Handcrafted mechanics occupy a unique space in contemporary watchmaking. Where industrial precision delivers flawless uniformity, the artisan’s touch introduces something different, imperfection becomes individuality, variation becomes character. The Naissance d’une Montre 3 from Chronométrie Ferdinand Berthoud exists at this intersection of past and present, where every component carries the fingerprint of its maker. This watch refuses compromise. Requiring 11,000 hours of dedicated work, each component shaped without digital intervention. The first example, housed in stainless steel, will find its owner through Phillips in association with Bacs & Russo this November 2025, with the remaining ten in 18-carat ethical gold following at a pace of two per year from 2026.
Ferdinand Berthoud: The Master Watchmaker and His Legacy
Ferdinand Berthoud was born on 18th March 1727 in Plancemont-sur-Couvet, in the heart of the Val-de-Travers region. His trajectory from this Swiss valley to the corridors of French power charts the path of 18th-century horological excellence. By 1753, Berthoud had achieved master watchmaker status in Paris. His work soon captured royal attention.
In 1760, Berthoud presented his Mémoire sur les principes de construction d’une Horloge de Marine to the French Royal Academy of Sciences, describing Marine Clock No. 1. The presentation of Marine Clock No. 8 would cement his reputation, after 18 months at sea, the chronometer showed an error of merely 1.35 minutes. This achievement was staggering for the era. In 1770, King Louis XV bestowed upon him the title “Horologist-Mechanic by appointment to the King and the Navy”.
His marine chronometers equipped French vessels during critical expeditions. When the corvette Isis departed for Santo Domingo in 1768, two Berthoud chronometers underwent trials across 18 months. Marine Chronometer No. 8 allowed position determination accurate to half a degree. Such precision enabled France to expand its maritime holdings across the Caribbean, North Africa and India.
Berthoud’s contributions extended beyond construction. In 1773, he published his Traité des horloges marines, a comprehensive text detailing every element required to build a marine clock. This treatise established him alongside John Harrison and Pierre Le Roy as the defining figures in marine chronometry. His 1802 work, Histoire de la Mesure du temps, demonstrated his exceptional understanding of horological mechanics.
His nephew Louis Berthoud (1754-1813) continued the family tradition. In 1812, Louis published Entretiens sur l’horlogerie à l’usage de la Marine, documenting his teachings to students entrusted to him by the government. Louis concluded with the maxim “AU TEMPS QUI INSTRUIT”, dedicated to time, the great teacher. This phrase, hand-engraved on the movement back of Naissance d’une Montre 3, connects past and present.
The modern incarnation of Chronométrie Ferdinand Berthoud emerged from Karl-Friedrich Scheufele’s passion. As co-president of Chopard, Scheufele discovered that Ferdinand Berthoud was born merely minutes from Fleurier, where Chopard Manufacture operates. In 2006, when the opportunity arose to acquire rights to the Berthoud name, Scheufele secured them. The brand launched in 2015, coinciding with the Naissance d’une Montre 3 presentation marking the manufacture’s tenth anniversary.
The Naissance d’une Montre Initiative: Preserving Endangered Skills
The Naissance d’une Montre project originated in 2007 from alarming observations by Robert Greubel, Stephen Forsey and Philippe Dufour, all Time Æon Foundation members. Industrialisation and automation threatened traditional watchmaking skills with extinction. They resolved to act.
The Time Æon Foundation was established in 2005 by Greubel, Forsey, Dufour, Vianney Halter and Kari Voutilainen. Its objectives encompass indexing endangered crafts, preserving skills associated with watchmaking excellence, protecting horological heritage, and supporting training for future independent watchmakers.
The first chapter, Naissance d’une Montre 1, launched in 2009. Greubel, Forsey and Dufour selected Michel Boulanger, a French watchmaking professor at Lycée technique Diderot in Paris, as their student. Over six years, Boulanger created a hand-wound timepiece with tourbillon mechanism. The project officially launched at SIHH 2012. Christie’s Hong Kong auctioned the first prototype in May 2016 for USD 1.46 million. Ten subsequent pieces followed.
