Horological watch brand J.C. Biver, since its inception, has been making waves with each of its new releases. We sat down with James Marks, CEO of Biver, on one of his recent visits to Dubai to understand the brand and its philosophy…
Welcome to Dubai, James. You are a frequent visitor here, is there any reason for this visit?
I am stopping off in Dubai to catch up with you and our retail partner here in Dubai. Later, I am heading off to Bahrain for the Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix, where we are launching a new version of the Automatique.
Can you tell us a bit more about the brand and its philosophy?
I think you can look at the brand from numerous angles. One is the classic way of looking at a brand – where we talk about the use of stone; something that is very important to the brand. Mr. Biver has been a prolific collector of stone dials. During my time at Phillips, he and I often discussed materials such as sodalite, rubellite; he has always had a great eye for the unusual, as well as a great eye for the future. We can also look at some of the classic phrases attributed to Mr. Biver, such as “Mastering the Invisible”. That’s very much a core part of the brand. We sort of over-decorate, in some ways. We look at how we can perfect the movement in terms of decoration. Then there’s a simple approach, where, as a brand, we are trying to find a balance between the two – Neoclassicism. By that, I mean that we take a watch with a classical design, and we create a modern interpretation of it. If you take away the ‘marketing jargon’, these core ideas are what we are about.
I am incredibly fortunate as CEO to have two highly talented people, in the organisation. One is our chairman, Mr. Biver – one of the founding pillars of today’s watch industry, a visionary. Blancpain would not be the brand it is today if Jean-Claude hadn’t put in the efforts he did when he relaunched the brand at Basel. It is due to his efforts that we have never produced a quartz watch and nor ever will. All of these great concepts would be much trickier to implement now in a big corporate environment.
On the other hand, we have Pierre Biver – highly creative, incredibly talented, and from the same DNA pool as Jean-Claude, but someone who doesn’t have the negativity that comes with the corporate experience. We give Pierre all the freedom he needs to explore. We have these two very interesting dynamics that work very well and has enabled us to offer a unique product. We focus heavily on quality and on finishing; overall, the philosophy is to make the best possible watch. One of the great things that I’ve learned since I joined the brand last August is that a Biver watch is multi-sensory.
When we launched the Minute Repeater two-and-half years ago, we didn’t launch just a minute repeater, we launched a Carillion Minute Repeater, with three hammers, gong, and this beautiful tone. When people hear it, they have to smile – it’s such a unique sound, soft, but with a sort of tonal quality that you don’t always hear in a lot of minute repeaters.
We then launched the Automatique, and we wondered, “How do we make a 3-hand watch stand out?” One of the ways, obviously, is finishing, but a lot of brands talk about finishing. One of the things that I love about the Automatique is the crown, which is often overlooked in most watches. If you look at the crown of the Automatique, it has the feel and the sound of a manual wind watch but offers the everyday usability of a micro rotor. We have gone that extra mile in all our products – of having something that is multi-sensory and goes a little bit further. We are a brand that talks to collectors – both vintage and modern – through the quality of our watches. When people hold the watch and analyse it, they always walk away very pleasantly surprised.
Can you tell us how important is finishing to the brand?
If you look at our management team, we all come from a manufacturing background, but we are primarily collectors who are creating a watch for collectors. The finishing is very important because it differentiates us. It’s one of the areas where we can offer something a little bit more. For instance, in the Automatique, we had four different types of finishing on the movement. A number of people who saw a Biver watch for the first time at Watches & Wonders last week were amazed at our levels of finishing and that’s something that we want people to discover.
Our watches are for someone who appreciates the details. There are a lot of little things with the watch that I particularly like, such as the brand name, which is not easily visible and can be seen only when the light hits at a particular angle. It is due to Pierre and the creative team that this watch resonates with collectors who are looking for something special. A lot of people make great 3-hand watches, but not necessarily with this level of finishings and the multisensory twist that we have with the Automatique.
Surprisingly, the first watch released by the brand was a high complication watch; how did that come about?
I wasn’t there at the time, but my understanding is that it was Jean-Claude who took the call to begin with the Carillon Minute Repeater as it was important to show the collector community what our standards were – in terms of complication, high-end finishing, and a design DNA that resonates. My personal belief is that the Carillon will be incredibly desirable in years to come and it’s not something that we will ever be ashamed of. We would never have to say, “Oh, it’s not as popular as the Automatique was.” The Carillon is an unbelievably good watch and it’s a testament to the team. We’ve produced over 40 of them now and not one has come back for service.
If you look at the quality of the dials, we’ve incorporated sodalite and recently launched a mesmerising version with mother-of-pearl and rubies. It’s a great watch that allows people to express their personality. It’s a watch where you can look at dial options. We’ve done many pieces like the Phoenix watch where the hands are on the back. Another outstanding watch is our Carillon Tourbillon Catharsis for Only Watch. It is a great way for the brand to show people what we can do; It is a showcase watch that will now lead us to other references.
When the Minute Repeater Tourbillon was shown to the public, its bracelet also received a lot of attention; was the brand surprised by this?
In some ways, no. When you talk about the bracelet for the Minute Repeater, you have to remember it’s a bracelet for a CHF 500,000 watch. We were more surprised by the reaction to the bracelet of the Automatique. There’s a lot of DNA between the two – especially the five-link bracelet. The Automatique’s bracelet is very much a traditional vintage style. It doesn’t have the integrated lugs and is classical. The finishing that goes into the bracelet itself is unbelievable. I was fortunate enough to go with Pierre recently to the supplier, and the quality is outstanding.
A lot of people were impressed with the platinum, particularly. Platinum is extremely hard to work with, as each link is individually polished. We use ceramic tubing to retain the rigidity and weight of the bracelet. The bracelet weighs 180g and when combined with the case, the whole watch is 240g. Nowadays a lot of collectors are looking for something that’s not necessarily flashy but speaks of quality. The rose gold watch, for instance, is beautiful on a strap; but when you fit the bracelet on to it – it is very easy to swap them out as it has an easy link system – it really adds a touch of glamour. The ladies like it too; we had a number of people first order the watch with the leather band and then come back 3 or 4 months later for the bracelet after seeing the bracelet and its price on Instagram.
When the Automatique was launched, it also featured stone dials with most collectors aiming for the stone dials; was that the plan originally?
Stone dials is an interesting point because it also goes back to the idea of offering an alternative. Pietersite wasn’t really a stone used in the watch industry. At the time we launched it, the only other brand that was using it was Van Cleef & Arpels, and they were using it in jewellery rather than watches. Apparently now, a number of brands in the industry are looking at pietersite; we are happy that we have made it popular as it is a beautiful stone. It originates from Namibia and is incredible.
You have the Minute Repeater Tourbillon on the upper price range and then you have the Automatique with a big gap in between them; can we ask if that big gap is waiting to be filled?
Yes, we’re looking at different options. As a brand, we want to offer collectors that extra twist. We’re not going to just bring out a complication – perpetual calendar, chronograph, and so on in some sort of standard form. We would like to offer that little bit of a Biver twist and we’re working on something super exciting, not only from an aesthetic point of view, but also from a complication point of view. It’s going to help the brand evolve. The next watch that comes out will be again in the same vein as the Automatique – something that is highly interesting.
