Introducing: The Ferdinand Berthoud Chronomètre FB 1.3

By Jack Forster

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The Chopard Group has a number of interests other than the creation of Chopard watches, including two very large movement manufacturing centers in Fleurier. One of its more recent enterprises was the founding, in 2015, of a brand separate from Chopard named for the great French chronometer maker, Ferdinand Berthoud, and which launched with a watch – the Chronomètre Ferdinand Berthoud FB 1 – which takes its inspiration from the notion of a “marine chronometer for the wrist.” We spent A Week On The Wrist recently with this watch and came away very favorably impressed; there are a number of engineering and design decisions present that make it not only very visually interesting and horologically compelling, but also much more wearable than the industry is generally capable of making complicated super-watches in general, and watches with a chain-and-fusée in particular.


Chronomètre Ferdinand Berthoud FB 1.2, in rose gold.

The newest version of the Chronomètre Ferdinand Berthoud has just been announced: FB 1.3, which adds a platinum model to the existing white and rose gold models (FB 1.1 and FB 1.2 respectively).

As we mentioned this is except for the case metal, identical to versions 1.1 and 1.2 however I think it’s worth reviewing some of the more distinguishing characteristics of the case and design. The octagonal shape, first of all, is a shout-out to the gimbal equipped boxes in which marine chronometers were traditionally kept, and the very large center seconds hand and regulator clock-type placement of the hour and minute hands, is another nod to the history of precision timekeeping. The presence of a center seconds hand, by the way, is unusual for a tourbillon wristwatch. Typically, a tourbillon with a one-minute carriage (the most common type nowadays) has a running seconds indication through the simple expedient of mounting the seconds hand on the upper pivot of the tourbillon cage. In the FB 1.x models, the tourbillon cage has a driving wheel on it that in turn, propels the gear on whose pivot the second hand rides (it’s a one minute tourbillon, so it’s a simple 1:1 gear ratio).


Chronomètre Ferdinand Berthoud FB 1.3 in platinum.


The caliber FB – T.FC.

The power reserve indicator is also a marine chronometer characteristic though of course, power reserve indicators are found in a very wide range of other timepieces as well. …read more      

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