in-house by Francois Perez. A former movement constructor, Perez’s accomplishments include the design of movements powering the BVLGARI Octo Finissimo Ultra-Plate and the Parmigiani Fleurier Bugatti – two extremely complex timepieces – and his appointment as the team’s Production Manager in charge of the Watchmaking and Decoration division is a further sign of the position the BIVER brand wants to occupy in the watch landscape.
Things moved very fast following Jean-Claude’s announcement in 2022. The first model’s components, including its case, dials, hands, and movements were fast-tracked into production and received less than a year later – an exploit that only Biver senior could pull off. Working with such tight deadlines naturally created “a lot of pressure” but Pierre says the past 13 months have been incredibly enriching. “This is my passion. High-end watchmaking.”
The first piece to bear the Biver name certainly fits that brief. The half-a-million-dollar Carillon Tourbillon Biver is an extremely impressive debut, to say the least. Measuring 42mm in diameter, the watch packs one of the industry’s most revered and pedigreed complication, the minute repeater, and combines it with a tourbillon with a titanium cage positioned at six o’clock.
But that’s just the start. A tremendous amount of love – and certainly a lot of sweat and tears – went into elevating the watch’s features so that it embodies Jean-Claude and Pierre’s relentless pursuit of perfection. That’s why they dismissed the traditional two-hammer minute repeater in favour of a more complex triple-hammer construction to create a carillon, for a fuller and more ornate sound. That also explains their decision to use dials made of natural hardstone – silvered obsidian or sodalite. To challenge themselves even further, the dials are domed instead of flat.
Then there is the obviously immense investment in making the watch and its movement beautiful to look at, which no doubt contributes to its final cost. The techniques used to decorate the movement’s 374 components, some of which aren’t even visible, are time-consuming and require great skill. A generous use of black polishing, combined with graining and satin-finishing, amount to a truly unique aesthetic that is both familiar and original.
There are also flourishes of Pierre and Jean-Claude’s love for vintage timepieces, such as the design of the crown. It is “the most direct connection between the watch and its wearer,” and therefore much more than a detail in the design of the piece. The bracelet is also representative of their interest in bringing past designs up to date. An intricate five-link design made exclusively for BIVER, it was conceived as an integrated bracelet but can be easily removed and exchanged on the fly. “We have to bring joy to our collectors,” says Pierre. This is a watch that is clearly intended to spend time on its owner’s wrist, and one gets the sense from talking with Jean-Claude and Pierre that little else would bring them greater satisfaction.
The watch is powered by a platinum self-winding micro-rotor developed by Le Cercle des Horlogers, a renowned movement manufacturer based near Neuchatel, Switzerland. Fully wound, the watch can run for 72 hours on the movement’s power reverse, while the case’s 50-meter water resistance provides enough insurance against an accidental fall into the pool, a carefree shower, and other mundane sources of irreparable damage to most precious high-end watches.
Three versions of the watch (in titanium, in 5N gold, and a two-tone version) will be immediately available to the public, both in extremely limited quantities. But a third, even more exclusive version will become available later this Spring, and it comes with a novel interpretation of the cherished “souscription” program used occasionally when a new brand wants to give watch enthusiasts early access into its first watch.
Known internally as the Jean-Claude Biver “Spec,” the monochromatic Carillon Tourbillon Biver piece unique, made in titanium and fitted with a silvered obsidian dial, was discreetly assembled for the team’s most senior member, after his many attempts at having it placed into serial production. “He was so touched by the team’s gesture that he decided to give all collectors an opportunity to acquire this piece unique,” says Pierre.
Phillips will have the privilege of selling the unique piece, which Jean-Claude has been wearing and trialling as the brand’s first prototype, during the upcoming Geneva Watch Auction: XVII, on May 13-14. In addition to receiving the first Biver-signed wristwatch, the winner will unlock the indefinite right to order all upcoming BIVER models in the same Jean-Claude Biver “spec” – a perpetual calendar and a chronograph are already being teased, and both should have interested parties very excited.
Speaking a few days before the launch of the brand’s first piece, Pierre told me he couldn’t wait to reveal all that he and his father had kept secret for more than a year. “We hope people will understand our idea. If people see our effort and that we gave it our all, then we can be happy,” said Pierre.
Based on the reaction the collection received this morning during a private brunch hosted at the company’s new atelier and office in Givrins, a Swiss municipality in the Canton de Vaud, on the eve of Watches & Wonders 2023, he should be feeling that way tonight.
About Phillips In Association With Bacs & Russo
The team of specialists at PHILLIPS Watches is dedicated to an uncompromised approach to quality, transparency, and client service. Phillips in Association with Bacs & Russo holds the world record for the most successful watch auction, with its Geneva Watch Auction: XIV having realized $74.5 million in 2021. Over the course of 2021 and 2022, the company sold 100% of the watches offered, a first in the industry, resulting in the highest annual total in history across all the auction houses at $227 million.
About Arthur Touchot
Arthur Touchot is a former journalist who specialized in the luxury market. Having earned a master’s degree in journalism at Northwestern University, Arthur combined his love of watches and words by becoming a regular contributor to The New York Times and the Financial Times at the start of his career, later becoming senior European editor at Hodinkee. In 2017, Arthur joined Phillips as International Head of Digital Strategy to lead the global content and digital marketing strategy of the auction house’s watch department, and has been involved in bringing some of the world’s rarest timepieces to auction.
Recommended Reading
Jean-Claude Biver: A Retrospective
Photo Recap: The Jean-Claude Biver Panel Discussion In London