Biver AB: Jean-Claude Biver's brand goes steel and hand-wound for the first time
Jean-Claude Biver's watch brand presents the AB, its smallest model yet: 38 millimetres of steel, a ring of black onyx and a dial centre in yellow gold.
Archive image · Photo: World Economic Forum / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0 (cropped and resized)
The Biver watch brand, founded by veteran watch executive Jean-Claude Biver, unveiled the AB last week. According to Time+Tide, it is the first Biver watch with a steel case and also the brand's first hand-wound model. At 38 millimetres in diameter and 9.8 millimetres thick, it is also the smallest watch Biver has made so far, according to Revolution. Both specialist outlets listed the new model in their weekly round-ups.
In design terms, the AB relies on a contrast of materials more familiar from jewellery: the centre of the dial is made of 2N yellow gold, surrounded by an outer ring of black onyx. The watch is powered by the hand-wound JCB-004 calibre, which offers more than 120 hours of power reserve. An additional function resets the small seconds hand to zero when the time is set, allowing the watch to be adjusted to the second.