A First Look at the Berneron Annual Calendar

The Watchlist features a pair of Universal Genèves and a Cartier Tank by any other name—and Berneron's second act.

Good morning. In today’s Sunday edition:

• The secret’s out: a first look at Berneron’s Quantième Annuel, the brand’s second act.

• One more auction hiccup I should’ve caught last week.

• For paid subscribers, The Watchlist features two Universal Geneve favorites, Gay Freres, and a Cartier (London) Tank by any other name.

Thanks again for all the kind words on the Chrono24 video with Thomas & Chris. Here’s what else paid subscribers are reading this week:

Beyond Unpolished: Let's Talk About Restoration

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Berneron’s Second Act: The Quantieme Annuel

More than the “Mirage guy”

The Berneron Annual Calendar displays time and date logically: top-down for time, left-to-right for the calendar. Here shows 5:10:37 PM on Wed., 13th March.

I mentioned visiting Sylvain Berneron in my Geneva dispatch, where he was previewing his second collection. Officially slated for a September release, it's already a poorly kept secret among collectors.

A few public posts have begun circulating, so I texted Sylvain to ask if I could mention it in the newsletter. Yes of course, he said.

Render and 3D model of the Annuel Quantieme on my wrist (on the phone screen, Lange numerals—there's some clear inspiration, but the AQ stands apart).

This is the Berneron Quantième Annuel, or Annual Calendar, featuring a time-and-date layout logically read up-down (time) and left-right (date). It starts with the large jump hour at 12 o’clock; the minutes and small seconds follow below. Day and month apertures are laid out horizontally.¹ The AM/PM indicator sits in a notch off the small seconds—Sylvain said it’s slightly offset because it’s the only indicator that interacts with both the time and date (i.e., with the horizontal and vertical readouts).

Other features/innovations:

• Instant Jump x 4. Hour, day, month, and AM/PM indicator all jump instantaneously, thanks to cam-stored energy.

• Safety Mode. Two click pushers in the case at 8 and 4 o’clock set the day and date. Berneron has also developed a “safety mode” so that if it’s set incorrectly (e.g., Feb. 31), the retrograde date simply resets to the first of the month. “Developing the movement took one year, and developing this safety mechanism took another year,” Sylvain said.

• Innovative retrograde date. The retrograde jumps in three different lengths to compensate for varying date sizes (1–9, 10–19, and 20-on), solving a common design problem through hidden complexity. “This tells you everything about our company,” I remember Sylvain saying.²

• Readable calendar. The Day and Date windows are 40% larger than comparable calendar displays, achieved by overlapping the month wheel with the center pinion.

• Platinum case with steel ‘bumpers.’ The platinum case measures 38 x 10mm, but will have steel lugs, bezel, and hunter case button (on the crown). The idea is that all high-contact points are steel and can be replaced, protecting the precious platinum underneath.

• Symmetrical movement. Like the dial, the movement is symmetrical, and “read” in reverse. The crown on the right winds the twin barrels, and the energy flows from right to left, then down to up, ending with the escapement at the top.³

• Caliber. As with the Mirage, the caliber is in gold, featuring 450 components, of which Berneron says 400 are bespoke.

• Price: CHF 120,000

• Production: Blue and black dial colors available, 24/year for each color, to be produced for 10 years. Half of the first year of production has been allocated. Requires a 50% deposit up front.

“I don’t want to be the Mirage guy.”

—That’s how Sylvain started his presentation. The Annual Calendar is the opposite of the Mirage–symmetrical, round, complicated (even the Berneron logo is mirrored).

Like the Mirage though, its apparent simplicity conceals complexity. Sylvain and his movement partners are like programmers, coding complexity into a mechanical computer (much cooler!). They “program” these intricacies into a watch that’s beautiful, simple, and usable for the collector.

It may not feel as fresh or groundbreaking as the Mirage. Sophomore albums are hard, especially if your debut is Illmatic. The Mirage was so different from anything that anyone had ever done, and the inspiration for the Annual Calendar feels more readily apparent (echoes of Patek, Lange).

Yet, the project shows ambition, exceeding the efforts of many better-funded, more established brands. There’s also the business reality: with Mirage orders stretching out five years, Berneron needed a complicated (and more expensive) offering.⁴

The Annual Calendar achieves this goal authentically, backed by a stated CHF 1.7m investment. While different from the Mirage, it confirms Berneron's true ambition: building an enduring brand.

More than anything, everyone seems to have an immediate reaction to the Annual Calendar, positive or negative. It’s perhaps the highest compliment I can pay to a watch, when nowadays so many are “meh.” What do you think of Berneron’s second collection?

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The Watchlist

Watchlist time! Based on responses to the last few editions—where subscriber pickups include a platinum Vacheron, Heuer Carrera 7753NST, a couple of vintage TAG Heuer F1s—The Watchlist will continue as a monthly subscriber-only column. But first:

The Patek Perpetual Calendar 2497, as seen at auction last year—Ignacio of Ancienne Watches provided these photos to me at the time. It failed to sell last week.

Hand up. I missed something at last week’s auctions. The Patek Philippe Perpetual Calendar ref. 2497 that headlined Christie’s Geneva auction and failed to sell (est. CHF 1-2m), is quite familiar! I covered it less than one year ago, when it was an exciting, fresh-to-market find at a small Spanish auction and sold for $1.1 million.

I later learned a big American dealer bought it. Christie's decision to feature such a recently-traded watch as its headliner proved risky, and its failure to sell shows collector savvy. Why pay "estimate CHF 1–2 million" for a watch that sold just 10 months ago?

Fresh, honest, and original are the most important characteristics for collectors, especially with all the “controversies” and funny business in vintage watches. Stuff that’s been passed around like a bong at a frat party is simply less exciting.

It also means collectors must be wary of “barn finds” that aren’t really.

Watching this play out with million-dollar Pateks remains a spectator sport for most of us, but I try to apply the same principles to The Watchlist. Whether it’s an estate-find Gallet or an original-owner Patek, the excitement of discovery is the same.

A Cartier London Tank by any other name

“McCabe McCarty Tank,” and its Cartier London Tank cousin.

Cover up the name at 12 o’clock, and you’d be forgiven for thinking this is a Tank from ‘70s Cartier London. Same size. Same Jaeger-LeCoultre caliber. Same open dial design.