Take it Daily..!

What We Know

A few weeks ago I got an unexpected invite from Pierre Biver to see the brand’s newest watch. Despite any ideas I might have had in my mind, Biver’s new watch—just called the “AB”—was not what I expected. Instead of a new, complicated, potentially larger piece, the AB is a response to customer demand, says Biver (the person, not the brand, but kind of the person and the brand in one). After their Automatique was a runaway success in its various forms over the past two years, they resisted the urge to put the proprietary movement in a stainless steel case (as highly requested). Instead, today, they’re launching a manually-wound, proprietary new movement with over 100 hours of power reserve, in a smaller steel case and moving the brand forward.

The watch measures 38mm by 9.8mm thick, with a 19mm lug width. The case maintains the general hallmarks of Biver’s cases, with brushed and polished geometric angular lugs—reminiscent of a Patek 3448 or 3450—but with tweaks to the bezel to change how it looks on the wrist. The dial is a multi-level gold dial, with a grained central texture, 2N gold metallicized indices, chamfered levels, gold hands with hand-finished facets, and an onyx stone-dial ring for the hour and minute track. The watch also comes with Biver’s striking, angular bracelet, which now comes with a patented micro-adjust activated by two push buttons.

The caliber JCB-004 is developed in collaboration with Le Cercle des Horlogers but is only available to Biver unless they choose to license it out. Like the dial, the movement is made in gold, which is a core tenet of what the brand has been doing. You can see the two barrels in series, with a distinctive click to the winding system, with strong resistance as you ramp up to what the brand expects to test out at around 120 hours of power reserve. There’s actually a power reserve indication in an aperture on the dial, shown with a moving pin that will go from left to right as you wind. The movement runs at 3Hz and has a zero-reset mechanism that helps you more accurately set the time each time you pull the crown out.

As for the customer requests, the idea was to give them a stainless steel watch (with 80 meters of water resistance) that these kinds of customers could wear without worrying about precious metals or being too delicate with it. But instead of using a movement that was conceived for only precious metals, Biver added value with something new, keeping finishing quality while removing some of the more aggressive techniques like Clous de Paris on the Automatique. The new AB retails for CHF 68,000, or around $80,000, which is about $20,000 less than the entry example of the previous model. It also won’t be limited in total edition.

What We Think

I got to see the watch in person, so I will save a lot of my extended thoughts for an upcoming hands-on. But, in short, I thought it wore incredibly well on the wrist, almost visually closer to a 36mm case size, as the bezel is slightly larger and shrinks the dial a touch. The drop-off from the lugs is, as always with Biver, very comfortable and will fit a wide variety of wrist sizes. The bracelet is equally comfortable, though I did struggle to adjust to the idea that the pushers weren’t for releasing the spring-loaded bracelet, but instead let out the micro-adjust. That bracelet will come to all other models in the future. The dial is the star of the show, however, so all that and more is coming up in a future article.

The Basics

Brand: Biver
Model: AB

Diameter: 38mm
Thickness: 9.8mm
Case Material: Stainless steel
Dial Color: Yellow gold (2N) with black DLC, Onyx outer ring
Indexes: 18k yellow gold 2N, applied using metallisation technique
Lume: None
Water Resistance: 80m
Strap/Bracelet: 19mm lug width steel Biver bracelet with micro-adjust, with an additional Bahia Calf leather strap and steel buckle

The Movement

Caliber: JCB-004 (proprietary to Biver, developed with Le Cercle des Horlogers)
Functions: Hours, minutes, seconds (with zero-reset), and power reserve indicated on the dial via a golden pin
Diameter: 29.6mm
Thickness: 4.6mm
Power Reserve: ± 120 hours
Winding: Manual
Frequency: 3Hz
Jewels: 32
Chronometer Certified: No
Additional Details: Four-year warranty

Pricing & Availability

Price: CHF 68,000
Availability: Now
Limited Edition: No

For more, click here.