Chronoswiss

Everyone has their favourites, and at The Watch Press, Chronoswiss are one of our own favourite watchmakers.

Unlike many of the ‘Old Masters’ which rightly constitute the majority of today’s most illustrious watchmakers and manufactures, the Chronoswiss history does not go back a hundred years or more. In fact, Chronoswiss are only this year, 2009, celebrating the occasion of their first quarter-century of producing their distinctive timepieces.

The company’s beginnings actually go back a little further to 1981, when its’ charismatic founder Gerd-Rüdiger Lang, having been immersed in the watch industry in many guises since the early 1960s, established his own workshop in Munich where he principally concentrated on various concepts based around the chronograph movement.

Chronoswiss founder; Gerd-Rüdiger Lang

Having spent his formative years at the watchmakers bench as an apprentice, Gerd-R Lang worked his way across the industry. On serving his apprenticeship, he found employment with the Heuer watch company where he served from 1964 working on the famous Heuer sports chronographs and stopwatches. This position had a few perks too, as in 1970 he found himself involved on behalf of Heuer with Steve McQueen in the classic ‘Le Mans’ movie – the iconic actor having a long-standing affair with the company’s Monaco chronograph watch, Gerd also shared McQueen’s passion for motor racing (and to this day competes himself in prestigious classic car events in his beloved Jaguar XK120) – indeed his passion for things mechanical would, in time, become his company slogan: “Faszination der Mechanik”.

Following the death of its’ Patron, the Heuer brand had struggled for some years, and it was this period of instability (ultimately culminating in the takeover by Technologies d’Avant-Garde later in 1984) which triggered G-R Langs’ departure, taking with him in lieu of severance a stock of Heuer chronograph movements.

In 1980, having returned to further study his profession in Würzburg, Gerd-R Lang emerged with his new title of ‘Master Watchmaker’ and immediately commenced setting in place the corner stones for what would, in a few short years, become Chronoswiss.

In the same year, 1980, he would also enjoy the distinction of being Official Timekeeper for Swiss Timekeeping at the Moscow Olympic Games. Quite a coup for a German watchmaker!

The first indicator of what was to come was also a world’s first from the Lang werk in Munich.

In 1982, a new mechanical chronograph with moonphase which featured a sapphire crystal exhibition caseback was unveiled bearing for the first time the name Chronoswiss. At a time when most pundits were eschewing the mechanical watch as old hat compared to the new high-tech quartz watches, in the same manner they would later discard their vinyl for the CD, here almost unbelievably, was this eccentric whose passion and belief in his beloved profession had driven him to show that the modern world was missing the whole point of the mechanical watch. And how better to demonstrate his views than with this conceptually advanced debut.

The next year, 1983, saw Chronoswiss move into its’ new facility in Munich. The company name was to symbolise the utilisation of the Swiss watchmaking ethic and the components which were exclusively sourced for the watches. The company was then officially registered in 1984 by its’ founder.

When Chronoswiss unveiled the Régulateur in 1987, it simultaneously showcased the design direction which would become the company signature. Here for the first time was the milled bezel, the oversize ‘onion’ crown, the exhibition caseback and soldered lugs which would become synonymous with the brand.

The Régulateur had the distinction of being another ‘world’s first’ in that it was the first presentation of such a timepiece, with hours and minutes displayed separately, in wristwatch form.

The Chronoswiss Régulateur

World’s firsts were to become something of a trademark which would be associated with Gerd R Lang’s brand, as many of the models which would come to make up the Chronoswiss portfolio were inventive interpretations of the wristwatch which pushed the boundaries of design, layout and functionality.

The distinctive design and function of Chronoswiss watches as well as Lang’s philosophical approach to showcasing and marketing his passion served to catapult the new watch brand into a respect among watch enthusiasts reserved normally for much older and illustrious manufactures.

A succession of new models would follow, each one in its’ own way a breakaway from the traditional, while at the same time still honouring the skills of the early master watchmakers in their functionality and complication.

