Two years ago, Karl-Friedrich Scheufele, co-President of Chopard and President of Chronométrie Ferdinand Berthoud, announced the launch of ‘Naissance d’une Montre 3’. The Time AEon Foundation joins forces with Ferdinand Berthoud for a new adventure sharing the same values, their perpetual quest for the transmission of knowledge and training brings the two entities together for a common purpose.

Time AEon was founded by incredible watchmakers that include Robert Greubel, Stephen Forsey, Martial Fragnière, Laurent Bardet, Kari Voutilainen, Vianney Halter, and Philippe Dufour.

The goal of this project is to build a watch by hand and to encourage continuous internal training, a notion very dear to Karl-Friedrich Scheufele, Robert Greubel, and Stephen Forsey. Karl-Friedrich Scheufele appointed a number of departments of the Chopard group as well as a person responsible for acquiring the know-how necessary for the ‘Naissance d’une Montre 3’ project and for them to transmit it within their team.

‘Naissance d’une Montre 3’ will be able to transcribe the spirit and creativity of Ferdinand Berthoud’s groundbreaking 18th-century work into eleven wristwatches. Going against the flow of the current tendency to automate and industrialize, the synergies formed are seeking to produce a timepiece using only traditional, manual techniques just as it was done by Greubel Forsey with the ‘Naissance d’une Montre 1’ and by Urwerk’s Felix Baumgartner and Martin Frei with ‘Naissance d’une Montre 2’.

‘Naissance d’une Montre 3’ is above all the story of a meeting point between the past and the future, a story that focuses on spreading the know-how that will give birth to the vocations of tomorrow. This project with the Time AEon Foundation brings together artisans and apprentices in the group conformed by Chopard and Chronométrie Ferdinand Berthoud to pursue a common goal: ensuring that the art of watchmaking lives on.

The first stage of this project unveiled the chain and fusee mechanism, a hallmark of Ferdinand Berthoud’s work on timekeeping for the French Navy in the eighteenth century.

Now, in this second stage, Ferdinand Berthoud presents the tools and machines required to carry out a project of this scope, bearing in mind the strict criteria inherent in work performed by hand. There’s no point in trying to keep an art alive unless it can also be passed on to the next generation, but doing so is easier said than done. The art of Fine Watchmaking is sedimentary in nature, developed over the course of centuries. Knowledge is built up, often passed on, but sometimes lost. Restoring such knowledge is not an idle pursuit; it’s a duty and a responsibility.

The ‘Naissance d’une Montre 3’ project is now embarking on its third stage with Chronométrie Ferdinand Berthoud, part of the Chopard Group. The timepiece born out of this initiative is due to emerge in three years’ time, in 2024. Just 11 watches will be made and the workshop that took two years in the making is already operational.

The aim of the ‘Naissance d’une Montre 3’ project is to recover the legendary tricks of the trade and pass them on to today’s watchmakers, most of whom work on digitally-operated machines. The timepiece’s calibre will be designed in line with the capabilities of legacy machines —rather than the other way round, as is the case in mass-produced contemporary watchmaking. Historic tools and machinery have been installed in the Chopard Manufacture in Fleurier. Five pieces of equipment dating from the 1950s and 1960s have been brought together in a new venue designed to promote artisanal work: the ‘Hand Made’ space. Within this facility, at present wholly given over to the ‘Naissance d’une Montre 3’ project, Chronométrie Ferdinand Berthoud’s watchmakers and decorators rub shoulders with other Craftsmen practicing arts such as enameling and hand-engraving.

The equipment includes a 1960 Schaublin 102 Lathe, used to fashion circular components: shafts, fusees, pillars, pinions, gears, barrel drums, pins, winding stems, screws, and the like. A 1960 SIP jig boring machine has been enlisted for boring, milling, drilling, grinding, and tapping operations on various components: rockers, levers, base plates, wheel platforms, bridges, and springs. The cutting tools include an Ewag machine with a diamond grinding wheel, to be used for the hardest materials.

For all the processes involved, the experts from the firm’s different departments will use only tools that are themselves also custom-built and handmade. An Aciera F3 milling machine will be used to produce and fit this equipment.

The 11 timepieces to be created through these ancient watchmaking techniques will be presented in 2024 as the culmination of this project.

For more info on Ferdinand Berthoud click here.