Innovation
SJX's insightful report introduces Carl F. Bucherer as an 'outsider brand' with ambitious plans, backed by the formidable Bucherer Group. The article highlights the brand's unique Swiss-German identity and its strategic acquisition of THA SA, now CFB Technologies, to develop innovative in-house movements. This piece is particularly valuable for understanding the brand's strategic direction and the technical prowess behind its Caliber A1000.
Located in Lucerne, Carl F. Bucherer owned by Bucherer, one of Switzerland's oldest watch retailers, but run as an independent company. The parent Bucherer Group is a huge enterprise with revenues exceeding CHF500 million, making it one of the largest retailers in the world and also a strong backer for the Carl F. Bucherer brand. Bucherer had always sold its own line of watches, but Carl F. Bucherer is its most ambitious attempt to conquer the global market. The brand is now distributed worldwide and has a significant presence in Greater China, which is its largest market.
Carl F. Bucherer is headquartered in Lucerne, a highly unusual location for a watch company. The reason behind it is simple - the Bucherer Group, is also based in Lucerne. Also notable is the fact that company is largely Swiss-German; the Bucherer family is Swiss-German and the Bucherer retail chain is also strong in German-speaking markets, Switzerland, Germany and Austria.
When I met them yesterday, I noticed both the CEO, Thomas Morf, and David Vallata, Regional Market Director (Asia), were speaking Swiss-German. So I posed the question to Mr Morf, given its location and culture, does he see Bucherer as an outsider, apart from the rest of the largely French-speaking industry?
Indeed it is, according to Mr Morf. "We are away from envy and gossip," he says. In his candid style, Mr Morf also notes that it is an advantage being Swiss-German; the brand's relationships with suppliers are very strong and he says with a touch of humour, "French-speaking suppliers like doing business with us because we are reliable".
Mr Morf has ambitious plans for the brand, which last year unveiled the innovative Cal. A1000 in-house automatic movement. Carl F. Bucherer took over Techniques Horlogères Appliquées (THA) SA in St Croix last year to beef up its development and manufacturing capabilities. Now renamed CFB Technologies, THA was founded by Vianney Halter, Francois-Paul Journe and Denis Flageollet, and is now Carl F. Bucherer's technical development and manufacturing arm.
In my conversations with Messrs Morf and Vallata, it was made clear that the goal is for Carl. F Bucherer to produce innovative but reliable watches that are relatively accessible - no half-million dollar multi-axis tourbillons are in the pipeline. The current Carl F. Bucherer product line is attractive but not yet world-beating and outstanding. That could change with the new in-house movement and resulting calibres derived from it.
The brand's best selling model is the Patravi TravelTec (above), a triple timezone chronograph which both gentlemen were wearing. The movement is an ETA2894 modular chronograph with an in-house timezone plate added. The case and dial were well done, and while the complication is impressive I am unsure it if is convenient to use given that it appears very complex.
However, the highlight of the afternoon was the Cal. A1000. I went to see the calibre because the day before I received an phone call from Dr Bernard Cheong who told me I absolutely had to take a look; when Bernard says you gotta see something, whether you like it or not it will surely be interesting. More on the movement below.
- SJX
This message has been edited by SJX on 2008-10-21 04:28:05The placement of the power gathering pinion off to the edge, away from the centre is of incredible significance. This will be the very first movement to do it. Complex and beautiful stuff can be placed over the movement to bring us all sorts of wonderful watches. Soon, others may either copy this, or convey interest with CFB to make such movements for them. I examined this A1000, and I was VERY impressed. NOW...I had a GLIMPSE of what the watch will be like....and I can say one thing...think RM0
Hello Bernard, I'm gonna have to disagree strongly with your observations about the significance and particularly "innovation" of using a peripherally mounted rotor. Citizen attempted this in the '60s with little success and so did Patek Philippe (Cal. 350 I believe) and it just doesn't work very well. The problem is that you are basically putting all of the friction and even the working load (the geared engagement) of the oscillating mass far from the center of its rotation, as if attempting to
Thanks for the note, John. Looking for some standard test references instead qualitative statements on many PR materials. Kong This message has been edited by Kong on 2008-10-19 02:21:55
Hi Kong, There may be quantitative tests used by engineering schools or other disinterested organizations to measure the efficiency of an automatic winding mechanism, but I am not aware of them or what they would involve. One can only assume that different manufacturers do have testing criteria they use to determine the relative efficiency of competing designs during the R&D and prototyping phases of movement development, but how "good" they might be and how much variety may exist from one manuf
John, As a watchmaker I appreciate your technical input and I raise similar concerns though I would like to see the Bucherer movement in my hands to reach any definitive conclusions. But, I've attached a photo I stitched together of three different automatic rotor systems for comparison and discussion. One is the PP calibre 350 you already mentioned, another is the Longines calibre 340 with its outer geared track, and the Perrelet company celebrated double-rotor movement. All three have one crit
Hi Jack, I also would like to see the Bucherer movement in person, but it would take some kind of quantitative testing or substantial anecdotal reporting from wearers and watchmakers working on the movement to convince me of how ell it actually works. I've never personally had a close look at the Perrelet design so I appreciate learning a little more about it. The Longines is an interesting case since it divides the bearing surfaces from the geared interaction, but it's unclear whether the advan
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