LEVITATING MECHANICS
After dazzling the world a few months ago with an exceptional timepiece, the watch brand is back with a model featuring a design that is at once bold, airy, and suspended—one that could be summed up in a single word: spectacular.
In the fall of 2025, Ferdinand Berthoud – a brand within the Chopard group led for two decades by Karl-Friedrich Scheufele, himself an enthusiast and collector of the works of the man who served as watchmaker and mechanic to the king and the navy in the 18th century – stunned the world with an exceptional timepiece, Naissance d’une Montre 3. Drawing on the work of the master who revolutionized the science of timekeeping over 250 years ago, the contemporary company captures its essence and translates it into modern models, such as the Chronomètre FB 2TV, a watch limited to between 10 and 12 pieces per year.
While Naissance d’une Montre 3 sketched the beginnings of a new architectural style, the Chronomètre FB 2TV goes further and asserts its personality – generous, ethereal, and suspended – which it displays unabashedly yet with structure on its face. Indeed, this breathtaking timepiece introduces a new movement, the hand-wound 3hz FB-TV.FC caliber, which combines a flying tourbillon with constant force to a fusee-and-chain system, a barrel, and a power reserve (approximately 60 hours), all three suspended, unprecedented, and therefore patented. Each element finds its place in large recesses cut into the mainplate, which is dominated by a small white-varnished dial positioned at 12 o’clock to indicate the hours and minutes, while a slender blued titanium hand sits at the center to display the seconds. This kinetic spectacle unfolds within an imposing round case measuring 44mm in diameter and 15.46mm in thickness, crafted from ethically sourced white gold, framed by a slightly fluted bezel, and protected by a domed sapphire crystal. Its crown features a pusher that allows – and this is a first – the balance wheel to be stopped and the seconds hand to be reset to zero when setting the time for greater precision.
