Hands-On The Biver Carillon Tourbillon

It was just a week and a half after the announcement of the first release of Biver Watches and I was talking to Pierre Biver, one of the co-founders of the brand, face-to-face for the third time over that same period. The brand, which was announced a little over a year ago, chose to release a tremendously complex and striking  – albeit aesthetically unusual and modern –  Carillon Tourbillon in polished titanium as its introductory piece. At a fête celebrating the release at their farmhouse headquarters in Givrins, Switzerland right before Watches & Wonders, the party was a who's who of the industry's top players. The response from much of the (very online) watch community outside the event, however, seemed like they were out for blood. And Pierre Biver, at only 23 years old and in the spotlight more than ever, wasn't running from that.

"You know, some things people were criticizing I can totally understand and we deserve that," says Pierre. "For instance, because of the short timeline and expectations from the press for images, we used lots of 3D renderings which don't do the watch justice. We also didn't necessarily take the time to properly communicate about the watch – some things were left unsaid or poorly explained. There are certainly a few things we would have done differently and to be very honest, I think some of the criticism or the commentaries we are receiving are actually super constructive. But there's also there's a lot of noise."

There were memes and complaints circulating nearly immediately on Instagram from an audience who – some of which would likely admit – were probably not the target audience for a $570,000 watch. Some of the debate centered around that very point – what should a watch be when that costs so much? What does it mean when a new brand starts at that price? Is the brand just capitalizing off of one of the most important names in watches, the industry legend Jean-Claude Biver who was the other co-founder behind the brand? Is anyone actually going to buy this watch?

With a bit more tact and deference, I put these questions to the two. Jean-Claude and Pierre were unfazed and surprisingly receptive. Especially as someone wildly considered a marketing genius who formerly led Blancpain, Omega, TAG Heuer, Hublot, and eventually all of watches at LVMH, and in the world where a "Hello" from a CEO at a top brand sometimes amounts to an interview, Jean-Claude Biver was remarkably candid.

"If I were to have any doubts it would be whether we made the right decision to release our most complicated watch first," the elder Biver told me at an event at their U.S. retailer Material Good in New York two weeks ago. "We have both a three-hand watch and chronograph in the coming months and I think people will be impressed. But people wanted to see what we could do and I think they would have been disappointed if the first thing we did after a year was something simple."

No small portion of the shocked response to the watch can be chalked up to a combination of what a lot of people – myself included – saw as unexpected decisions. The hyper-modern design – highly polished titanium, stone dials, sharp angles, and an incredibly uniquely faceted bracelet – was a surprise to me and probably a lot of others who expected to see a more traditional Blancpain-esque design.

Instead, the Bivers created something that came closer in vibes to a sort of grand complication Hublot – futuristic but immediately recognizably a watch unlike some other hyper-modern designs – with a touch of 2008 Jaeger-LeCoultre's obsession with combining complications that resulted in things like the Reverso Gyrotourbillon 2 and more recently the Hybris Mechanica. While an ability to execute complications is certainly still important and en vogue, the market seems to have settled on demand for one good complication at a reasonable price. Where the market zigged, Bivers zagged.

I've been curious if this is Pierre's youthful modern vision or something deep within Jean-Claude's personal tastes that only finally came to the surface when he was able to break free of the "guard rails" of corporate art directors that tried to keep him (and their brands) on track. This is, as he himself put it, Jean-Claude Biver's "swan song."

"That's something that not many people truly understand about my father. You cannot control him," says Pierre Biver. "Even at the brands where he's worked, it may have seemed like they were safeguards, but it was always that way. He put lots of himself into all the brands. If you take Zenith or even TAG Heuer at the time he was there, you could feel his role."

"He brought that with him and now we're doing something that is maybe too different from what people expected," he admits. "People were expecting either something very classic or something very modern. Working with my father and the relationship we have and the way we work today, it's hard to differentiate from one another. I cannot tell you anymore whose idea was what. But today we're actually in a sweet spot of what we think an iconic traditional watch look like if it was made today."

The movement – in theory – draws inspiration from Jean-Claude Biver's early career mentorship by Jacques Piguet whose father Louis Elisée Piguet was one of history's greatest watchmakers and a master of complications. In fact, Blancpain later cut the bells for their minute repeaters in L.E. Piguet's attic. The brand says that "sound, memory, and movement" are three essential parts of what they hope to achieve. The Carillon Tourbillon checks the "sound" box while a future perpetual calendar that "remembers" the date and a chronograph that tracks "movement" are in the works. There are also a number of very "New-Age" references in their press materials talking about interconnectedness and the supposed powers of the stones chosen for dials.

In practice, the movement was developed by Cercle des Horlogers in Les Hauts-Geneveys near Neuchatel with other movements in development from Dubois Dépraz. The design was done in coordination with the company M-Design founded by Miodrag Mijatovic and his product design manager Philippe Girard, who Jean-Claude has worked with since his days at Blancpain.

But despite the announcement, these elements aren't set in stone. Pierre Biver told me that they're still working on sourcing the best gongs for the repeater and fine-tuning the hammers and their trajectory for the best possible sound. They hope to have these adjustments sorted out by mid-May so the company can be up to full production (at first 12 watches per year but up to 20 if they are able to increase staffing) by September.

More than ”just” a carillon repeater (itself a step up from a “simple” repeater with “only” two gongs), the watch features a tourbillon (which has almost become a throwaway perfunctory addition to complicate a watch) with titanium and, even setting aside the inclusion of a micro-rotor for winding, you have a combination of complications few brands are doing today. Carl F. Bucherer makes a triple-peripheral tourbillon minute repeater (and no carillon) for CHF 380,000. Patek has made a few as well over the years like the ref. 3939 or 5303J (also not carillons) exceeding CHF 600,000.

