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Introducing the Ferdinand Berthoud Régulateur Squelette FB RS

by Sumit Nag . Mar 31, 2021

Introducing the Ferdinand Berthoud Régulateur Squelette FB RS

An attempt to craft the world’s first marine chronometer was first made by the legendary Christiaan Huygens, the man who invented the pendulum clock. But his attempts ultimately failed. Eventually, the British Longitude Prize was claimed by watchmaker John Harrison, who dedicated the vast majority of his life to this achievement and inspired men like Thomas Mudge to follow in his footsteps.

But while these men were instrumental to the quickly expanding success of the British colonial efforts, in France there was a watchmaker who had also cracked the Rosetta Code of marine chronometry and his name was Ferdinand Berthoud. While he may not have been the first to create a watch that was accurate at sea, he is today revered as one of the world’s greatest horological geniuses and the man who very possibly created the finest marine chronometers ever made.

Berthoud was Swiss in origin and born into the watchmaking epicenter of Fleurier in the town of Val-de-Travers. By 1745, he had a thriving business in Paris with a focus on creating the most innovative and technically advanced marine chronometers in existence — so much so that he was appointed clockmaker to the French Navy in 1762, and that to the French King in 1773.

It was the King of France Louis Philippe I who insisted that Berthoud visited John Harrison in the spirit of cordial international technical exchange. With Berthoud’s help, France’s fortunes multiplied considerably during the 18th century, but it was far from an easy time. Competition from Spain, Portugal, England and even the United States was fierce. But thanks to strength of its navy, equipped with Berthoud chronometers, France was able to seize vast tracts of land in the Caribbean, North Africa and even India.

Today, whether functional or decorative or both, a Berthoud marine chronometer is considered one of the most desirable works of horological art that any collector can possess. It was through his collection of Berthoud marine chronometers that Karl-Friedrich Scheufele, the co-president of Chopard and the founder of the brand’s technically brilliant in-house manufactured L.U.C division, first began to forge an emotional bond with Ferdinand Berthoud.

Scheufele’s emotional bond, of course, as we all know now led to the inception of the brand, Ferdinand Berthoud that exists today, with five incredible families of watches released since 2015. The most recent, being the Ferdinand Berthoud Chronomètre FB 2RE, which had one of the most impressive watch movements seen last year. So impressive was the movement that we named it the Revolution Awards 2020’s Best Complication.

Ferdinand Berthoud’s First Skeleton Movement

In the initial Ferdinand Berthoud watches created since 2015, the intention was to keep things discreet. So it was only when you turned the watch over that you could see the magnificence of its oversized tourbillon and an incredible chain and fusée. With the Régulateur Squelette FB RS, Ferdinand Berthoud has for the first time, allowed these two mechanisms to be laid bare even from the front of the watch.

If the face of the Régulateur Squelette FB RS looks familiar, that is because it is based off the Chronomètre FB 1R.6-1. It has a similar architecture, but now there is this beautiful bridge over the tourbillon and the entire baseplate has been opened up. Says Vincent Lapaire, General Manager of Chronométrie Ferdinand Berthoud, “We completely reworked the movement that we initially introduced in 2018, so that we have this possibility to highlight the tourbillon carriage from the dial side. The idea came from requests from our collectors around the world who shared with us, ‘who your watches are amazing, but it would great to see more of your movements from the front of the watches.’

The Chronométre Ferdinand Berthoud FB 1R.6-1, which was initially launched at Baselworld 2018

The 2021 Ferdinand Berthoud Régulateur Squelette FB RS in an octagonal case in ultra-resistant carburised stainless steel (©Revolution)

“We took the time to think about how we might achieve this, without compromising the DNA of the brand’s aesthetics. We decided on a semi-seketonised approach, as it’s not possible to have any more skeletonization than this because of the chain and fusée mechanism; specifically with the torque between the two elements — the barrel and the fusée — we are not able to open up the movement, any further.”

Vincent and his team had to rethink and reconfigure at least 40% of the parts from the 2018 version of the movement in order to achieve what we see in 2021. He goes on to explain that one of the key elements that had to receive special attention was the two-armed bridge over the tourbillon, which is mirror polished. Close inspection reveals that each arm on the bridge bears a different angle, making it particularly challenging to achieve this level of finishing, by hand.