The second chapter involved Greubel, Forsey, Felix Baumgartner, Martin Frei, and two young watchmakers, Dominique Buser and Cyrano Devanthey of Oscillon. Six years from 2015 to 2021 produced a unique piece. The watch featured an inverted movement with constant-force barrel and unusual four-spoked balance. Buser and Devanthey had restored vintage machine tools from the quartz crisis era, learning their operation from older watchmakers.
You might find interesting: Interview: David Bernard of Time Æon Foundation
Naissance d’une Montre 3 marks the third chapter, representing intense collaboration between Chronométrie Ferdinand Berthoud and Chopard artisans. This project drew upon expertise from over 80 specialists across different crafts and locations in Fleurier and Meyrin.
The Dial: Architecture and Execution
The Naissance d’une Montre 3 presents a radical departure: its entire movement structure remains visible from the dial side. This transparency forms the watch’s defining characteristic.
Two distinct dials occupy the composition, both hand-crafted from 18-carat white gold. The primary dial, displaying hours and minutes, positions itself off-centre between 1 and 2 o’clock. The secondary dial is a raised flange supported by pillars and traces the movement’s periphery and displays seconds.
The hours and minutes dial echoes Ferdinand Berthoud‘s Astronomical Pocket Watch No. 3. Roman numerals mark the hours, whilst Arabic numerals indicate minutes. This differentiation extends to the hands, the minute hand terminates in a bevelled tip, the hour hand features an arrow tip.
Dial construction involves numerous operations. Milling and turning establish the basic form. Marking defines the layout. Satin-brushing creates the surface texture, a circular pattern achieved through controlled abrasive action. This finish captures and diffuses light, producing subtle reflections that add depth without distraction.
Hand-engraving follows. The artisan employs a burin, a sharpened steel tool, to carve numerals and markers into the metal. This process demands extraordinary steadiness. The engraver traces the pattern first with a liner, then carefully incises the metal. Twenty different burin types might be employed to achieve precise shapes and sizes. Each stroke is irreversible. Any slip ruins the component, forcing the work to begin anew.
After engraving, the dial undergoes trimming and receives circular satin-finishing on its surface, whilst its sides are polished. Varnish protects the surface before the interiors of engraved numerals and markers are blackened through chemical deposition of a thin nickel layer. This treatment creates visual contrast, allowing the engraved elements to read clearly against the satin ground.
The spoked wheels are cut via milling on a jig boring machine, a 1960 SIP unit dedicated to reaming, milling, drilling, grinding and tapping operations. These alloy wheels receive interior angles, straight-graining, and fine circular satin-finishing before gilding and final cutting.
The flame-blued steel seconds hand occupies the movement’s centre. Measuring over 25mm in length with extreme thinness, this component requires unfailing concentration at every production stage. Nearly two full days are devoted to creating the hours hand alone: 54 micromechanical operations plus 13 dedicated to decoration. The seconds hand, once completed, must be driven into a long, thin 18-carat gold pipe.
Flame-bluing steel is a heat treatment process producing the characteristic blue colour. The steel component must be rigorously polished before heating and absolutely no grease can remain on the surface. The component is positioned on brass filings spread across a brass tray, then held over a flame. The tray moves in circular motion to ensure even heating. As temperature rises, the steel transitions through colours: straw, yellow, brown, purple, dark blue, blue, light blue, grey blue. The watchmaker must remove the component precisely when the desired blue appears, as cooling happens almost instantly and fixes the colour.
The power-reserve indicator, engraved directly on the mainplate, displays “0” and “1”. An arrow-tipped hand indicates the remaining energy.
The Movement: Calibre FB-BTC.FC
Calibre FB-BTC.FC, an acronym for Balancier Thermo-Compensé et Fusée-Chaîne, measures 37.50mm in diameter and 8.35mm thick. Despite the space occupied by the fusée and chain, the movement remains relatively compact. It operates at 21,600 vibrations per hour (3 Hz) and provides 50 hours of power reserve.
