With the debut of this year’s Patravi TravelTec II, Carl F. Bucherer celebrates not only the tenth anniversary of the firm’s TravelTec model, but also a decade of innovation that could just be the busiest ten years of this independent Lucerne-based watch manufacturer’s 127-year history.
It’s true that Carl F. Bucherer’s legacy already glows with technical and aesthetic advances, but since the company debuted its first TravelTec in 2005 it has ramped up its manufacturing abilities to now include six movements developed in-house from its initial base caliber, while at the same time creating its first diver’s models, its premiere tourbillon watches replica and a much broader set of watches replica made especially for women.
Let’s look first at the firm’s ongoing expansion of in-house movement making, which began in earnest eight years ago when it acquired the manufacture THA (Téchniques Horlogères Appliquées) in nearby Sainte-Croix and incorporated the movement research and development company into Carl F. Bucherer Technologies, thus furthering the brand’s long-voiced ambition of becoming a movement manufacturer.
From the start of its quest to develop in-house calibers, Carl F. Bucherer and its designers set a few goals. The company ruled out the idea of copying an existing automatic movement, even if it was no longer protected by patent. Also, the designers wanted to retain well-known, highly reliable technologies like a classic caliber regulatory system, a Swiss club-tooth lever escapement and a traditional going train with jeweled bearings.
But these seemingly sensible designers imposed one more caveat that, in retrospect, could have derailed their scheme entirely, or at least set back the development timeline by years: They demanded an open view of all the movement’s gears, wheels and bridges.
Such a requirement for an automatic caliber could have resulted in the use of a micro-rotor, which in recent decades has been successfully developed by many well-known Swiss watch brands. Instead, Carl F. Bucherer chose to head down a far less traveled route. To reach its open caseback goal, Carl F. Bucherer opted to develop a peripheral rotor, which is an oscillating weight that spins around the movement’s main bridges and gearing.
Peripheral rotor technology prior to Carl F. Bucherer’s attention to the design is conspicuous by its absence. Several independent watchmakers have worked with peripheral rotors, as have several larger brands, including Citizen and Patek Philippe, which decades ago offered timepieces with such technology. Carl F. Bucherer reports that as it started to work on the in-house caliber project a decade ago its designers were aware that any new movement design with such a rotor would have to be almost entirely new. In addition, any design would need to overcome an inherent weakness to shock that seemed to affect such rotors in the past, inhibiting their development elsewhere.
Caliber CFB A1000
As iW readers likely know, Carl F. Bucherer in 2008 met its goals, producing CFB A1000, today generally considered the first modern peripheral automatic rotor made in series by a Swiss watch manufacturer.
The firm indeed built the caliber from the ground up, installing their solution to the problem of vulnerability to shock with a wholly new system called the Dynamic Shock Absorption (DSA) system – which has been registered for patent. The rotor bearing in the CFB A1000, and in all Carl F. Bucherer calibers made since, is built to withstand strong shocks by means of DLC-coated rollers, which are themselves mounted on ball bearings. The latter, which are made of ceramic, make the system virtually maintenance free. To this day, the CFB A1000 remains the cornerstone of the manufacturing expertise of Carl F. Bucherer.
The development of our own caliber established our position within an elite and exclusive group of watch manufacturers who design, develop and produce their own movements in-house, notes Carl F. Bucherer CEO Sascha Moeri. For me personally, our own calibers are further tangible proof of our vast expertise in the field of genuine craftsmanship and high-grade technology, which is essential to Carl F. Bucherer.
What’s more, numerous other Swiss watch firms have explored their own peripheral rotor winding technology in the years since the CFB A1000 debut, with designs seen at Cartier, Audemars Piguet and Breguet, among others. This activity further underlines the forward-thinking nature of Carl F. Bucherer designers as they started the in-house caliber project.
Since it debuted, the CFB A1001 has become the root caliber from which Carl F. Bucherer has built numerous timepieces, each with specific functions. Among the most recent is CFB A1011, the heart of the Manero PowerReserve, which is engineered to display the remaining power reserve almost exactly on the dial. An indicator in the three-o’clock position shows precisely when the reserve is going to reach zero. Other additions to the initial design include indications for day of the week, seconds, big date and, in the Patravi Calendar, the week of the year—a rarely seen complication.
New Models
As you can see throughout this story, Carl F. Bucherer’s latest timepieces range from the one-of-a-kind Manero Chronoperpetual Onlywatch, which was set for auction last month in a charity benefit, to delicate ladies Pathos watches replica with newly fashioned rose gold cases.
The firm’s Patravi ScubaTec, now available in rose gold, is a best seller in the United States, and this year was the subject of a special edition collection sold to benefit oceanographic research of the Manta Trust. And of course our cover subject, the Patravi TravelTec II now features a large, sporty case that measures 47.4mm in diameter and a chronometer-rated caliber.
The Patravi TravelTec II features a built in complication that allows the simultaneous display of three time zones, along with a chronograph function. The date can be adjusted forward or backward for easy setting. The third time zone on this unique watch is applied to the bezel, which features a second 24-hour scale.
On its caseback you’ll see a timezone sun that shows the hour differences in twenty-four cities. Though this design is there for aesthetic reasons (as the watch isn’t a world timer) it does give the brand a chance to call attention to its hometown of Lucerne, which is accented in black.
Lucerne is where Carl F. Bucherer is currently preparing to launch new models —including a new caliber—at Baselworld 2016 in March. iW will report on this development on iwmagazine.com directly from the Baselworld show floor as soon as it happens.