The Chronoswiss Chronoscope

A browse across the Chronoswiss collection reveals a distinctive and comprehensive interpretation of complications, encompassing virtually all of the recognised watchmaking ‘masterpieces’.

As Chronoswiss matured, its’ following grew beyond the small number of enthusiasts who were interested in a quirky and headstrong German watchmaker.

Although not a ‘manufacture’ (the status afforded only to watchmakers where the entire design and construction of complication movements occurs in-house), here were hand assembled watches, with specialist skills such as the ‘skeletonisation’ of base movements outsourced to the very best craftsmen in their fields.

Due to this network of highly specialist watchmakers and decorators built up by G-R Lang in his years in the industry, the Chronoswiss catalogue could boast an impressive range of hand-assembled watches which offered a diverse array of functionality.

The Chronoswiss Digiteur

The Chronoswiss portfolio accommodates a broad selection of styles and functions ranging from Chronographs and Rattrapante, the Chronoscope, the Delphis (featuring retrograde minutes and digital hour display), through remarkable pieces like the Digiteur (above), which combines the analogue movement with a non-analogue display, its’ complete and perpetual calendars and moonphase watches on to the stunning Régulateur Tourbillon and Répétition á quarts timepieces.

In recent times, an important new addition to the portfolio has arrived and this piece, the fabulous Chronoswiss Sauterelle (Grasshopper!) models, complete with that famous quartz movement signature – jumping seconds – even though the movement is wholly mechanical!

The Chronoswiss Sauterelle 71

The new Sauterelle is noteworthy in that for the very first time, Chronoswiss have created this ground-breaking mechanical movement, from scratch, in-house, thereby becoming Chronoswiss’ first creation as a ‘manufacture’.

As well as paying tribute to the technical genius of his predecessors, G-R Langs’ Chronoswiss also worked with materials such as enamel – as seen on the beautiful Orea Handaufzug (or manual-wound) watch.

Ensuring continuity in the same mould as himself, Gerd-Rüdiger Lang proudly announced in 2003 the appointment as Junior President in the person of Natalie Lang, his own daughter, also a time-served and qualified watchmaker with business management skills.

Chronoswiss saw out 2006 with a December move into its’ brand new purpose-built manufacturing facility in Karlsfeld, a town in the suburbs of the Bavarian capitol, Munich.

A comparative newcomer then by industry standards, but a watchmaker whose naked passion for his craft, with a fine eye for distinctive design and layout combined with the essence of tradition has nonetheless elevated the Chronoswiss name to a level of respect across the industry and with aficionados enjoyed only by the highest echelons of the watchmaking world.

Gerd-Rüdiger Langs’ history may not reach back a hundred years or more, but those whose works so influenced him most certainly do!

We say “Thank heaven for people like Gerd-R!” and strongly recommend time spent delving deeper into his wonderful Chronoswiss brand and its’ philosophy.

Popularity: 11% [?]

Chopard

When, in 1860, the young Louis-Ulysse Chopard first established his watchmaking business in the small Swiss town of Sonvilier, it was always going to be different to the many similar-sized watchmakers then active in the Jura region. For Chopard had his eyes quite firmly fixed on a sector which could be permeated only with a combined focus on the quality of the finished product, and accessing the desired marketplace.

Chopard was able to raise his brand to a level above many of his current contemporaries by creating his own exclusive high-precision movements, many of which were manufactured to the demanding Chronometre standard, a rarified sector indeed. Encased in finely-finished pocketwatches, the Chopard manufacture was building its reputation based on innovation and quality.

Once the quality of the product had been established, Chopards’ next coup de grace was to venture further outside the normal catchment area of his time, and by doing so was able to break into the lucrative and enthusiastic new markets which largely consisted of the noble classes in Russia and the Scandinavian countries. By the turn of the century, the Chopard name was familiar to the society circles across wider Europe.

The dark years of war had their inevitable effect on non-essential industry and largely watchmaking naturally fell into irrelevance to the greater population. By the time peace would return to central Europe, the Chopard company would have a new figurehead in the person of Paul-André Chopard, grandson of the founder and who importantly shared his grandfathers vision for the business as well as the energy of youth.