The movement architecture draws directly from Ferdinand Berthoud‘s Astronomical Pocket Watch No. 3, created in the early 19th century. This historical piece, completed by Jean Martin in 1806 following Berthoud’s 1775 design, featured a fusée and chain, four-arm compensation balance with bimetallic strips, and pivoted detent escapement.
The Fusée-and-Chain Transmission
The fusée-and-chain mechanism addresses a fundamental problem in mechanical watchmaking, the mainspring delivers varying torque as it unwinds. When fully wound, the spring generates maximum tension; as it relaxes, force diminishes. This fluctuation disrupts timekeeping precision.
The fusée operates on the lever principle. This cone-shaped component features a helical groove cut into its lateral surface. When the mainspring barrel is fully wound, the chain connects at the fusée’s narrow end, the shorter lever. As the spring loses energy, the chain travels toward the broader end, lengthening the lever. The increasing radius compensates for the waning torque, delivering constant force to the balance.
The chain in Calibre FB-BTC.FC measures 172mm in length and comprises 477 components, including a hook and 285 links. These links are thinner than those in other contemporary Ferdinand Berthoud constant-force movements. Each link is assembled by hand using 191 pins with a diameter not exceeding 0.30mm. The precision required cannot be overstated.
Unlike other FB calibres with fusée-and-chain systems, the FB-BTC.FC movement eschews differential gearing for winding. During normal operation, the barrel pulls the chain, rotating the fusée clockwise and providing energy to the watch. When manually winding, the fusée rotates counterclockwise, suspending power transmission to the finishing gear train. To prevent the watch from stopping during this operation, a winding pawl and auxiliary spring, both integrated into the fusée, provide torque enabling the movement to continue running for approximately 30 minutes.
The fusée employs a direct-drive stopwork system consisting of a robust cam and fingerpiece, based on a technical drawing by Abraham-Louis Breguet. The barrel features a traditional toothed ratchet system and pawl, allowing watchmakers to pre-tension the mainspring.
The Guillaume-Type Bimetallic Balance
The balance represents a chapter in technical history. This is a bimetallic Guillaume-type thermo-compensated split balance made of Invar and brass. It measures 12.56mm in diameter and comprises 18 components.
Temperature affects balance springs profoundly. The nickel-free steel alloy balance spring is particularly sensitive—when exposed to cold, the metal contracts and stiffens, increasing resistance and accelerating oscillation speed, causing the movement to gain time. Heat produces the opposite effect, the metal expands, reducing stiffness and slowing oscillation, causing the movement to lose time.
The bimetallic balance compensates through differential thermal expansion. Invar, developed by Charles-Édouard Guillaume (winner of the 1920 Nobel Prize for Physics), exhibits an exceptionally low coefficient of thermal expansion. Brass expands significantly with heat. When cold, the rims of the split balance open, increasing diameter and moment of inertia, slowing oscillation speed and creating delay. When warm, the balance rims close, causing gain. These effects counteract the temperature-induced changes in the balance spring.
The balance incorporates four 18-carat gold adjustment screws for regulating the rate, two adjustable gold-plated nickel silver weights on the split rim for regulating thermal compensation, and two fixed weights ensuring the balance’s inertia.
Each steel balance spring is custom-made for Naissance d’une Montre 3 before being blued, cut, pinned up to the collet, counted and centred by hand by the same specialist – a “timer”. The balance spring features a Phillips terminal curve. As bimetallic balances and their associated expertise have virtually disappeared, adjustment of each movement thus equipped constitutes a feat.
Adjusting a Guillaume balance demands extraordinary expertise and patience. Any adjustment for temperature compensation may upset the balance’s poise, requiring further adjustments to the balance spring attachment points or the poise, which in turn may affect temperature compensation. For observatory trials, watches might be adjusted for weeks or months before submission.
Shock Absorption and Jewelling
The movement incorporates 37 jewels and two genuine diamonds acting as endstones for the balance staff. Housed within shock absorbers specially developed for this timepiece, they protect the balance staff from breakage during accidental impacts. These diamonds are visible on both dial and caseback, recalling the historical heritage of the Astronomical Pocket Watch No. 3. The balance features a circular bridge supporting the shock absorber with diamond endstones front and back, identical to the arrangement in the Astronomical Watch No. 3.
