Carl F. Bucherer is offering customers the chance to create one-of-a-kind masterpieces thanks to a new business unit that fundamentally redefines the company’s high-end watch offer. Called the CFB Mastery Lab, the new business unit has its own workshop, designers and watchmakers and promises to accommodate customer requests to an extent never before seen at the Swiss watchmaker, with customers invited to begin the individualization process via a newly developed app The announcement is one of a number of strategic changes underway at the company.
Uwe Liebminger, CFB’s CMO says “Our individualization strategy is revolutionary for the company and our high-end timepieces, and was inspired by consumer demand: they spoke, we listened and this is for them.“
The strategic vision for the CFB Mastery Lab underpins the company’s position as a true Swiss watchmaking pioneer. Rather than offering only pre-conceived, pre costed aesthetic options, the lab promises to accommodate the most extraordinary creative wishes in terms of design, materials and functionality It will even undertake research and development, in concert with the customer, to incorporate their most unusual wishes, even if it takes several months or more.
The company has invested in new technologies that promote its longstanding expertise in innovating, engineering, and designing high-end timepieces. It has developed an app to provide customers with an engaging and entertaining product design experience and inspire them with what they can create.
Individualization is predominantly available to customers purchasing timepieces featuring CFB’s signature peripheral technology, such as the Manero or Heritage Tourbillon Double Peripheral, Manero Peripheral Perpetual Calendar, or the Manero Minute Repeater Symphony, among others. These customers will become co-designers of their own unique watches in partnership with dedicated experts, designers, and watchmakers from the CFB Mastery Lab team who will guide them through the creation process.
“Today’s customers enjoy living out their fantasies in everything from online avatars to creating a unique colour for their new car or adding stitched monograms to its seats, and also when it comes to luxury goods,” says Uwe Liebminger. “As a consequence, they cultivate a more emotional connection to possessions when they can put their own stamp on them.”
“Having been quietly accommodating more and more special requests, we realized that a one-of-a-kind individualization experience would give customers what they expect from a contemporary watch manufacturer and cement our reputation for inventiveness and ingenuity.”
Recent examples of individualization include a watch dial made of meteorite that was exactly colour-matched to the owner’s new car and the incorporation of lyrics from the Swiss national anthem on a watch face in a phosphorescent finish that is invisible in the daytime.
Samir Merdanovic, CFB’s Chief Technology Officer, says “It is a privilege to help customers achieve their dreams, rather than tell them what they cannot have. Responding to unusual requests only enhances the technical, engineering and creative abilities of our watchmakers. There are near unlimited possibilities with our high-end timepieces as long as customers’ wishes do not affect the core functionality of the watch.”
The new offer was showcased to customers during an international roadshow that has already travelled from the brand’s home in Lucerne to Geneva and Zurich in Switzerland, then to Munich, London, New York, Paris, and Costa Mesa, California. Next, it will travel to parts of Asia.
Uwe Liebminger says: “Our roadshow was a crucial proof of concept and demonstrated that the idea would be extremely popular. Having invested in our watchmaking expertise and expanded our technological capabilities, we can now formally invite customers on this journey and offer them a unique brand experience.”
News of the CFB Mastery Lab, which has its own dedicated team s at our manufacturing facilities in Lengnau and at our headquarters, is the first of a number of important strategic announcements from the company that are collectively taking the brand on an exciting new path. More information on further initiatives will be released in early 2023.
About Carl F. Bucherer
Carl F. Bucherer has been synonymous with excellence, innovation, and passion since 1888. The Swiss company has become an internationally renowned global brand with a presence throughout the world, characterized by its founder’s pioneering spirit and the cosmopolitan esprit of its home city of Lucerne. Carl F. Bucherer is one of the few remaining independent, family-owned Swiss watch manufacturers and is now headed in the third generation by Jörg G. Bucherer.
The contemporary timepieces produced by Carl F. Bucherer combine unique design with the utmost precision and outstanding functionality. Committed to technical innovation, Carl F. Bucherer is the market leader in peripheral technology and has patented not only a peripheral winding system but also a floating tourbillon in a peripherally supported cage and a peripherally guided minute repeater regulator. Its Individualization business unit, called the CFB Mastery Lab, is the ultimate manifestation of a customer-centric approach to creating unique timepieces that represent supreme ingenuity and inventiveness.
Carl F. Bucherer – Exploring Time