Ferdinand Berthoud

Brand history

Founded 2015 under Chopard ownership in Fleurier (in the Val-de-Travers, the same valley that hosts Bovet and Voutilainen). Named for the 18th-century French-Swiss horologist Ferdinand Berthoud, whose marine chronometers anchor the brand’s technical heritage. Production is roughly 70 watches per year across the catalog.

A modern haute-horlogerie project named for the 18th-century Neuchâtel-born master Ferdinand Berthoud (1727–1807), who served as Horologist-Mechanic to the King and the French Navy and built marine chronometers for the Royal Society. The modern brand is separated from the historical figure by roughly two centuries, it is a passion project of Karl-Friedrich Scheufele, co-president of Chopard, launched in the mid-2010s and operated as a standalone manufacture distinct from Chopard’s main line. The first reference, the Chronomètre FB 1 (2015), is built around an old-school fusée-and-chain in an octagonal case that pulls directly from Berthoud’s marine-chronometer architecture; the FB 2RE follows the same mechanical philosophy in a more conventional round case and is the friendlier piece for buyers who found the FB 1’s shape difficult. Production is tiny, a few dozen watches per year. The buyer’s reality: this is the most expensive way to express a particular aesthetic preference (18th-century chronometer construction, exposed mechanism, philosophy-over-wearability), and the link to the historical Berthoud is conceptual rather than continuous. If the link matters to you, it matters; if it doesn’t, you’re paying haute-horlogerie prices for a brand whose modern operating history is shorter than most of its peers.