Swiss watchmaker JC Biver has only been around for a couple of years and only recently introduced its first-ever creation, the Carillon Tourbillon Minute Repeater, just last year. The brand founded by Jean-Claude Biver alongside his son, Pierre Biver back in 2022 has only just introduced itself into the industry, despite Jean-Claude’s legacy within the watchmaking world. He has been with various household names throughout his career, like Blancpain, Omega, and Hublot, to some capacity, but with JC Biver, Jean-Claude brought forth a semblance of simplicity with its latest piece, the Automatique.

Unlike the Carillon Tourbillon Minute Repeater, JC Biver went in a completely different direction for the Automatique as it wrote the next chapter in its story by returning to the basics of watchmaking. Instead of combining two masterpiece complications with a distinctive design language, the JC Biver Automatique is a simple three-hand, automatic dress watch made for daily wear. Its design features are influenced by the past, with a distinguished 21st-century look, allowing the brand to establish a foundation for future watches and complications.

If one were to look at a wristwatch at face value, it’s intrinsically basic with a simple goal in mind: to tell time. That can be applied directly to the JC Biver Automatique, which features three central hands that tell you the hours, minutes, and seconds – no more, no less. However, JC Biver has mentioned that the simplicity of the Automatique is deceptive; one just has to pay closer attention to the level of detail within.

There are two variations for the JC Biver Automatique in solid 18k white and rose gold as each watch is housed in a case made of its corresponding metal. There is also an array of hand-applied finishes to both versions of the Automatique, which gives it greater depth and dimensionality with a two-tone finish to show off each material in its true splendour.

It’s further emphasised by the applied 18k gold markers with matching hands, which feature an anthracite finish for better legibility. The applied and black-polished “Biver” signature at 12 o’clock also stands out on the dial alongside the applied 18k gold railroad tracks that surround the perimeter of the dial. As time goes on, you will notice subtle shifts in the dial in terms of complexity and richness, giving off a different shade with each passing moment.

All this is housed in a platinum or rose gold case that is at a classic 39 mm size with only 10 mm of thickness. Its brightly polished bezel matches the brushed lugs that are slightly angled to give greater comfort on the wrists, which echoes the straight, yet circular finishes found on the dial. This gives the JC Biver Automatique a cohesive feeling throughout, whether it’s with a leather strap or with the signature five-link Biver bracelet.

At the heart of the JC Biver Automatique lies the brand’s new calibre, the JCB-003. This is the third movement to come out from JC Biver in as many years it has been around with the JCB-001 being used almost exclusively for the Carillon Tourbillon collection, bar one – the Carillon Tourbillon Catharsis, which utilised the JCB-002 calibre instead. As for the Automatique, the JCB-003 was created in close collaboration with its partners Dubois-Dépraz, who are most known for being the industry’s leading specialist and supplier of watch movement modules.

The JCB-003 was built from the ground up to act as a foundation for Biver to build on in future watches, not just for the JC Biver Automatique. This meant that the JCB-003 had to be the most technically sound movement possible while still being adaptable enough for Biver to grow and explore other complications. The movement itself is a simple three-hand display with a central seconds-hand to go with its automatic winding system that utilises a 22k gold micro-rotor, whilst also allowing for hand-winding via the crown as well.

This will offer wearers the chance to have a tactical relationship with the JC Biver Automatique, especially if its 65-hour power reserve runs empty. The watch also comes with a zero-reset mechanism that will snap the seconds-hand back to the 12 o’clock position when the crown is pulled to the time-setting position. This makes setting the time a lot easier, giving the wearer greater precision to set the time down to the second.

When you turn the JC Biver Automatique over, you’ll be greeted by the inner workings of the watch via the case back. The shape of its bridges was sculpted to reveal elements of the drive train, barrel, and winding system. Each piece also features a combination of a guilloché, anglage, and black polishing to give it a unique character. As for the bridges in particular, it’s adorned with the cloude Paris guilloché pattern that varies in scale as it swirls out from the centre of the micro-rotor while also contributing to a sense of dynamism to the calibre’s overall appearance.

Biver’s entire ethos is about connecting each watch to eternity, which is why hard stone dials are seen as a central pillar of the brand. Like the hard stone dials found in the Carillon Tourbillon Minute Repeater, the same can be said about the JC Biver Automatique as there will be limited quantities of the stone dial variant. Known as the Atelier Series, each unique watch will represent the very essence of Biver’s watchmaking expertise.

Each stone will only be available for a short period of time and in small quantities. This allows Biver to tell different tales through different stones over time. To inaugurate the Atelier Series of the JC Biver Automatique, there will be two stone dial variants. The first is a platinum case paired with rich, black-sanded obsidian while the other is an 18k rose gold case paired with Pietersite, a dark blue stone that features swirls of white and orange within.