Alongside "sound, memory, and movement" the Bivers talked about "love, memory, and evolution" in their press materials and even waxed on about the symbolism of the watch. In fact, Jean-Claude started the entire keynote presentation of the watch with an examination of his past in the industry and explaining the brand being the "last five minutes" of a 50-year career.

My taste for a watch that might have a bit more warmth of character, nor the emphasis on these more esoteric philosophical thoughts, isn't material to whether the watch delivers on what it sets out to do: a hyper-technical representation of the Biver family's love of watchmaking and vision for pushing it forward. While I think it's a bit extreme to imagine that the inclusion of a micro-rotor makes this a "daily wearer" as they promise, I assume it's possible. To that point, I general couldn't refute eithers' statements to me about where the watch excels or point to any way that the watch doesn't fulfill their stated goals.

I also realize at this point that nothing I say will change the hearts and minds of people determined to dislike it, but after seeing and wearing the watch multiple times (on multiple occasions and on multiple continents) and with time enough to think about the watch divorced from the online feedback or personal conversations, its worth sharing some real, honest, in-person thoughts about wearability and finishing.

When I put the watch on, it was for me hard to deny that it wears well. Pierre Biver told me they took inspiration from the lugs on the vintage Patek ref. 2499 and the way they drop down and, alongside the flat sapphire caseback, allow the watch to hug the wrist better despite its 13.7mm thickness. And that's not all that thick compared to even some chronographs on the market, all while providing 50m water resistance. The concave caseback, bezel, and case flank also give the watch a bit of taper. The bracelet also wears very comfortably, with an interesting five-link design where each link is faceted and sloped, a kind of scalene triangle with a long side that drops off quickly before it meets the next link. All of this makes for a both visually interesting and comfortably wearing watch.

The visual interplay of light is key to the design. The case surfaces transition from high-polish titanium (with pink gold on the two-tone model) to satin polishing accentuating visual contrast. It's not a subtle watch. That's not even a debate, especially with all the flash from the case.

I also don't think you can earnestly debate that it's finished anything less than immaculately. On the backside, the white gold bridges are black-polished and grained, with some blasted finishing underneath. The two-tone rose gold and titanium watch gives a better view of some of the movement works and shows all the parts of the watch are incredibly finished, even when you can't see them. The stone dials – themselves only 0.6mm thick wafers of domed sodalite or silver obsidian hardstone – take inspiration from vintage domed dials but with an extra level of meticulousness, even the back side of the dial is finished.

The name on the dial – in a font that is distinctly "Blancpain" – has each individual letter applied by hand and not as a group. The indexes are more modern and curved while the dauphine hands are modernized as well with planed crests, polished angles, and a satin-finished top surface. Though I didn't get to photograph it, the gem-set model has a nearly entirely diamond-encrusted case that includes the area under the minute repeater slide so that you never have to go without diamonds when you listen to the carillon chime on your $1,315,000 watch.

Jean-Claude Biver's personal prototype, in titanium with a dark stone dial, will also be auctioned off at a Phillips Auction (once further fine-tuned). Paul Boutros, Head of Watches for the Americas for Phillips, also spoke highly of the finishing of the watch after spending over an hour examining it in his office. Jean-Claude has made a point that this level of finishing is what you should expect on Biver watches moving forward. But if anyone thinks that they aren't listening to feedback, you couldn't be more wrong.

"From people with a lot of experience in the watch space and that have had the watch in hand, we just have great, constructive feedback and we're actually going to improve things based on it," Pierre says. "Some of the criticism that we've actually already worked with is to change the base plate from sandblasted to hand-pearled by hand to get a bit more shine. On the fork pallet, we will do a better job on the anglage. On the escapement wheel, we'll try and angle it as well. We will continue improving the integration of the bracelet and the sharpness of the case. But overall we are super happy with our client's reception and take that feedback into account to make the best watch possible."

That's not to say Pierre has any concern about the price.

"You cannot criticize the price without explaining why," says Pierre. "If you say 'movement construction is weak. The dials don't match the level of the price you're asking,' then yes, you've actually contributed to the conversation. Some of that might be unjustified and some of it might be totally right. We're taking it into account."

But the reception from actual buyers has proven that price is not a concern. I'm certainly not in the market for a half-million-dollar watch but those people are certainly out there. There are enough of them, in fact, that four days after the announcement of the Biver's first watch – at a production of only 12 watches a year – they had sold through two years of production. Yoni Ben Yahuda, Head of Watches at Material Good, told me that they've already sold a significant portion of their allocation.

Before we parted ways Pierre pulled out his phone and showed me renderings of some incredibly interesting and futuristic movement designs that are soon to follow from the brand. The goal for the company is to produce no more than 50 of the Carillon Tourbillon before phasing this first edition out for their next three pieces. In fact, it sounds like there's at least a decade of planned watches already in the works. First is a more straightforward three-hand movement planned for 2024 with what sounds like hopefully a more reasonable (albeit still very luxury-positioned) price. Next, in 2025 is an incredibly interesting-looking chronograph with a movement architecture that was hard to wrap my head around. All of this got me very excited about the future of Biver watches.

It just goes to emphasize that when it comes to the Biver Carillon Tourbillion, what I saw didn't lack in quality, it just surprised me on a lot of different levels, from shattered preconceptions to what Jean-Claude Biver envisions for his legacy in watch form to what is possible with one year to design and build a watch. With more time now, but certainly no less pressure, I'm interested to see what comes next because it certainly looks very, very cool.