As the Chopard name had by now become recognised as one of the more exclusive Swiss watchmakers, the new Patron made the decision at the end of the hostilities of the Great War to relocate the manufacture and comptoir de vente to Geneve, and in 1920 the new facility opened for business.

Under the banner “Agence de la Fabrique de Montres L.U.C” the Chopard name was one which the well-heeled loved to show off. As the manufacture moved with the times and continued to produce fine wrist and pocketwatches it had become a darling of the fashionista set.

The continuity of the Chopard family involvement however came to an end in 1963 when Paul-André, having been at the helm for over forty years, found that his natural successors – his sons – did not have the dedication nor the desire required to navigate the brand into a new generational era.

Discretely Chopard sought a suitable successor and was delighted to find interest from a kindred spirit who had similarly been immersed in the watchmaking tradition since his early days. Karl Scheufele, a third generation watchmaker and jeweller from the German town of Pforzheim. It is recorded that following a brief meeting, the two men agreed the terms which would quickly see the famous manufacture under new ownership.

Aware of the heritage associated with the name he had acquired, Scheufele was to have a profound impact on Chopard. He saw the potential to incorporate the fine jewellery with which he had a vast experience into the Chopard portfolio, a concept which would work in two ways. Now as well as the manufacture of prestigious timepieces, Chopard began producing a range of distinctive and high quality jewellery which was almost instantly popular with the existing Chopard clientele as well as reaching out to a new market.

Karl Scheufele had successfully raised the profile of the Chopard brand and simultaneously added a lucrative new product line to the business.

Following the successful restructuring of the brand, Scheufele and his family steered Chopard through new territory. Recognising and capitalizing on its’ prominence, new Chopard boutiques were opened in Europe and the Far East, underlining the fact that it had moved on from being a respected but low-profile manufacturer of fine watches and jewellery to becoming, by the late 1980s, an internationally recognised luxury brand too.

A significant ‘miglio-stone’ in 1988 too, when Chopard became a title sponsor to the rebirth of the Mille Miglia, the legendary ‘1000-mile’ open road Italian motor race. A succession of highly popular Mille Miglia motorsport-themed watches have been produced on a yearly basis since this affiliation began which have become one of the cornerstones of Chopards’ watch business.

The Scheufele family continued to consolidate the position of the Chopard brand by returning to the original values of the founder. In 1996 a brand new in-house movement (the first such in many years) was unveiled following three years development in the brand new Fleurier manufacture, back in the Swiss watchmaking heartland of the Val de Travers.

Named in honour of the founder, these new L.U.C movements would go on to win multiple prestigious industry awards, as well as once again bringing the Chopard name back into the exclusive ‘manufacture de haute horologie’ elite.

The Chopard brand now boasts more than 100 boutiques worldwide. Still very much a family business, with Karl Scheufele and his wife Karin having ushered in the second generation of the family to oversee the multinational operations of this prestigious manufacture.

Had he been around, Louis-Ulysse Chopard may have been saddened by the ending of the family involvement in 1964, but he would most likely be proud that, some 150 years after he first created his first works, the family name was in safe hands and still adorned watches of the highest quality and innovation, and were renowned the world over.

That seems to be what he had set out to achieve….

Popularity: 6% [?]

Luxury Watch makers Bell & Ross:

Since the true renaissance of the mechanical watch in the 1990s, there have been many rebirths of old, long-forgotten watch brands as well as a myriad of new arrivals to the scene. Of the latter, one of the most impressive brands in terms of design, function and, perhaps most importantly, marketing is the Bell & Ross name.

At a time when the favoured design direction chosen by many of the traditional manufacturers in the Swiss watch industry leaned towards the classic styles, some with elaborate complication movements, the founders of Bell & Ross noticed a potential gap in the market for what would become the ‘instrument’ timepiece.

The Bell & Ross history is more like a ‘story so far’ read. No humble beginnings two centuries ago in candle-lit woodframe workshops nestled away in the remote Swiss valleys and villages.

