Jean-Claude Biver Announces His Namesake Watch

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After a half-century in the industry, Jean-Claude Biver remains a magnet for attention. When he speaks, people listen. And that can be a problem.

Biver is quite the talker – easily excitable and prone to exaggeration. The man can get ahead of himself. Take, for instance, his interview last year with Radio Télévision Suisse (RTS) where he announced (and we broke the news in English) that he would be starting a new brand under his own name. An hour and a half later, a lawyer in Geneva registered for the trademark and apparently held it hostage, because Biver hadn't registered for it yet.

JCB holding court.

A little over a year later, the day before Watches & Wonders 2023 – and with his 22-year-old son Pierre at his side to dryly fact-check his grandiose claims – Biver announced his first eponymous watch at a farmhouse atelier in the small town of Givrins, 30 minutes outside Geneva.

The event was a mix of luxury and spectacle, replete with passed foie gras, a cake festooned with sparklers, and Porsches stuck in the mud of the rain-drenched farm lawn. But in the end, in front of a crowd of 150 assembled collectors and industry luminaries, a watch was finally revealed.

The Carillion Tourbillon Biver.

The watch is called the "Carillion Tourbillon Biver." It features, among other things, a tourbillon, carillon minute repeater, and microrotor, with multiple options of stone dials. The watch you see above is JC Biver's prototype pièce unique, which he plans to auction off at Phillips.

In September, you'll be able to buy your very own Carillon Tourbillon Biver in titanium, rose gold, or a wild two-tone of both – assuming that you have a spare 520,000 CHF. "Long after price has been forgotten," Biver insisted from the stage, "quality remains."

The tourbillion cage of the Carillion Tourbillon

The tourbillion cage and stone dial of the Carillion Tourbillon

The Bivers promised more watches of various complications and prices. One thing that will remain is an "exaggeration of the finishing," according to the patriarch. And this is what gives the watch its soulfulness: "We will never do a finishing where the soul stays inside the watch. The soul must be free."

We'll have more info on this release – and J.C. Biver's four-page long "seal" requirements for the watches to meet his own expectations – in the coming days, as we get hands-on time with the very few watches that have been made so far. For now, enjoy the scene as captured below.

The farmhouse that houses the Biver workshop in Givrins.

Biver is an adherent to the Japanese business philosophy of "Kaizen". In the entrance to the workshop is a suit of Japanese armor with a sign that, according to our colleagues at Hodinkee Japan, reads: 大鎧. O-yoroi or "Big armor." Which... seems very correct.

The scenery through the walls of the tent.

The pastoral scenery through the walls of the tent, which luckily held up against the torrential rain that fell off and on.

Pierre Jacques (CEO of De Bethune), with Edouard Meylan (of H. Moser, left) and Abdul Hamied Seddiqi (of Ahmed Seddiqi & Sons).

Meylan and Pierre Biver represent a younger generation of industry leadership. But the patriarch isn't quite done yet.

Edouard Meylan wearing an insane Vantablack piece by H. Moser.

The lefty Rolex GMT announced at last year's Watches & Wonders worn – SHOCKER – on the left hand!

Jean-Claude Biver was wearing one of the few working prototypes, this one to be auctioned at Phillips.

Davide Parmegiani (whom I consider to be the world's most important vintage watch dealer) dug into the press kit, which seemed to be about 300 pages long.

Our good friend and former colleague Logan Baker came correct with a Blancpain.

Pierre Biver has taken on a major role at the company and was the first to take the stage. He gamely played the straight man on stage with his freewheeling father.