Yannick Nardin, WorldTempus – What convinced you to invest so many resources and years into such an unusual project, carried out entirely by hand and without digital assistance?
Karl-Friedrich Scheufele – It’s undeniably an atypical project—some might even say a little crazy. I’m passionate about craftsmanship and firmly believe we must keep it alive and help it evolve. Manual work is the foundation of everything, but we’ve partly lost it with the advent of digital tools. That’s where the idea came from: to continue in the spirit of Naissance d’une Montre (1 and 2, editor’s note), but in a broader way—by bringing together a group of artisans, each an expert in their own specialty, many of them young, so they could rediscover the methods of the past. So we created a workshop equipped with machines from the 1950s and 1960s. Out of that bold move came a major adventure, which has culminated today—six years later—in a unique timepiece.
The motto “To time that teaches” lies at the heart of this project. How do you hope Naissance d’une Montre 3 will help preserve and pass on watchmaking expertise?
We recorded and documented absolutely everything, so that this knowledge remains accessible to the artisans of tomorrow. The workshop will continue: ten watches will follow this first model over the next five years, and other projects will extend the tradition we’ve just revived.
Among the 11,000 hours of work, the hundreds of components crafted using traditional methods, and the coordination of more than 80 artisans, what was the greatest challenge: technical or human?
Both! First, we had to convince everyone to take part. Fortunately, a great dynamic developed quickly, and the team spirit was remarkable—bringing together jewelers, case makers, engravers, micromechanics… But we also encountered roadblocks: we constantly had to find new ways forward, working with the deliberately limited means we had imposed on ourselves. Today, digital tools allow you to design everything very quickly, but here, we practiced reverse engineering—acquiring skills in reverse, so to speak. And we discovered that certain finishes, which are impossible to achieve with modern machines, could actually be done by hand.
How did you balance paying tribute to historical regulators—like the bimetallic balance and the fusee-and-chain mechanism—with the precision standards required by the COSC?
That’s the DNA of every Berthoud timepiece: uniting tradition and precision. We took the risk of adopting a bimetallic balance without knowing for sure it would work. The process was complex, but the surprise was tremendous: this balance wheel, inspired by designs abandoned more than fifty years ago, exceeded our expectations in terms of chronometry. A real gift—almost like Christmas came early!
You lead both Chopard and Chronométrie Ferdinand Berthoud. What does this role as a “guardian of heritage” bring to your journey as an entrepreneur?
Two milestones have marked me: thirty years ago, the creation of our L.U.C manufacture, when we designed our first movement with a small team—a true start-up. And today, Naissance d’une Montre 3. One wouldn’t exist without the other: that first L.U.C movement opened up unimaginable possibilities. At the time, I would never have believed we’d one day launch a minute repeater or a project like this. These achievements fuel not only my personal pride but also the future of our family-owned company.
In your family, watchmaking has been passed down from generation to generation. What values do you hope to pass on?
Transmission, of course—but also the responsibility of being an entrepreneur with a forward-looking mindset, respect for the crafts, for artisans, for clients, and a passion for fine craftsmanship: quality, precision, and beauty.
Finally, if you had to choose just one image from these six years?
I think of the day when, in a moment of “impatient crisis,” I challenged the team to finish the prototype before my birthday—which happened to coincide with the official retirement age! That February 5th, they arrived with the functioning watch. An unforgettable gift.
