The New Ferdinand Berthoud FB RES, With Over Two Hundred Customisation Options

In 2015, Ferdinand Berthoud, a brand with a historical name resurrected by Karl-Friedrich Scheufele, Chopard’s co-president, unveiled the Chronomètre Ferdinand Berthoud FB1. Since then, we’ve witnessed the successful launch of numerous references in the FB1, FB2, and FB3 collections. These releases have showcased groundbreaking engineering innovations and distinguished themselves with their exceptional design, setting them apart from today’s other ultra-complicated masterpieces.

The Chronomètre FB RES marks a significant evolution from its predecessor, the Chronomètre FB 2RE. Unveiled in 2020, the FB 2RE broke ground as the brand’s first round-cased, non-tourbillon-regulated watch, with all three hands in the centre. It featured an FB movement equipped with the fusee-and-chain transmission and a remontoire. Now, the Chronomètre FB RES (Remontoir d’Égalité Squelette) takes this innovation further, offering an insight into its inner workings with customizable finishing on the bridges and mainplate, allowing for a wide range of options.

Customers can select the shape of the 44mm, 30m water-resistant case with a prominent, 9mm diameter crown – round with the porthole at 10 o’clock or octagonal with portholes at 2 and 11 o’clock – as well as the case material from stainless steel, titanium, ceramised titanium, and 18-carat white, yellow, or rose gold. The round case can also be ordered in platinum. Clients can also choose the colour (champagne-toned, anthracite or blue) of the circular satin-brushed inner bezel ring with minutes/seconds ring, along with the nickel silver decorative plate (on top of the mainplate) finishes, whether sandblasted or satin-brushed.

With an online configurator offering over 200 variations, only 38 movements will be produced, ensuring exclusivity and that hardly any repetition in the configurations can be made.

The dial of the Chronomètre FB RES, protected by the domed sapphire crystal glare-proofed on both sides, showcases a technical presentation with an opening at 9 o’clock, where the power reserve indicator is positioned and provides a view of the three mirror-polished stainless-steel gear-train bridges converging towards the centre. This design draws inspiration from a skeletonized table clock – equipped with remontoir d’égalité – created by Ferdinand Berthoud around 1775, indicating hours, minutes, seconds, the age of the Moon, the calendar, and zodiac signs. However, the FB RES focuses on displaying hours and minutes, dead-beat seconds, and power reserve – now dial-side, a departure from the FB 2RE. For indications, the dagger-shaped central hours and minutes hands and the arrow-shaped power-reserve hand are crafted from gold, while the central sweep-seconds hand is in bronze.

The regulation system of the FB RES (with a chronometer certification by the COSC) operating at 18,000 vibrations/hour, with 50 hours of power reserve, as with the FB2 RE, comprised of fusee-and-790-component-chain transmission and a one-second remontoir, is almost entirely visible through the caseback fitted with a sapphire crystal. This mechanism evens out the energy transmitted to the escapement from the barrel, utilizing a spring positioned between them to temporarily store a small amount of power, which is released to the balance. This energy buffer’s charge/discharge frequency is one second, driving the large central seconds hand in one-second (dead-beat) intervals via an intermediate wheel connected to the remontoir d’égalité.

As expected from every Ferdinand Berthoud timepiece, the FB RES movement is superbly finished. Each wheel, bridge and screw is entirely hand-decorated to reveal the beauty of each component.

The watch is worn on a hand-sewn leather strap; sizes are available on request. It is secured with a length-adjustable double-blade folding clasp or a pin buckle, per the client’s wishes. Prices for the new Ferdinand Berthoud FB RES range from CHF 217,000 to CHF 274,500 (depending on the options). For more, please visit www.ferdinandberthoud.ch.