No. The Bell & Ross company first saw light in 1992 as a result of the commercial union between French designers Bruno Belamich and Carlos Rosillo, when they gambled on the potential demand for their well designed timing utensil which would be constructed to fulfil the demands of professionals who operated in extreme environments. The new ‘Bell & Ross’ watches would combine three simple but essential values: top-class workmanship, faultless precision and uncompromising reliability.

To create such a timepiece, the two men realised without hesitation that they would require the services of a proven and respected watchmaker to compliment their own design concepts and bring them from the drawing board to the marketplace. And so, the first watches to bear the Bell & Ross name had movements supplied by the Sinn manufacture, who had a strong reputation for producing robust military watches.

Among the earliest models unveiled in 1993 were the Hydro and the Space One – a re-issue of the Sinn 142 which itself had achieved greatness by being the first automatic chronometer worn in space back in 1984 by the German astronaut Reinhard Furrer while on the SpaceLab mission.

Now that Bell & Ross had product to showcase and sell, the company then sought their route to market, which for them was the less-obvious and much less glamorous military and extreme professional operative niche.

This astute marketing concept paid dividends when Bell & Ross secured lucrative commissions from several NATO Airforces and ground forces, diving professionals and even bespoke pieces for use in the challenging work of the bomb disposal expert. All trades which required a no-compromise approach to construction, function, legibility and reliability of their instruments.

The quite rapid success enjoyed by the brand, as well as the enormous potential within their niche markets, allowed for the funding of further development and innovation, ultimately grabbing the headlines in 1997 when the Bell & Ross name broke into the Guinness Book of Records when its’ Hydro Challenger watch raised the bar (or plunged the depths – sorry!) for water resistance by remaining reliable under the incredible pressures experienced at 11,000m depth.

By the end of the 1990s, the still young Bell & Ross company had begun to attract a cult following among the growing number of watch collectors around the world, many of whom wanted a piece of this new classic, not least the luxury brand Chanel Horologie who became stakeholders in 1998.

Only ten years after their founding, Bell & Ross were manufacturing and assembling their watches in their own brand new state-of-the-art facility in La Chaux des Fonds. This milestone also brought to an end the Sinn/Bell & Ross collaboration, which had achieved so much and had strengthened both companies during their time together.

The creative juices flowed from within their new surroundings, and innovation continued with new models arriving, including the analog/digital display of the Function, the Heure Sautante – a complication jump-hour with réserve de marche which was a collaboration with the renowned master watchmaker Vincent Calabrese, as well as updates on the record-breaking Hydromax and Space models.

With many of the new models clearly demonstrating a move in a different direction, Bell & Ross were now adding the contemporary watch buyer to their catchment, while still focussing on the professional who had been so good for them.

Which brings us to 2005 when Bell & Ross would take the covers of their new ‘Instrument BR-01’ series. After years of design and development on this watch, the company were about to achieve a new feat.

Only a very few watches are recognisable at a glance, even fewer from a distance, but the unmistakable flat, square case which housed a large cockpit instrument-inspired dial, complete with highly-legible hands and markers, meant that the Instrument BR-01 series was immediately a design classic. Here was a defining watch which effortlessly transcended the professional and cool style genres.

Bell & Ross Instrument BR01

Available in outsized 46mm (or the more modest 42mm) and in a range of materials, although by far the most popular being the black pvd, the Instrument BR-01 successfully combined the staples of the Bell & Ross philosophy: top-class workmanship, faultless precision and uncompromising reliability, with style and desirability. And the results are visible – the watch is everywhere!

Continuous development, small-number limited editions and of course the relentless marketing of the brand means that the Bell & Ross Instrument BR-01 has become one of the modern cult watches, it appears as website timers, screensavers and even now as an ‘app’ on the new Apple iPhone!

So as a rare exception to the unwritten rule that to be recognised as a brand of high repute among those most demanding of excellence – the watch collector – the watchmaker must have a history going back hundreds of years, Bell & Ross have achieved a status belied by their relatively few years.

Popularity: 19% [?]