Watchmaking and jewelry making are two creative disciplines that have been linked for centuries. Traditionally, many of the craftspeople specializing in things like metalworking, fine assembly, and gem setting worked across the two areas, creating a beautiful necklace one day and an incredible watch bracelet the next. With our gem set watches, Biver wanted to honour this tradition while continuing to push watchmaking art forward with new ideas and executions.

To start, we developed our own signature stone cut in partnership with NIRU, an international firm that specializes in gem setting and the use of stones in watchmaking. The Biver Cut takes the best elements of the baguette cut – the large internal volume that gives baguette-cut stones their brightness and sharp architectural shape – and modifies it to be better tailored specifically for watchmaking needs.

The main top face of the stone is slanted, allowing it to have full volume on one side while tapering toward the other. This was originally inspired by the shape of the links in the Biver bracelet, giving the watches a sense of visual continuity and shared design language, whether a particular gem-set watch is presented on a bracelet or not (such as the unique Carillon Tourbillon Catharsis, for example). This type of geometry has a strong presence and feels familiar while also inviting the viewer to look closer and uncover something new.

There are aesthetic reasons for the Biver cut, but also technical reasons. Having the stones taper on one side, reducing their thickness dramatically, allows us to set them with much finer tolerances. This might not sound like much, but it allows us to increase the diameter of the Carillon Tourbillon by only one millimeter (from 42mm to 43mm) when adding gemstones to the case, even allowing us to maintain the concave shape of the case band. This dramatically improves wearability of these watches and doesn’t disrupt the thoroughly thought-through proportions of the rest of the design. It’s a very small detail, but one that has an outsized impact.

“Creating gem-set pieces is a process that differs significantly from regular production,” says co-founder and creative director Pierre Biver. “First, you need to design the piece, then source the stones and ensure they meet the highest standards of quality. Once approved, you must collaborate with skilled artisans who can produce the parts that will house these stones, and finally you need to find artisans that are skilled enough to set the gems flawlessly, ensuring perfection throughout the entire watch. It requires a lot of know-how and expert skills.”

Similarly to when we work with hard stones for the dials, we always strive to show off the natural beauty of particular gem stones when using them in a watch, setting and combining them in unique ways to express different visions and ideas. For example, both the Carillon Tourbillon

Bucherer and Carillon Tourbillon Deep Blue utilize Biver-cut sapphires, but to completely different effects. The former employs a gradient of sapphires from rich blue to completely transparent and pairs them with an ocean-like Sodalite dial, giving the stones a bright, sparkling appearance. The latter features only dark blue sapphires, which appear to have incredible depth next to the engraved white gold Hyperspace dial and its shimmering surface. And whether we are utilizing one type of stone, such as with these watches, or multiple types of stones, such as with the Carillon Tourbillon Tsavorite, our team of designers and artisans work hand-in-hand to ensure that we are amplifying the beauty inherent in the stones themselves and that they feel every bit as integrated into the final watch as the hands or the balance wheel.

Ultimately, we love the challenge of creating gem-set watches that push aesthetic boundaries while still adhering to the design principles that make Biver watchmaking distinctive. We dedicate considerable time and effort up front and then work with the most talented artisans we can find to ensure they come to life just the way we’ve imagined them. Their combination of technical excellence and aesthetic appeal is something truly special and an important part of the Biver story.