Building A Bracelet

Sometimes a bracelet is just a bracelet. And sometimes it’s much more than that. For the Automatique, we developed a new bracelet design that both feels fully at home on that watch aesthetically and carries through the same approach, techniques, and attention-to-detail that we put into each and every one of our timepieces.

“The five-row bracelet has been and remains a watchmaking classic, and we wanted to honor that tradition,” says Maison Biver creative director Pierre Biver. “But as with everything we do, we wanted complete control over the design, which meant developing it entirely from scratch. I’ve always viewed a bracelet as a crucial element in giving a watch its unique identity and creating our own is a testament to the fact that we are crafting design firmly rooted in the present.”

From a technical perspective, the bracelet is composed of 104 faceted links, three additional links holding the clasp, the folding clasp itself, and the end links, all of which are made of either rose gold or platinum. And that’s just the start. Each of the two end links also contains 10 additional components for the quick-change system and there are 62 total fastening elements that hold the links together, including pins, screws, and nuts. Finally, entirely hidden from view are 118 high-tech ceramic tubes, each of which is used to line the holes in the precious metal links used to connect them together – this prevents the gold pins from unevenly wearing the holes over time and the bracelet stretching out and losing shape. In total, each bracelet contains over 300 individual components, each of which requires hand-finishing and hand-assembly to come together.

The main links require the most attention, with each individual link requiring a few dozen steps to machine and finish, including mirror polishing and satin finishing on its various facets. In total, it takes approximately 30 minutes to produce each rose gold link and about 80 minutes to produce one platinum link. (The difference in time is due to the inherent difficulty of working with platinum as a material.)

Assembly takes another few hours and because all components are made of precious metal, the craftspeople must be extra careful, as any blemishes can create hours or days of extra work. Because the geometry and fit of the links together is so important and the tolerances are so small, any tiny mistake requires a link be melted down and a new one started from scratch. A gold bracelet takes approximately 60 total hours to complete, while a platinum bracelet requires approximately 150 hours.

This is all in service of creating a final bracelet that looks and performs at its very best. The undersides of all the links are polished, both because it gives the bracelet great visual definition and because it creates a smooth, almost seamless feeling on the skin. Other details exist purely to delight the wearer, such as the perlage finish on the insides of the moving clasp elements lining up perfectly with one another as the clasp is opened and closed.

“The Biver bracelet is an exceptional piece of jewelry that is both aesthetic and technical,” says Yves Neuenschwander. “The complexity and the standards are both extremely high. The great challenge is perfectly matching all of these individually hand-polished elements – just one defective facet on one link and the entire bracelet has to be remade.”

Ultimately though, this bracelet was designed as a complement to the Automatique itself. Just as the watch’s dial is inspired by some of our favorite vintage timepieces, the end links on the bracelet have a straight profile that pays tribute to the exquisite bracelets that can be found on mid-century watches. And while the bracelets are certainly substantial – 135 grams for rose gold and 184 grams for platinum – they balance beautifully, allowing the Automatique to sit comfortably on the wrist all day long.