Music Serenades Time With The New Carl F. Bucherer Manero Minute Repeater Symphony From Watches & Wonders 2021
Editor’s note: Like you, we are also excited for the releases from the Watches & Wonders 2021. Before we get to dive deep into the releases and go hands-on with as many of these as the two of us here can, here’s our preview and the Gut Reaction Review (Grr…) of the new Carl F. Bucherer Manero Minute Repeater Symphony. For our other detailed hands-on reviews, please head to our dedicated reviews section here.
Gut Reaction
Austrian composer Gustav Mahler once said: “A symphony must be like the world. It must contain everything”. The new Carl F. Bucherer Manero Minute Repeater Symphony is a horological world of technical expertise and creates a world for the wearer to lose themselves in the harmony of music and time.
A symphony can express many things; it can arouse hidden emotions it can elicit desires, it can conjure up unforeseen images. Together with the pursuit for the accuracy of time, it also has the power to create a special bond between man and art.
My first reaction to the new CFB Manero Minute Repeater was surreal; it’s not like I have not listened to or handled a minute repeater before. But the sounds of the symphony that played in the background as the new watch was unveiled created an atmosphere of serenity. And to think that a timepiece wrapped around a wrist can have that effect is surreal.
Talking about the timepiece itself, physically, ignoring the music, this 43.8mm in diameter and only 12.47mm thick 18 k rose gold encased object de desire looks elegance personified with its 18 k white gold Pd210 electroplated and fine grainé texture patterned dial where the 18 k rose gold hands dance to the tune of time.
Rising above them, like a king on its dressing throne, lords the floating (peripherally mounted) tourbillon 12’o clock.
Move beyond the dial and you find that the open-worked and hand-angled lugs are curved and angled, providing for that comfortable ergonomic feel. Aiding in this comfortable feel and complementing the aesthetics is the hand-stitched dark brown Louisiana alligator leather strap with a beautiful 18 k rose gold pin-lock folding clasp.
True beauty with brains, the looks aren’t all that have impressed me here; flip the watch and the enchantment continues, thanks to the brand’s ‘peripheral technology’. There are three lions that roam the horological jungle here: the brand’s famous peripheral rotor, a peripherally suspended tourbillon, and a peripherally mounted regulator of a minute repeater mechanism.
A blend of music and time, the new Carl F. Bucherer Manero Minute Repeater Symphony is indeed a magnum opus from the brand from Lucerne.
Err, what’s a minute repeater
For those of our readers who may not know what this complication is, in a very basic definition, a minute repeater is a mechanical watch complication — think grandfather clocks of the yore — that chimes the hours and often minutes at the press of a button. And like most things horological, Abraham-Louis Breguet is again to be credited for designing a mechanism that would strike the hours, quarters and minutes.
Of course there’s much more to it, but that’s the raw gist.
The Watch
The ref 00.10925.03.63.01 is presented in a limited edition of 88-pieces only and features the CFB MR3000 manufacture caliber that comprises of 47 rubies jewels and offers a very decent 65-hour power reserve.
The 35.7mm x 8.59mm thick movement is COSC-certified and offers the fictions of a repeater with two gongs, floating tourbillon, hour, minute, small seconds on tourbillon cage, stop-second, and protection function for the mechanism. The movement allows for two different tones on two gongs which along with the sculpted hammers can be admired through cutouts at the edge of the dial.
Notably, while a lot of timepieces including the famous Patek Philippe ref. 5078G-010 and ref. 5303R-001 minute repeaters are not water-resistant at all, I am very pleased to note that the new Carl F. Bucherer Manero Minute Repeater Symphony is at least 10m water-resistant.
Quotable
“The word symphony in the name of our watch expresses harmonic complexity and the delicate interaction among different parts – qualities it shares with the orchestra. Their stunning new piece of music and our watch are a perfect pairing. We both share a commitment to artistic perfection and a dedication to craftsmanship”.
Sascha Moeri, CEO Carl F. Bucherer
Carl F. Bucherer Manero Minute Repeater Symphony Regulator. (Carl F. Bucherer) 
Carl F. Bucherer Manero Minute Repeater Symphony Making Of. (Carl F. Bucherer)
A match made in heaven
Proudly partnering up with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra is Carl F. Bucherer (CFB) for this new watch project. Inspired by the sweet melody of the minute repeater, a young Swedish composer, Lisa Streich, has also written the piece “PERIPHERY”, commissioned by Lucerne Festival Orchestra.
Her piece provides music for 2 minutes and 30 seconds, making use of a number of instruments inspired by the movement of the watch:
- the peripherally-mounted regulator is reproduced by the striking and stroking of a triangle positioned vertically on a timpani
- the peripheral rotor is represented by the drone of an instrument called a buzzing bow and a violin bow drawn against the length the strings
- the tourbillon is represented by the brass section of the orchestra
That’s All Folks!
I have said this before, but I will say it again. And use the help of an accomplished playwright in doing so.
Benjamin Jonson, an English playwright and poet once said: “The voice so sweet, the words so fair, As some soft chime had stroked the air; And though the sound had parted thence, Still left an echo in the sense”.
To me, there is something magical and poetic about the sound of chime coming from a mechanical timepiece. Wearing a watch that chimes, like the quotation, even after it has stopped chiming for the moment, leaves an everlasting echo and a sublime feeling.
Carl F. Bucherer have truly offered a show-stopping timepiece that is exquisite from every perspective. I addition to the timeless look, the enchanting sounds and the horological wonder of a movement, the timepiece also features exquisite finishings that could melt any heart: diamond-beveled and highly polished chamfers, a sandblasted crown, the hand-angled dial edges and windows, and the Geneva-striped, angled, and diamond-beveled bridges; the new Carl F. Bucherer Manero Minute Repeater Symphony is master of many trades.
For those hard to please connoisseurs, the brand is also offering further customisation options where they can choose from different designs and finishes. Not only that, but the watch also comes inside a luxury box that features a specially designed resonator that will amplify the volume of the Manero Minute Repeater Symphony minute repetitions.
There is a Ken Poirot quote that perfectly wraps up this release: “Each day we draft a new movement in our symphony of life; what melody will you compose today?”
The new Carl F. Bucherer Manero Minute Repeater Symphony from Watches & Wonders 2021 allows 88 special watch collectors the chance to compose the melody of their own life. Haute Horlogerie and creativity rarely meet in this fashion. But when they do, they create an unmistakable experience.
To find out more about the new Carl F. Bucherer Manero Minute Repeater Symphony and other CFB watches, please head to their website here. All images unless otherwise specified are © Carl F Bucherer. Make sure to check out our reviews of other Watches & Wonders 2021 releases here.