Exemplary hand poslihing applied to the complex tourbillon bridge of the Ferdinand Berthoud Régulateur Squelette FB RS (©Revolution)

“More than one-years’ worth of trials were necessary before we were able to reach this absolute perfection on the tourbillon bridge. What is funny is that this tourbillon bridge almost appears to be sparkling, as light plays on its polished surfaces. One arm will always appear dark while the other shiny when you hold it up to light. You will never be able to see the surfaces on both arms lit, simply because of the way the angles are designed,” shares Vincent.

Thereafter, the watch remains mostly similar to the 2018 variation with the hour display on a large sapphire disk at 2 o’clock; the minute is displayed by a gold blue CVD-coated hand at 12 o’clock. Lastly, we have the power reserve, at 10 o’clock, which is a complex assembly of a mobile cone and flat levers that follows a spiral spring used to compensate the play between all the elements and provide the necessary torque for the accurate display of power reserve.

Shares Wei Koh, founder of The Rake and Revolution, “Looking at this watch through a loupe is breathtaking. First thing that you notice is that the mirror polish that you have on the tourbillon bridge and the different angles it adopts, they’re absolutely amazing. The second thing you notice is the main bridge that incorporates the hour and minute indicators, it has internal angles. It looks like Ferdinand Berthoud almost went out of their way to create these internal angles, because this means that there’s no way to polish any of this by machine, it all has to be done by hand. They’ve got right internal angles here, which are incidentally, the hardest to polish.

Multiple internal angles used on the main bridge that incorporates the hour and minute indicator, including internal angles at 90° on the Ferdinand Berthoud Régulateur Squelette FB RS (©Revolution)

“The thing that we have to talk about though is the massive seconds hand in the middle of the watch. This massive seconds hand is important, first of all, because it harks back to regulators, which were clocks that had all each of the indications decentralized, usually focusing on the seconds to be as precise as possible. But also this seconds hand allows this watch to be COSC certified, as an actual chronometer. And that’s really important, because there’s so many people who create tourbillons and whole essence — the whole raison d’etre — of the tourbillon is that it’s meant to be a precision device. For me, if you make a tourbillon and you do not COSC certify said watch, in some ways, you’re giving zero proof that your tourbillon watch has any actual value. I can count on one hand the first brand in the world that ever COSC-certified their tourbillons, was Patek Philippe, second was Chopard L.U.C. Recently, it was TAG Heuer with their 02T and then, of course, Ferdinand Berthoud with this massive seconds hand, almost to show off that look at how precise this watch is.”

If you love the architecture of movements, what you’ll appreciated about the Régulateur Squelette FB RS is that when you look through the front of the watch you have the tourbillon, its bridge and you see how it’s mounted, you’ll see that there is a fixed second wheel, around which the escapement circumnavigates, but there’s also a second seconds wheel. This fixed seconds wheel is driving the central seconds wheel, which in turn drives the seconds hand. It’s all just very elegant, logical watchmaking, held in spotlight for the world to admire.

The Ferdinand Berthoud Régulateur Squelette FB RS has a massive seconds hand in the middle of the watch that harks back to regulators, which were clocks that had all each of the indications decentralized, usually focusing on the seconds to be as precise as possible; it is also this seconds hand that allows this watch to be COSC certified, as an actual chronometer (©Revolution)

The chain and chain and fusée, constant force mechanism of the Ferdinand Berthoud Régulateur Squelette FB RS as visible from the caseback (©Revolution)

A Case of Cases

The Régulateur Squelette FB RS will be limited to a production of 20 movements, offered in a round case in 18-carat rose gold, fitted with a transparent sapphire porthole. With an option for alternate octagonal case in ultra-resistant carburised stainless steel, fitted with two transparent sapphire portholes.

For the carburised stainless steel, the case and all of its elements must first be formed, before they are handed over to a specialized workshop where the surface of the steel is treated at a molecular level to harden it resulting in a vikers rating of 1200. The treatment is prone to fail rate of 15-20%, and all of the other elements that work with the case — the screws and etc. — must be reworked in order for them to be used on the case. Which in turn make the case costly to produce, but of course, with undeniably robust physical qualities at the end.

