In early February, Swiss media said that Jean-Claude Biver, former president of lvmh's watch division, was preparing to launch a watch brand for himself and his family, called "JCB BIVER".
Entering the watch industry in the 1970s, Beaver was associated with brand names such as Audemars Piguet, Blancpain, Omega, Hublot, TAG Heuer, etc. For more than 40 years, he experienced the quartz crisis and witnessed the recovery and luxury of mechanical watches.
When he retired in 2018, he won the honorific title of "living fossil in the watch industry", but he has not been idle for four years, and now he intends to create a brand, and he has to add another color to his "fossil body".
Beaver collected a lot of watches, and more than two years ago, he worked with Phillips Auction House to auction off four of them, and four of them were auctioned off, which fetched a high price of more than 8.3 million Swiss francs, of which about 6 million belonged to Beaver, which was probably enough as a start-up capital.
Beaver once collected four Patek Philippe antique watches Hodinkee
Prior to that auction, Phillips held a touring exhibition for some of Beaver's collections, from Geneva to New York, in addition to the four auctions, there were rare watches from Brands such as Rolex, Omega, Hublot watches, and many works by independent watchmakers.
Independent watchmaking ranges from Philippe Dufour, the most famous Simonicity model, to the platinum version of the chronometer first generation (RRCC I) of the young Rexhep Rexhepi (RR), who is considered the "future Duffer".
Beaver's Collection of Simply and RRCC I Watches Phillips
01
-
Beaver and Duffer met Audemars Piguet, and his Simpilicity no. 180, red gold case, white enamel plate, Roman inscription, orbital scale, Breguet hands, very simple and elegant.
Simplicity watch was born in the new millennium, is Duffer's "mountain sealing work" after the completion of complex watches such as size smugness and Duality, simple movement, small three-pin display, quite a road to simplicity, back to the basics of the meaning.
Therefore, Simplicity has become the ultimate dream of global watch collectors, especially in the past five years, its price has skyrocketed, and in 2021, the transaction price of the number 57 of The Phillips Autumn Auction exceeded 5.2 million yuan, almost 20 times the price of that year.
More than a year ago, The 00th of the last 20 pieces that Duffer made for the 20th anniversary of the birth of The Simplicity watch was sold at the Phillips auction for more than 9.4 million yuan, reaching the ceiling of tens of millions.
Simplicity models are collectors' ultimate dreams Phillips
RR is a rising star in the Swiss watch industry, a Kosovo immigrant, who began to like mechanical watches from his father's Tissot when he was a child, entered the watch school as a teenager, completed his internship at Patek Philippe, and graduated with an antique pocket watch.
He became self-reliant in 2012 under the brand name Akrivia, which means "precision" in the balkan language. The Akrivia series has a stout shell, a modern disc design, and tourbillons are the main attraction, which are only communicated among a few watch enthusiasts.
Akrivia AK03THG
Later, the disc and shell type returned to the classic style of the RRCC I watch was born, RR named this new series after itself, the movement design is outstanding, coupled with the polishing that can be compared with Duffer, RRCC I won the Best Men's Watch Award at the 2018 GPHG Selection.
It is also because of the RRCC I watch that RR gets Beaver's blue eyes, saying that he is the future Duffer, and at the same time saying that he saw himself forty years ago.
The Beaver's RRCC I platinum was a gift he received on his 70th birthday, the first in the series, with the number "No.01P" engraved on the movement and the words "THG JCB" on the case.
Beaver's collection of RRCC I platinum Phillips
Swipe left or right to see more
THG is the abbreviation of The Hour Glass, Singapore's largest watch dealer, in addition to operating rolex, Patek Philippe and other well-known brands, but also support independent watchmakers. Beaver's RRCC I watch was presented by TCG and RR.
In 2019, RR donated the orphan RRCC I watch to the Only Watch, the blue enamel plate, which received 360,000 Swiss francs, the fourth highest price of the year; in 2021, the Only Watch model was upgraded to RRCC II with a jumping second function, and the champagne color enamel plate was sold for 800,000 Swiss francs.
The two generations of RRCC watches have gained fame, and the classic design has won the favor of a considerable number of fans, and now it is also difficult to find.
The RRCC I watch is sought after by collectors @THG
02
However, when putting Beaver's Simplicity watch together with the RRCC I watch, I believe most people will still prefer Simplicity, after all, from the front of the "face", Simplicity is more beautiful Zhou Zheng.
There is little difference between the shell types, Simplicity is 37 mm, RRCC I is 38 mm; RRCC I case is built by the industry master JHP in traditional hand methods, the shell type, bezel, lugs, crown is almost perfect, as impeccable as Simplicity.
The two are actually the same in the process of the dial, both are large flame enamel, and the small seconds dial has also been stepped design, which enhances the layering of the dial.
The difference is the details, and Simplicity almost completely adopts the classic Breguet aesthetic style: Breguet hour pointers, skinny Roman time markers, clear orbital minute and second scales.
Simplicity models have a distinct Breguet aesthetic style ACM