The village Lengnau, which is located at the foot of the Jura Mountains in the canton of Bern and its population of just 5’500 is not very spectacular. However it is an important junction for the watch production. Something that Swiss watchbrand Carl F. Bucherer already realized many years ago and since 2002 runs a small production in Lengnau, additionally to the one in St-Croix.
The entree at the Carl F. Bucherer manufacture in Lengnau
A few years ago the joined workspace became for sale and Carl F. Bucherer took the opportunity to settle its whole production to Lengnau. In 2016 they celebrated the opening of their new manufacture. Swisswatches blog had the opportunity to visit the new manufacture and pick up some impressions of the changes and advantages. This step made sense, as the Carl F. Bucherer headquarter is based nearby of Lucerne. Also the motorway A5 runs just next to Lengnau, which allows a fast and smooth connection. Around 80 employees at the new headquarter are responsible for the development, production and assembling of the watches, but also for all customer service issues. Management and product development as well as marketing are still controlled from Lucerne.
In Lengnau, development, production and assembling come together
The watchbrand Carl F. Bucherer – established 1888 in Lucerne – belongs to the Bucherer-Group, which runs its renowned shops of luxury watch- and jewellery brands across Europe – and recently also in the USA. Carl F. Bucherer is one of the very few Swiss watchbrands that still belongs to the founding family. It is represented by Jörg G. Bucherer as president of the board in third generation of the Bucherer-family.
Jörg G. Bucherer, President of the Bucherer-Group
One argument for the new manufacture surely is the stronger verticalization , as the manufacturing, assembling and research are kept under one roof and speed up the processes. This enables Carl F. Bucherer to reduce their costs and at the same time to boost their production and serve the growing demand. CEO Sascha Moeri set himself ambitious goals. Since the opening of the new manufacture, Carl F. Bucherer produces around 25.000 watches a year. Moeri aims to produce 30.000 watches in 2019 in Lengnau, which will reach clients all over the world. This is an enormous increase compared to around 6.500 watches that left the manufacture in 2011.
25.000 watches leave the manufacture in Lengnau every year
Although Carl F. Bucherer is able to produce in-house movements (CFB 1901 / CFB T1001) since many years, they have set a new milestone in the watch industry in 2008. They were the first manufacture in the world to large-scale produce the automatic movement, which is run by a peripheral rotor. The technology first circulated in the 1950s and 1960s. The energy source – the peripheral rotor – circles around the movement and allows an unhindered view onto the high-quality movement, which is not hidden by a conventional winding rotor.
The Carl F. Bucherer in-house movement CFB T1001
A second type of this movement, CFB A2000 followed in 2016. At Baselworld 2018 Carl F. Bucherer introduced the Manero Tourbillon DoublePeripheral with in-house calibre CFB T3000 – the worlds first peripheral automatic watch combined with a peripheral Tourbillon that seems to float. All three movements were developed and produced completely in-house. The collaboration with external supplies however remains extremely important to Carl F. Bucherer.
In-house calibre CFB T3000 with the worlds first peripheral Tourbillon
The new manufacture is technically extremely advanced. Many operational steps are carried out by machines and parts are being preassembled or assembled to guarantee the same quality throughout the production processes. On the other side, Carl F. Bucherer strongly emphasizes fields just like that of movement decoration, as it requires craftsmanship skills that are hard to copy by machines. As most manufactures become increasingly modernized it also becomes the responsibility of the industry to create and promote an awareness for certain craftsmanship. Especially a mechanical watch comes alive by the nostalgic of the craftsmanship – however these are gradually industrialized and optimized to improve the quality and reduce the production time. Carl F. Bucherer still today combines the passion for true craftsmanship, innovative technology and extraordinary design.
There is always some anniversary to be celebrated in the watch industry. And although the history of Montblanc watches is comparatively young, the Hamburg based brand yet already celebrates a very special anniversary – Minerva turns 160 years. The Maison was founded 1858 by Charles-Yvan Robert in Villeret and was acquired by Montblanc in 2007.…
We are standing in Glashütte in front of a mileage post from 1734 next to the A. Lange & Söhne manufacture, which signals the distances to the surrounding villages and towns. Back then, the post indicates, it took six hours and fifteen minutes to get from Glashütte to Dresden by horse-drawn carriage. Glashütte was nothing…
A few weeks back we were kindly invited to discover the new Panerai manufacture headquarter which is idyllically located in the mountains just above a lake near Neuchâtel, the heart of the world of fine watchmaking. It’s equipped with incredible advanced technologies, a ‘think tank’ department called The Laboratorio di Idee, the RFID system to streamline…
What defines a dial from Glashütte Original? How much manual craftsmanship, how much technology, and how many steps are required from the initial design draft to the finished dial that ultimately gives every timepiece from the manufacture its distinctive face? In search of answers to these questions, we attended the opening of Glashütte Original’s new…
Maybe the founder of the AkriviA can be called the ‘enfant terrible’ of the watch industry, but in a positive, eccentric way. We have already introduced the brand and master watchmaker Rexhep Rexhepi. He created an atelier that not too many people know about, yet which offers so much potential. The master watchmaker Rexhep Rexhepi focused at work…
The first mention of Tudor dates back to the year 1926, when Hans Wilsdorf first had the trademark ‘The Tudor’ registered. Six years later, the name would start to appear on several watches. Then, in 1936, Wilsdorf had the actual brand ‘The Tudor’ transferred over to himself. As an Anglophile and eventually a British citizen,…
While it is an extreme privilege to have been inside pretty much every Swiss horology house, at some point, a picture automatically forms in one's mind as to what to expect when visiting yet another manufacture of mechanical watches. https://youtu.be/HQb-oEhKL9o What attracted me most to visiting the Piaget factory in Geneva was my totally fragmented…
Back in 2004, Robert Greubel and Stephen Forsey founded the Greubel Forsey watch brand. In 2007, the two watchmakers bought an old 17th-century farmhouse and converted it into an atelier, where they now combine traditional craftsmanship with modern Haute Horlogerie – making it one of the few places where a manufacture embodies the products created…
Jaeger-LeCoultre, often dubbed the ‘Watchmaker of Watchmakers’, has a long history of supplying parts to esteemed brands like Patek Philippe, Audemars Piguet, and Cartier. Today a fully integrated manufacture producing some of the most coveted and complicated luxury watches in the world, this legacy of expertise is upheld by the 180 crafts that continue to…
Once, the small village of Fleurier in the Swiss canton of Neuchâtel has been an important place for watch making. But in the 1970s the quartz crisis had a major impact on the watch industry in Fleurier. At that time a young watchmaker called Michel Parmigiani was faced with the decision either to become an…
Glashütte – the renowned town of German watchmaking – is home to Nomos, an innovator that has gained international acclaim for its minimalist design, aimed at achieving the maximum with minimal resources. During a visit to the manufacture, we had the opportunity to follow the entire process of creating a Nomos watch – from raw…
‘Born in Saxony’ – so goes the slogan of Lang & Heyne, a watch manufacture from the small German town of Radeberg near Dresden. It’s a name known only to true connoisseurs and watch aficionados; only around 150 watches are crafted here every year, with the utmost attention to detail. ‘Born in Saxony’ is not…
When one thinks of Swiss-made watches, what springs to mind? For some of us, it’s a luxurious boutique in the heart of an affluent metropolis. For others, it’s a fast-paced car rally with watch-branded banners plastered over the track. But what about the place where mechanical watches come to life? To find out, I accompanied…