Hands-On The Berneron Mirage Realizes Its Creator's Uncompromising Vision

Few watches have been so uncompromising in realizing the vision of their creator. For Berneron, it started with a simple idea: A movement can achieve more efficient technical performance if you're willing to abandon the traditional round case shape. This starts by allowing for a larger barrel, making for a more effective use of space.

One year since we introduced Berneron (and later had him on Hodinkee Radio), he has now delivered the first set of Mirage watches to collectors, while also introducing a smaller second-generation Mirage with a new caliber and stone dials. We were able to see working versions of the first-gen Mirage (the Mirage 38, as its case measures 38mm) and prototypes of the stone dial Mirage 34. Both deliver on Berneron's promise, blending design and mechanics in a way few watches have.

The Mirage 38 is the purest distillation of Berneron's original idea. It takes inspiration from classic dress watches that display technical excellence – three-handers from Patek Philippe, Breguet, and Lange – and combines this with design inspiration from Cartier, Gilbert Albert, and others. Those traditional, round dress watches can feel a bit stiff, while shaped pieces typically sacrifice technical performance in favor of aesthetics. Those old Cartier Crashes had tiny movements designed for ladies cocktail watches, for example.

While the asymmetrical design immediately grabs your attention, the story for Berneron starts with the manual-wind caliber 233, both in concept and in execution. Berneron originally dreamt up a movement with a large barrel and balance wheel, with an irregular shape accommodating these technical components. The caliber 233 is thin, too – just 2.33mm, as indicated by its name.

This is where Berneron became uncompromising. The Mirage is constructed entirely of gold: case, dial, spring bars, and the movement's main plate and bridges. The caliber 233 features guilloché and anglage on the bridges, as well as a variety of other finishes throughout. Even the curves of the bridges match the asymmetrical shape of the movement. While Sylvain Berneron is not a watchmaker, his goal was to display some of the best technical watchmaking and finishing in Neuchâtel, developing the movement in partnership with Le Cercle des Horlogers. The Mirage also has a direct small seconds, and Berneron flipped the typical order of the hand stack, putting the shorter hour hand on top. This allows for a sloped crystal that makes the Mirage's profile thinner.

The Mirage 38's gold case shape follows from the asymmetrical movement. It measures 34 x 38mm (42mm lug-to-lug) and 7mm thick. It wears like a round 38mm watch, but stretches and pinches in ways that feel more ergonomic than a familiar round shape. The organic curves seem to match the natural contours of the wrist, wrist bone and all. This is also thanks to the thin case measuring just 7mm, with short, gently curving lugs.

The sector-style dial has alternating polished and brushed surfaces. It's vintage-inspired, but the numerals are modern, designed by Berneron specifically for the Mirage. This gives the Mirage a contemporary, even slightly sporty look.

The swirling dial matches the shape of the case and makes it feel like the Mirage is in motion. It's Dr. Seuss. It's Salvador Dali, especially his Persistence of Memory. It's the Cartier Crash. It's the best sector-dial Patek Calatravas.

The Mirage deconstructs the very idea of a modern watch. It's playful but also deeply serious. It throws aside the traditional codes of watchmaking, but is also deferential to that same history. It reminds of the cliché that "to break the rules, you must first master them."

Often, we struggle with the question, "what's the purpose of a mechanical wristwatch in the 21st century?" We find the time with a glance at a screen, any screen. But if watches completely toss aside their original reason for being, they become mere jewelry. Decoration. Ornamentation. Which is fine, but celebrating the generations of craftsmanship that were dedicated to keeping mechanical time accurately is what can elevate watches into something more.

The Mirage rejects the conventional notion of what a watch should be so that it can rebuild from first principles.

A modern watch isn't for timekeeping, but the Mirage's story starts from the inside and moves outward, understanding that asymmetry makes for a more technically efficient caliber. Only after reconsidering function does the Mirage let itself consider form.