Movement Finishing: Techniques and Execution
The movement reveals 13 bridges plus one mainplate in nickel silver. These are sandblasted: compressed air and fine-grained sand blasted against the metal, creating thousands of microscopic craters invisible to the naked eye. This produces a soft, matte surface that accentuates polished details. The technique creates subtle light reflections and intricate contrasts, lending an artisanal appearance.
Eleven steel pillars assemble the bridges and mainplate. These pillars are stylised and polished. Pillar construction involved turning on the 1960 Schaublin 102 single-axis lathe. This machine, considered the gold standard by master watchmakers, shaped circular components including arbors, fusées, pillars, pinions, wheels, barrel drums, studs, winding stems and screws. The Schaublin 102, after 100 years of development, reached a stage where nothing could have been done better, simpler, or more accurate.
The sides of certain bridges have been carefully selected and mirror-polished to highlight key movement elements. This contrasts beautifully with the sandblasted surfaces.
Anglage (bevelling) is applied to bridge edges. This traditional hand-finishing technique involves creating angled, polished edges on movement components. The artisan begins with a hand file to break down the sharp machined edge and form the bevel, typically at 45 degrees. After shaping, the watchmaker moves to polishing, using progressively finer diamond pastes to achieve a flawless, radiant surface. The polished chamfer highlights the component’s shape. This technique demands extraordinary dexterity, one slip ruins the entire piece, rendering hours of work worthless.
Black polishing appears on select components. This technique, also known as specular polishing or poli noir, produces an exceptionally smooth, mirror-like surface that appears deep black under certain light angles whilst reflecting with flawless brightness under others. The process involves rubbing a steel component on a flat tin plate coated with very fine abrasive paste, traditionally diamantine (powdered diamond). The craftsman works in small circular or figure-eight motions, ensuring every surface area is polished evenly. The aim is absolute flatness, free of microscopic scratches or irregularities. When executed correctly, the surface reflects light as a single beam. Even small deviations in pressure or angle ruin the effect, requiring the watchmaker to restart.
The mainplate features 126 sinks of eight different diameters, 90 of which are polished using roller cutters, boxwood pegs and polishing pastes. Finishing a single wheel takes three days. Cutting and polishing pinion leaves using a pearwood grinding wheel involves an entire day’s work. The ratchet wheel, ten gears in ethical sourced alloy, and various components received dedicated attention. Nineteen screws in steel and four in heat-treated blued steel secure the bridges. The blued screws underwent the same flame-bluing process as the hands.
Hand-engraving adorns the fusée-and-chain bridge on the movement back, bearing “AU TEMPS QUI INSTRUIT – FERDINAND BERTHOUD – CHRONOMÈTRE VAL-DE-TRAVERS SUISSE – 39 PIERRES”.
The movement structure is entirely hand-finished using traditional tools in accordance with the highest watchmaking standards. Quality control of decorations employs a 6.7x magnifying glass, according to the same criteria as all other Chronométrie Ferdinand Berthoud models. Operating tolerances of Calibre FB-BTC.FC match those of movements equipped with modern regulating organs to pass COSC tests and earn official chronometer certification.
The movement incorporates a traditional balance-stop function consisting of a control, lever and arbor. Time setting operates via crown positions: position 0 leaves the stem inactive, position 1 enables manual winding, position 2 activates time setting and balance-stop function.
The Case: Handcrafted Architecture
The case measures 44.30mm in diameter and 13mm thick. The first example, uniquely executed in stainless steel, will be auctioned by Phillips. The subsequent ten pieces employ 18-carat white gold. The case architecture draws inspiration from Ferdinand Berthoud’s Astronomical Watch No. 3. The design features curved sides, a concave bezel, domed sapphire crystal glare-proofed on both sides, and welded lugs. These shapes present particular difficulties when crafting with hand-operated machine tools.
