At Geneva Watch Days 2025, amidst the excitement of all the new releases, one was something truly exceptional – the Naissance d’une Montre III. We had the pleasure of sitting down with Karl-Friedrich Scheufele, co-president of Chopard and president of Chronométrie Ferdinand Berthoud, to delve into the project that embodies the heart of artisanal watchmaking.
“This project took six years,” Scheufele shared, smiling with a mixture of pride and relief. “We managed to finish it right on time for the 10th anniversary of the relaunch of the Ferdinand Berthoud legacy and name.”
The idea behind Naissance d’une Montre III (Birth of a Watch III) was inspired by its predecessors, projects initiated by Time Æon Foundation and Greubel Forsey, with the involvement of Philippe Dufour, Michel Boulanger, and Urwerk over the previous two watches. Those early collaborations focused on passing on the savoir-faire of traditional watchmaking, an ethos that profoundly resonated with Scheufele.
Scheufele recalls following the first Naissance d’une Montre project closely. “It confirmed to me that transmission of knowledge is essential in haute horlogerie,” he said. “With encouragement from Philippe Dufour, I decided to line up for the third project in 2019.” What began as an homage to watchmaking’s origins grew into a multi-year, multi-generational endeavor uniting craftspeople under one vision: to create a watch entirely by hand, using non-digital, traditional methods.
Crafting the Impossible: Analog Artistry in a Digital Age
The Naissance d’une Montre III is more than a watch. It’s a collective effort of about 80 craftsmen, engineers, and artisans – all bound by the pursuit of purity in technique. “What you’re seeing,” said Scheufele, “is the fruit of about 80 craftsmen working together on one project, using machines which are non-digital, fully analog, and restored by hand.”
The challenge was immense. Many of the old machines necessary for traditional watchmaking had long been retired or destroyed. “We didn’t have them,” he explained. “We had to source, recommission, and restore them — and then we had to relearn how to use them.” Each part of the process became a kind of apprenticeship, an experiment in rediscovering lost practices.
To accommodate this return to roots, a special department was created within Chopard: the Atelier Tradition. There, artisans and technicians from both Chopard and Ferdinand Berthoud collaborated side by side. “The Chopard team made the case, the crown, the dial, and the clasp,” said Scheufele. “The Berthoud team made the movement. It was a transversal project, uniting both worlds.”
The result is a timepiece that pushes traditional craft to its very limits. At its heart lies a bimetallic balance wheel, made from brass and Invar. This is a material invented in Fleurier, Switzerland by a Nobel Prize-winning scientist. A nickel-iron alloy, it’s notable for its low coefficient for thermal expansion – great for chronometric performance in changing climates. The fusion of these two metals had not been attempted in wristwatches for over half a century. “We had to learn from scratch how to solder the materials together,” Scheufele explained.
Each component tells a story. A diamond replaces the traditional ruby jewel, a nod to historical practices from Berthoud’s own time. The architecture of the movement draws inspiration from a 19th-century precision pocket watch, yet with a daring twist — the movement has been inverted, allowing the mechanical heart to be admired from the dial side.
“You can argue it’s not really a complication,” Scheufele laughed, “but it is a complication.” The fusée-and-chain transmission, entirely hand-produced, epitomizes the analog spirit of the project. Even the finishing, every chamfer, every form of polishing, was executed with traditional hand tools. “We reached a level of finish I don’t think we ever managed before,” Scheufele reflected.
Transmitting Knowledge, Preserving Legacy
Beyond its technical marvels, Naissance d’une Montre III serves a higher purpose: the preservation and transmission of watchmaking knowledge. For Scheufele, this is both a responsibility and a calling.
“I hope it inspires others to invest time and effort in transmitting knowledge,” he said. “If we alone do it, it will not be enough. Beautiful watchmaking as we know it today is built on centuries of shared craft. We must keep these traditions alive.”
Every stage of the project was meticulously recorded, forming an archive of techniques that will be made available to future generations. “It’s knowledge that is meant to be shared,” he emphasized. “That’s what Ferdinand Berthoud himself believed. He wrote books, he documented everything. He was one of the rare watchmakers who shared knowledge instead of keeping it secret.”
For those who have visited Scheufele’s museum in Fleurier, which houses his private collection of Berthoud marine chronometers and other historical timepieces, his devotion to watchmaking’s heritage is unmistakable. We had the pleasure of visiting previously, and it’s simply a marvel. This is a collection that is curated with a keen eye for horological history, both timepieces well mapped by historians as well as some much more surprising and unusual.
“What you see in that museum is really the basis of watchmaking today,” Scheufele said. “Modern techniques have allowed us to make things smaller and thinner, yes. But the foundation, the soul comes from those early inventions. That’s what we must never forget.”
With Naissance d’une Montre III, Scheufele and his teams at Chopard and Ferdinand Berthoud have built a bridge between eras. This is a timepiece that links the age of Berthoud’s marine chronometers to the contemporary pursuit of horological art. An astounding watch, created by unusual methods, it will be released in an ultra-limited 11 piece series. One piece unique in steel will be auctioned at Phillips later this year to help fund future Naissance d’une Montre projects, while the remaining 10 pieces will be made in gold.