Seen here is the alternate round 18-carat rose gold case for the Ferdinand Berthoud Régulateur Squelette FB RS

Tech Specs

FB 1RS.6: CHF 235,000 (SGD 344,000)

CASE
Octagonal case in ultra-resistant carburised stainless steel, fitted with two transparent sapphire portholes; total diameter: 44 mm; thickness: 13.95 mm; water resistance: 30 metres; crown diameter: 9 mm

Dynamometric crown (decoupling system) in carburised stainless steel, with black ceramic medallion

Carburised stainless-steel screw-in case-back with glare-proofed sapphire crystal

Domed, arched sapphire crystal, glare-proofed on both sides

DIAL
Openworked regulator plate (dial) in vertical satin-brushed black PVD-treated nickel silver

Hours indication on sapphire disc at 2 o’clock

Openworked, sandblasted and silver-toned minutes dial at 12 o’clock, with black Arabic numerals

Flat seconds inner bezel ring framing the sapphire dial

“0_1” grey-coloured power-reserve indication engraved on the regulator plate at 10 o’clock

HANDS
Facetted and openworked dagger-type minutes hand in 18-carat white gold with blue CVD treatment

Steel fixed hours pointer

Arrow-shaped power-reserve hand in steel

Rhodium-plated bronze central sweep-seconds hand

STRAP & CLASP/BUCKLE
Hand-sewn rolled-edge alligator leather strap made from a single piece of leather (125 x 70 mm – Various sizes available on request

Titanium double-blade length-adjustable folding clasp with carburised stainless steel cap – Pin buckle available on request

REF. FB 2RS.2: CHF 244,000 (SGD 357,000)

CASE
Round case in 18-carat rose gold, fitted with a transparent sapphire porthole; total diameter: 44 mm; thickness: 14.26 mm; water resistance: 30 metres; crown diameter: 9 mm

Dynamometric crown (decoupling system) in carburised stainless steel, with black ceramic medallion

18-carat rose gold screw-in case-back with glare-proofed sapphire crystal

Domed, arched sapphire crystal, glare-proofed on both sides

DIAL
Openworked regulator plate (dial) in vertical satin-brushed black PVD-treated nickel silver

Hours indication on sapphire disc at 2 o’clock

Openworked, sandblasted and silver-toned minutes dial at 12 o’clock, with black Arabic numerals

Flat seconds inner bezel ring framing the sapphire dial

“0_1” grey-coloured power-reserve indication engraved on the regulator plate at 10 o’clock

HANDS
Facetted and openworked dagger-type minutes hand in 18-carat white gold with blue CVD treatment

Steel fixed hours pointer with blue CVD treatment

Arrow-type power-reserve hand in 18-carat rose gold

Gilded bronze central sweep-seconds hand

STRAP & CLASP/BUCKLE
Hand-sewn rolled-edge alligator leather strap made from a single piece of leather (125 x 70 mm) – Various sizes available on request

18-carat rose gold double-blade length-adjustable folding clasp – pin buckle available on request.

The mechanical hand-wound Calibre FB-T.FC.RS as seen from the front of the Ferdinand Berthoud Régulateur Squelette FB RS

The mechanical hand-wound Calibre FB-T.FC.RS as seen from the caseback the Ferdinand Berthoud Régulateur Squelette FB RS

FUNCTIONS

Hours appearing on a disc at 2 o’clock, pointer-type minute display at 12 o’clock, central sweep-seconds hand and power-reserve indication at 10 o’clock

MOVEMENT

Mechanical hand-wound Calibre FB-T.FC.RS; diameter: 37,30 mm; thickness: 9,89 mm; lignes: 15 ¾; jewels: 49; frequency: 21,600 vph (3 Hz); power reserve: 53 hours

Limited production (encompassing all types of case): 20 movements

TECHNICAL CHARACTERISTICS

Tourbillon with fusée-chain transmission (constant force)

Suspended fusée – winding differential system (PATENT)

Suspended barrel – Maltese cross stopwork system (PATENT)

Suspended power reserve – mobile cone system (PATENT)

Tourbillon with direct-drive seconds (PATENT)

Regulator-type display

Power-reserve indicator with levers and spiral spring

Variable-inertia balance with four gilded nickel silver inertia blocks

Balance-spring with hand-shaped Philips terminal curve (steel)

Swiss lever escapement