One To Watch Breitling Designer Sylvain Berneron Sets Out To Explore Asymmetry On His Own

"Let's imagine you go into a house but they tell you that you can't go in one door," Berneron says. "That makes you want nothing more than to go through that door. For me, that door in watchmaking has been symmetry." Berneron has been a product designer with large brands over the past 15 years – first with large car companies like BMW before moving to Breitling. Thanks to the relationship he's developed with Breitling CEO Georges Kern, he's been able to launch his own independent brand while staying involved with his creative duties at Breitling on a part-time basis. 

"Designers restrict themselves to fit the tone or voice of the brand they work for, as they should," Berneron says. "But I came to a point where I wanted to do something just for me and open that damn door." He says he kicked it wide open, and with the Mirage he's doing all of the things he's been told no to since working in the watch industry: an asymmetrical case, movement, a gold caliber, flipping the order of the hand stack.

"The project is called Mirage because it's all the 'don'ts' of the watch industry grouped into one piece that'll exist on its own, almost an illusion."

It starts with the movement. Berneron has worked with movement manufacturer Le Cercle de Horlogers to develop an asymmetrical movement for the Mirage. Le Cercle is a well-known movement provider, supplying brands from Trilobe to Biver to Louis Vuitton. For the Mirage, the result is a caliber with gold main plates and bridges that measures just 2.3mm thick. Besides F.P. Journe, producing a movement in gold is something most brands don't even try; Berneron's will be the thinnest gold movement currently in production.

While the aesthetics of the movement are important, Berneron hasn't compromised performance. The manual-wind caliber beats at 3 Hz with a 60-hour power reserve, impressive for such a thin movement. There's also a large balance wheel that references old pocket watch chronometers.

Most notable is the shape of the movement.

"The hardest part of the project was quieting the outside noise," Berneron says. Colleagues and suppliers all tried to reign in his more daring impulses. "It took me four weeks to convince [Le Cercle] that I really wanted to make an asymmetrical movement. And until I actually signed the order for gold, they told me they never thought I'd actually create a gold caliber." There's a simple reason we don't often see gold movements: suppliers hate making them and they require separate machines than the typically-used brass. For Berneron, there's also the financial commitment – movement orders require 50 percent of the cost upfront.

Asymmetrical movements aren't typically made because this decouples the movement's use from the case. To say it plainly: If Berneron had ordered round movements and his project failed, at least he could liquidate those round movements to be used in a more traditional case shape. This is one reason shaped calibers are so rarely produced.

It's not a traditional "complication," but Berneron has broken convention in another interesting way: he reversed the typical order of the hands on the dial, with the shorter hour hand sitting above the minute hand. Berneron says this allows for the crystal to be more dramatically curved, making the watch's profile 15 percent thinner.

This brings us to the singular design of the Mirage, for which Berneron cited two inspirations. First are traditional time-only watches from Breguet, Vacheron, and ultimately, the Patek Philippe Calatrava. Second, he looked to the shaped work of Gilbert Albert, Rupert Emmerson (designer for Cartier London in the '60s and '70s), and Eric Giroud, the designer behind many of MB&F's watches.

"I tried to marry these two inspirations to have a perfect blend of art and technique," Berneron said. "The Mirage is a new approach because the art has not compromised the technique, and the technique has not compromised the emotion of the art."

The result is an asymmetrical case that's somewhere between Calatrava and Cartier Crash, without feeling derivative of either. The Mirage measures 42mm lug-to-lug and 33.5mm in width. I tried on a prototype in March and the organic lines seemed to naturally mold into my wrist.

Beyond the caliber, the Mirage is an all-gold construction: the dial, hands, case, even the spring bars use 18-karat gold. Berneron says he made this decision after receiving feedback from enthusiasts during development. "Don't cut any corners," was the guidance from interested enthusiasts. 

"When I started Berneron, I asked myself, 'if I'm coming 100 years after the first wristwatch, why should people care what I do?'" Berneron says. "If it's just another time-only piece, people should just got buy a Patek or Lange. But as far as I know this approach of doing a shaped movement inside a shaped watch is unique in modern watches."

Berneron is offering the Mirage in two versions: the yellow gold "Sienna" and white gold "Prussian Blue." Both feature a sector dial-inspired layout with a font designed by Berneron. The gold hands are also curved; because of this irregular shape, they can't be produced using the same tools as for straight hands and are milled and polished by hand.

He's committed to producing just 24 pieces of the Mirage per year over the next 10 years – 12 each of the Sienna and Prussian Blue. His first subscription delivery will come in the first half of 2024, with the first standard delivery coming in the second half of 2024. The subscription cost is CHF 44,000, with prices steadily increasing for each standard delivery window after that.

Berneron has already managed to capture the attention of enthusiasts and collectors with the slow rollout and teasing of the Mirage on Instagram. He's almost received deposits for all 48 pieces that will be delivered in 2024. Part of this is undoubtedly because asymmetrical watches from Cartier, Gilbert Albert, and others have captured the imagination of collectors. But look closer, and the Mirage is more than just an asymmetrical design that hops on a trend.

I've spoken with Berneron multiple times over the past year as the Mirage has been in the development process. His vision for watchmaking is one that I share: while the mechanics are important, they should be in service of creating beautiful design objects that stand the test of time. The Mirage is a fresh expression of his appreciation for traditional watchmaking. 

Even so, I feel conflicted about covering a new independent who's already gained traction and sold dozens of (expensive) watches, all without a working prototype (Berneron says he'll have one by the end of the year). After talking with Berneron and seeing his attention to detail and processes, paired with his experience at Breitling, I have no doubt he'll deliver on his promises. But for the clients who have already committed to purchase a Mirage, it takes a leap of faith.

Berneron also deserves credit for this groundswell of attention he's received; he has engaged earnestly with collectors over the past two years to hear feedback. But it's also part of a larger symptom in which certain buyers want to speculate on the "next big thing." This is not Berneron's fault but a larger issue resulting from the huge growth in watch collecting over the last few years.  

"In 100 years, a watchmaker will open my watch, and how do I want them to feel?" Berneron says. "When he realizes everything is in gold and we didn't take any shortcuts, I think that'll be a cool moment. I put my name on the dial and it reflects me, who I am, and what I believe."

For more, visit Berneron.ch and follow Berneron on Instagram.