This is what sets the Mirage apart because this is what sets watchmaking apart. Free from the need to truly consider function, watches today are thought of as jewelry more than ever. A luxury. But if consideration of their original function is completely tossed aside, they're not watches at all. Design for its own sake can be beautiful, but it's not watchmaking.

It's often said that the best watches today are art, but that's not quite true. Art has no function. Watches always have, and always will, no matter how incidental their timekeeping might feel to our modern lives. Berneron and the Mirage understand this and have taken it as a first principle, turning it into something beautiful.

Those curved gold hands, which seem to have fallen out of a Dr. Seuss short story, remind us of the time. But that's hardly the point of the Mirage. Machines can't even polish those curves, so they're finished by hand. But that's hardly the point. The Berneron Mirage shows that yes, by challenging convention, you can create something beautiful.

Berneron is producing 24 pieces per year of the Mirage 38 for the next decade: 12 Sienna (yellow gold) and 12 Prussian Blue (white gold). I prefer the warmth and almost vintage feel of the Sienna's matching gold case and dial, but the Prussian Blue is its modern counterpoint.

Prices for the Berneron subscription (now delivered) were CHF 44,000, with prices steadily increasing for each standard delivery window after that until they reach CHF 55,000. 

Just as Berneron is delivering the first batch of Mirage 38s to clients, he has also introduced the Mirage 34, powered by the new caliber 215 (2.15mm thick). What the Mirage 38 started in deconstructing the idea of a watch, the Mirage 34 begins to take to its logical conclusion. Gone is the sector dial or any pretense that one might want to tell the exact time. In its place are Tiger's Eye or Lapis Lazuli stone dials with hand-carved subdials. The white or yellow gold case measures 30 x 34 x 7mm. 

To shrink the movement down, some technical compromises were made. The balance wheel is no longer free-sprung. But Berneron says he's using literally the smallest wheel in production. If it were possible to make a free-sprung wheel at this size, he'd gladly use it. The caliber 215 also doesn't flip the hand stack because the additional gearing would've made the movement too thick. But, the Mirage 34 is made slimmer because the sub-seconds hand is sunk into the carved subdial.  

But the Mirage 34 doesn't compromise on performance. The efficiencies realized by the asymmetrical shape mean it maintains a large barrel and 72-hour power reserve. The caliber 215 beats at 3.5 Hz, slightly faster than the caliber 233's 3 Hz.

While the Mirage 38 balances design with technique, the Mirage 34 is more deliberately about design. The yellow gold features a Tiger's Eye stone dial, while the white gold's dial is Lapis Lazuli. Each dial measures just 1.3mm thick. Berneron has found artisans that are able to hand carve a sunken subdial into the stone dial. This hand technique gives the subdial a textured effect, providing contrast against the rest of the stone. According to Berneron, the failure rate is roughly 80 percent, meaning four of every five dials are scrapped because of the difficulty of hand engraving.

While smaller, I preferred the Mirage 34 on my wrist. The colorful stone dial also makes it feel larger. While the swirling sector dial makes the Mirage 38 seem perpetually in motion, here it's the stone dials that come alive.

The Tiger's Eye is pure '70s – shag carpets, wood paneling, pairs well with wide lapels. The white gold with Lapis Lazuli sourced from Afghanistan is its modern foil. As with the Mirage 38, I prefer the unapologetically nostalgic glow of the Tiger's Eye, though the Lapis Lazuli is more wearable by modern standards.

Berneron will deliver 48 Mirage 34 examples per year, 24 of each color. Both the Mirage 38 and Mirage 34 are paired with matching grained Barenia leather straps. Berneron has also begun to lay out his plans for the brand. As he told us on Hodinkee Radio, he plans to introduce a new model next year, a round calendar watch.

Few watches deconstruct the idea of a watch and challenge convention like the Mirage. When we spoke a year ago, Sylvain Berneron said the Mirage will feel "almost like an illusion." Now that it's fully realized, it makes a very real statement about what watchmaking can be, even today.

For more, visit Berneron.ch.