FB 3SPC.1, Chronomètre, White Gold

This is Ferdinand Berthoud’s FB 3SPC.1, a chronometry-focused, cylindrical-hairspring wristwatch with exceptional quality of detail. Launched in October 2022, the FB 3SPC won the GPHG Chronometry Prize the following year. Ferdinand Berthoud was revived under Karl-Friedrich Scheufele as a standalone maison within the Chopard group, aiming to continue the level of work of one of history’s greatest horologists. The 3SPC was the brand’s third collection, and the .1, in white gold over a 2N-gilt movement, is its original configuration. It has since become recognized as a uniquely complete exercise in celebrating not just chronometry but the aesthetic sensibility of the Berthoud workshop.

Berthoud himself was born in the Val-de-Travers in 1727, left for Paris at 18 and was made a master watchmaker by royal decree in 1753. In 1770 he was named Horloger Mécanicien du Roi et de la Marine. Karl-Friedrich Scheufele, co-president of Chopard, bought the name in 2006 and launched Chronométrie Ferdinand Berthoud in Fleurier in 2015. Its first watch, the FB 1, won the Aiguille d’Or a year later. The intent was to work at the level of quality where Berthoud had left things, a lofty aim that has been achieved. In a short time, Scheufele has placed the brand amongst the most prestigious watchmaking manufactures working today.

The FB 3SPC was introduced as the distilled time-only of Berthoud’s collection, doing away with the fusée-and-chain, tourbillon and remontoir of the FB 1 and FB 2. What remains is a classic Swiss lever escapement, with its chronometry stemming instead from its oscillating organ. The design echoes the No. 26 decimal watch completed in 1793 by Louis Berthoud, Ferdinand’s nephew and successor, and now held in the brand’s collection in Fleurier. The hand-wound calibre FB-SPC has 230 components, 47 jewels, a single slip-spring barrel, 72 hours of reserve, stop-seconds and a 3 Hz variable-inertia balance. A central mainplate carries six bridges on the dial side and ten on the back. The escapement sits at 9 o’clock, its cylindrical balance spring visible through a sapphire porthole in the case side.

A flat hairspring breathes off-centre, pushing sideways on the balance pivots and shifting rate as amplitude falls. The cylindrical spring, patented by John Arnold in 1775 and long a marine-chronometer staple, breathes concentrically, improving isochronism. Standing upright, it is also sensitive to position, so modern examples usually sit in tourbillons. This one has no tourbillon: both terminal curves are formed by hand and checked at 20x magnification, and the adjustment took two years to perfect. The brand calls FB-SPC the first cylindrical-hairspring movement to be chronometer-certified by COSC under ISO 3159. Surfaces are fine-sandblasted matte with hand-polished bevels. Each movement takes more than 100 hours to finish, all by a single artisan, and production is capped at 25 pieces a year.

While restrained and as proportionally svelte as possible, the FB 3SPC.1 displays Ferdinand Berthoud’s technical abilities in full measure. It is amongst the most thoughtfully engineered and finished time-only watches of the last decade—a fittingly skilled execution for the name it bears.

This 3SPC.1 presents in exceptional overall condition. Its case shows only the lightest signs of careful use. Its calibre FB-SPC is running perfectly in specification on our timing equipment. It comes with its full original strap and the extra nubuck alligator strap pictured.

This example is modelled on an average-sized 7-inch wrist.