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The latest opus by Ferdinand Berthoud
The Naissance d’une Montre (Birth of a watch) 3, dedicated "au temps qui instruit" ("to time, the great teacher"), in the words of Louis Berthoud, Ferdinand Berthoud’s nephew, is a horological heritage project, which has given birth after six years of work to a wristwatch officially chronometer-certified by the COSC and handcrafted using traditional tools, without digital assistance.
To bring the project to fruition, a collection of vintage machine tools from the 1950s and 1960s were regrouped in a single area within the Manufacture in Fleurier: the Atelier Tradition. This entity encompasses a small team of micro-mechanical engineers responsible for producing the movement components without the use of computer numerical control (CNC) machines.
credit: @yohann_martinez
Naissance d’une Montre 3 is an 11-piece limited-edition chronometer. The very first and only one of the series, featuring a stainless steel case, will be auctioned by Phillips in association with Bacs & Russo in November 2025. The next ten, made of 18-carat ethical gold, will be produced at a rate of two per year starting in 2026.
The watch, deeply rooted in the heritage of the Master Watchmaker Ferdinand Berthoud, features a constant force via a fusee-and-chain transmission system, a bimetallic balance, a central seconds hand and an open structure.
credit: @yohann_martinez
Inspired by Ferdinand Berthoud's Astronomical Watch No. 3, the 44 mm-diameter, 13 mm-thick case features curved sides, a wide fluted and engraved crown, a domed glass, a concave bezel and welded lugs.
credit: Ferdinand Berthoud
The balance of the Calibre FB-BTC.FC (an acronym for “Balancier Thermo-Compensé et Fusée-Chaîne", meaning "thermo-compensated balance and fusee-and-chain mechanism”) returns to the essence of classic regulators from a century ago: it is a bimetallic Guillaume-type thermo-compensated split balance made of Invar and brass material. It is equipped with four gold adjustment screws (for regulating the rate), two nickel silver adjustment nickel silver weights on the split rim (for regulating thermal compensation) and two fixed weights ensuring the inertia of the balance.
credit: @yohann_martinez & Ferdinand Berthoud
The maxim from Louis Berthoud ("au temps qui instruit" / "to time, the great teacher") is hand-engraved on the back of the movement
credit: @yohann_martinez & Ferdinand Berthoud
To learn more about this timepiece, please read the following official presentation page.
credit: Art in Time & Ferdinand Berthoud
credit: Art in Time & Ferdinand Berthoud
Review by Monochrome Watches
Thanks for reading.
Best, Emmanuel
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The latest opus by Ferdinand Berthoud
The Naissance d’une Montre ( Birth of a watch) 3 , dedicated " au temps qui instruit " (" to time, the great teacher "), in the words of Louis Berthoud , Ferdinand Berthoud’s nephew, is a horological heritage project , which has given birth after six year...
Yes, fascinating and I couldn’t agree more concerning
the resemblance with the Tradition line. But more fascinating than fully attractive for me, because of the open dial. Best, Emmanuel
Open dials don’t speak to me.
Or only very rarely. Just my taste of course, nothing wrong with them. But I much prefer a solid dial and the magic on the back.
Yes, a visual feast.
I would prefer the magic to be on the back only (with a solid dial), but it’s just me of course. Best, Emmanuel
Much like the GF Handmade 1, with this much work going into a watch, it might be considered a crime to hide any of it!
Previous Naissance watches have also followed a similar architecture. Regards, Baruch
Yes, true, I understand the argument.
It’s just that I see such a watch as a museum piece more than as a watch I would enjoy wearing. Best, Emmanuel
Price and availability:
Limited edition : 10 pieces in 18k white gold; 1 in stainless steel Availability : At boutiques and retailers Price : White gold – CHF850,000 excluding taxes Steel – to be auctioned for charity at Phillips’ The Geneva Watch Auction: XXII on November 8-9, ...
Actually fyi there is no availability…
They are all sold out. So the only one that remains “available” is the steel version that will go for auction at Phillips in November 😉
I've seen this information, indeed!
But open dials don't speak to me, so luckily I wasn't planning to try to acquire one! 😁
Love this brand...beautiful and it looks like a manageable size.
...my one nitpick is the hour/minute disk. 05, 10, 15, etc. are not necessary. The Roman numerals could have been pushed to the out side. And the hour/minute hands could b a bit more prominent. It is a timekeeping device, after all : )
It is very faithful to the Astronomical Watch No. 3, though.
For me, the problem is the open dial here, which condemns the time-telling subdial to be small.
Open dials are overdone...
...even by companies that have movements beautiful enough to show off. And often times the time-keeping dial is relegated to 2nd or third priority...
Exactly...and most open dials negate the entire purpose of the watch...reading the time...
...of course, these days watches have very little point other than ornamental and bragging rights.
OMG SO MUCH WORK 😮 The design doesn't really resonate with me but the shear amount of work / components is incredible to the point where I question the point of it all.
Is a chain with each individual link made by hand valuable? I mean, it's a crazy thing, but also at the end of the day it's just a chain, was hand cutting dozens of identical links worthy of hundreds of artisan hours? There's a ton of engraving for the di...
I think they just wanted to go absolutely nuts with 0 restrictions and see where they ended up
I love it. Apparently already sold out?
Yes the ten gold watches have apparently already been sold.
The steel one remains to be sold at auction in November. I think Scheufele and FB wanted to make a huge statement and it’s impressive indeed. But not really attractive to me because I’ve never been fond of open dials. Best, Emmanuel
I guess it's a bargain compared to a Handmade 1 or 2 😂
I'm not even upset at the price tbh, I just feel bad for the poor guy that had to make that chain for days, weeks, months?
He was certainly
carried by the idea that he was participating in a great project with the aim to make a big statement setting FB very high in the hierarchy of watchmaking.
I find your thoughts very interesting.
It seems all about making a statement and showing how far they can go. And I really respect that. But the result isn’t really attractive to me, mainly because I’m personally not fond of open dials. Thanks for sharing your views. Best, Emmanuel