Credits: Article and images by Wei Koh @ Revolution Watch Magazine. See the original article here - https://revolutionwatch.com/biver-watches-carillon-tourbillon-biver/
The first thing that father and son immediately shared was that their brand would be an expression of neoclassical watchmaking. In many ways, the project would transport Jean-Claude Biver 40 years into the past, when he first embarked on the resurrection of Blancpain in partnership with the legendary Jacques Piguet. What they would achieve between 1983 and 1992 was unprecedented in horology. Within just nine years, they would have a massive role in the renaissance of mechanical watchmaking. But then, in 1992, Biver would sell the brand to the Swatch Group.
He admits, “I don’t think I’ve ever said this publicly before, but I have always regretted selling Blancpain. So why did I do it? I was going through my divorce of my first wife. It was the first time I had ever failed at anything. Before that, I had always had success. Success in sports, in business and even with women. But this was truly demoralizing. Just a few years before, I felt I had been on top of the world.
“Probably, for me, the high point was when I closed my factory and took all of my employees on a trip to Naples. There, we went to look at the micro-mosaics at the National Archaeological Museum to understand that from the beginning of time, man was able to express such incredible beauty through his mind and his hands. This was the beauty that we transmitted to our watches. When I came back, I received a long scroll signed by every one of my employees that pledged to work five Sundays in return for the seven days that I had given them for the trip. I was immensely touched by this. But, in sharp contrast, a few years later, while going through my divorce, I fell into a depression and I stopped going to the office. One day, my friend who sat on my board of directors, said to me, ‘Either you snap out of it and you come back to this office or you should sell the company, because there are some people interested to purchase it.’ Before I knew it, I instinctively said, ‘Go ahead and sell it.’ A few days later, he called me up and told me that he had organized the sale to Mr. Hayek of the Swatch Group. It didn’t take me long to realize that this would become one of my greatest regrets.
Blancpain was the brand in the ’80s that revived mechanical and complicated watchmaking. In less than a decade, we had mastered every known complication, and some of the movements we made, such as the ultra thin column wheel, vertical clutch caliber 1185, are still amongst the best today. I would sometimes wonder what would life be like if I had never sold and continued in the tradition of classical watchmaking, which is truly where my heart lies.”
So when it came time to create his eponymous brand, Jean-Claude Biver already had over 30 years of thinking about the type of watches he wanted to create.
Credits: Article and images by Wei Koh @ Revolution Watch Magazine. See the original article here - https://revolutionwatch.com/biver-watches-carillon-tourbillon-biver/