The crown, measuring 8.80mm in diameter, is handcrafted, fluted, and features a hand-engraved “FB” logo. The 22mm interhorn width accommodates hand-stitched rolled-edge alligator leather straps in various lengths and colours. The pin buckle, handcrafted from 18-carat white gold, includes its prong, the pointed mobile part featuring complex geometry, all made from the same material as the case.
Solutions for crafting the complex case shapes emerged from expertise within the Chopard group. Lost-wax casting used in jewellery making, combined with turning, milling and tapping typical of micromechanics, enabled production of the most complex shapes. Once the raw component was obtained, manual finishing trades took over, reworking the rough piece, trimming and polishing. The lugs were then welded before manual decoration through engraving and hallmarking,
The exhibition caseback, handcrafted in 18-carat white gold, secures with eight screws and features a glare-proofed sapphire crystal. Water resistance extends to 30 metres. The gold used in the case and dial carries RJC Chain of Custody certification as ethical gold.
The Journey as Destination
Karl-Friedrich Scheufele states: “Naissance d’une Montre 3 is a true tribute to watchmaking expertise. For six years, artisans from across the Chopard group, with perseverance and experience, committed themselves to a mission to master the traditional watchmaking skills required to create this extraordinary timepiece. On the tenth anniversary of Chronométrie Ferdinand Berthoud, we could not imagine a more fitting tribute to the Master Watchmaker, who dedicated his career to developing the most accurate timepieces of his time and sharing his knowledge.”
The Naissance d’une Montre 3 demonstrates what truly counts is the journey rather than the destination. This journey is shaped by the passing of time – temps qui instruit, as Louis Berthoud wrote. After 11,000 hours of work and six years of dedication, the project made visible not merely a timepiece, but the preservation of expertise that brings it to life. The watch embodies contradictions that define haute horlogerie, ancient techniques producing contemporary precision, hand-operated machines achieving micron-level tolerances, individual craftsmanship meeting industrial standards. Each of the 747 components, including 477 in the chain alone, was created individually. Nearly 11,000 hours were required from first sketch to delivery of the first timepiece.
Chronométrie Ferdinand Berthoud states that the 11 Naissance d’une Montre 3 chronometers meet the same quality and finishing criteria as any other contemporary timepieces from the manufacture. They offer vivid proof of what the initiative seeks to preserve, not the watch itself, but rather all the expertise that brings it to life. Part of the proceeds from the November 2025 Phillips auction will be donated to a charity dedicated to preserving and passing on watchmaking expertise to future generations. The remaining ten pieces in 18-carat ethical gold, already reserved by collectors, will emerge at a measured pace, two per year starting in 2026.
The Naissance d’une Montre 3 stands as an open book dealing with themes of craftsmanship, watchmaking, history and precision. It refuses the logic of industrial production, the seduction of automation, the safety of established methods. Instead, it asks whether the future of watchmaking includes space for knowledge that cannot be digitised, for skills that demand years to acquire, for traditions that define excellence through difficulty rather than efficiency.
The answer, contained within these 44.30mm of gold, is that such space must exist. The watch proves that contemporary tolerances and historical techniques can coexist, that COSC chronometer certification can be achieved with a Guillaume balance and fusée-and-chain, that a bimetallic split balance can regulate time in 2025 as it did in 1806. This is watchmaking as inheritance from Ferdinand Berthoud to Louis Berthoud, from the 18th century to the 21st, from master to apprentice, from hand to hand. The Naissance d’une Montre 3 ensures that when future watchmakers seek to understand how their predecessors worked, they will find documentation, video, knowledge and eleven watches that embody those answers on the wrist.
It is hard to describe what is the impact had on me: to see it, touch it, have it on the wrist. There are so many details to enjoy, so many things to comprehend – from techniques to emotions. Rarely a watch shaked my core as the Naissance d’une Montre 3 did. I have a profound admiration for the people who worked for this watch: knowledge, dedication, passion. My heartful thanks to Mr. Scheufele for investing so many resources in the Ferdinand Berthoud’s modern story.
