A unique Tourbillon Minute Repeater Carillon Titanium Prototype watch made for Jean-Claude Biver’s new watch brand was sold for CHF 1 million in Geneva by Phillips on 14th May 2023.

The auction led by Aurel Bacs, under the Phillips tent set up on the lakeside at the Hotel La Réserve. No less than 15 minutes were devoted to lot 128, with bids punctuated by several collectors from the three continents, both online, telephone and in-room bidders, vying for this first prototype which will remain forever in history the cornerstone of the BIVER brand.

It was an American collector who won the sale (he was online), and along with the watch he received a warm congratulatory gift from Jean-Claude Biver and his son Pierre Biver: a bottle of 1949 Château d’Yquem from JC Biver’s private collection, the year of his birth, accompanied by two kilos of his mountain cheese.

This auction also marked the sale of the first JC BIVER watch and in a way the birth of the brand. Production of their first three Tourbillon Minute Repeater Carillon models (in pink gold, titanium, and two-tone skeleton) has just begun, with the first deliveries scheduled for September 2023.