Top Honours
Ferdinand Berthoud is not a brand many would have heard of. Its president Karl-friedrich Scheufele tells Karishma Tulsidas why it should be on every watch collector’s radar
ike a director bagging the Best Picture accolade at the Academy Awards for his maiden venture, Karl-friedrich Scheufele was understandably honoured and emotional upon receiving the Aiguille d’or award for the Chronomètre Ferdinand Berthoud FB 1 timepiece in 2016. Commercial implications aside, winning top honours at the Grand Prix d’horlogerie de Genève proved to Scheufele that he and his team had successfully respected and translated Ferdinand Berthoud’s legacy. Now, if you had not heard of the name Ferdinand Berthoud prior to the award (or even this article, for that matter), it is tenable: he was a master watch and clockmaker in the 18th century who pursued a relentless quest for precision with the engineering of marine chronometers, crucial timekeeping devices that aided marine navigation. The last time the name Berthoud appeared on a dial was in 1876, and his legacy remained untapped until the noughties, when Scheufele bought over the brand. Says the soft-spoken co-president of Chopard, “I was very passionate about the project, and I told the [previous owners of the brand] I would be doing this in a sustainable way and retain his philosophy. Moreover, we had a manufacture at our disposal.”