More informations can be found here:
Interview: David Bernard of Time Æon Foundation
Naissance d’une montre – Chapter 1
Naissance d’une montre 2 – Chapter 2
Naissance d’une montre – Chapter 3
Naissance d’Une Montre 2 – Chapter 4: The Complete Watchmaker
Greubel Forsey Renaissance d’une Montre – one soul, two lives
Naissance d’une Montre 3
Naissance d’une Montre 3 – Act III
Naissance d’une Montre 3: a revealing display
Naissance D’une Montre 3 – Acte V
Naissance d’une Montre 3 Technical Specifications
Ref. FB 4BTC.1 – CHF 850,000
Functions
- Hours and minutes between 1 and 2 o’clock, central seconds, power reserve and balance-stop function
Movement
- Production Handcrafted
- Mechanical hand-wound Calibre FB-BTC.FC
- Outer diameter: 37.50 mm
- Case diameter:35.80 mm
- Thickness: 8.35 mm
- Lignes: 15 ¾’’’
- Jewels: 37
- Diamonds: 2
- Frequency: 21,600 vph (3 Hz)
- Power reserve: 50 hours
- Limited edition: 11 movements
- Components: 747 (including chain)
- Bridges and mainplate: 13 bridges + 1 mainplate in nickel silver
- Bridge-securing screws: 19 in steel and 4 in heat-treated blued steel
- Pillars: 11 in steel
- Gears: 10 in CuBe
- Chain: 477 steel components
- Chain length: 172
- Balance: Ø 12.56 mm
- Balance components: 18 components
- Officially chronometer-certified by the COSC
Technical Specifications
- Movement with fusee-and-chain transmission system (constant force) and thermo-compensated bimetallic balance.
- Fusee – traditional direct-engagement stopwork system
- Barrel – traditional toothed ratchet pawl system
- Balance-stop function – traditional system consisting of a control, a lever and an arbor
- Shock absorber – original system with diamond endstones
- Guillaume-type thermo-compensated split bimetallic invar-brass variable-inertia balance, incorporating four 18-carat gold adjustment screws, two adjustable gold-plated nickel silver weights on the split rim and two fixed weights.
- Traditional blued carbon steel balance-spring with Phillips terminal curve
- Swiss lever escapement
- Fusee-and-chain bridge on back of the movement bearing various hand engravings: “AU TEMPS QUI INSTRUIT – FERDINAND BERTHOUD – CHRONOMÈTRE VAL-DE-TRAVERS SUISSE – 39 PIERRES”
- Hand-finished exclusively using traditional tools in accordance with the highest watchmaking standards
- Time setting: crown in position 0: stem inactive, position 1: manual winding, position 2: time setting and balance-stop function
Case
- Handcrafted domed round case in 18-carat white gold
- Total diameter: 44.30 mm
- Thickness: 13 mm
- Interhorn width: 22 mm
- Water resistance: 30 metres
- Crown diameter: 8.80 mm
- Handcrafted fluted 18-carat white gold crown with hand-engraved “FB” logo
- Handcrafted exhibition back in 18-carat white gold, secured by 8 screws and fitted with a glare-proofed sapphire crystal pane
- Glare-proofed, domed sapphire crystal glare-proofed on both sides
- Precious material: ethical gold certified by the RJC Chain of Custody.
Dial
- Handcrafted in 18-carat white gold
- Hours and minutes dial, circular satin-finished, indicating the hours with hand-engraved Roman numerals and the minutes using Arabic numerals
- Circular satin-finished seconds ring
- Power-reserve indication with “0” – “1” hand-engraved on the mainplate
Hands
- Handcrafted in steel blued by traditional heat treatment
- Arrow-tipped hours hand
- Bevel-tipped minutes hand
- Filaire-type bevel-tipped seconds hand with steel counterweight, with 18-carat gold pipe
- Arrow-tipped power-reserve hand
Strap and Buckle
- Hand-stitched rolled-edge alligator leather strap (width 22/18, length 125/070) – Different lengths and colours available on request
- Handcrafted 18-carat white gold pin buckle
