From the first achievements to the creation of his own "Universe".

 

After taking part in a number of projects, Lederer decided to permanently set up shop in Switzerland. In 2000, he founded his own watch company in Neuchâtel called BLU - Source du Temps SA. The initial idea was that the abbreviation stood for Bernhard Lederer Uhren (Ger. Bernhard Lederer Watches). In 2008 however, the abbreviation took on a whole new meaning, when the author decided it would stand for Bernhard Lederer Universe.

 

Once Lederer had registered his new brand, he began developing a collection with the same name and introduced it to the general public just two years later. Interestingly, the premium leather goods producer Goldpfeil organized its own case release at around the same time. The company invited a number of independent watchmakers to partner with them and develop a line comprised of unique wristwatches and limited models.

 

Bernhard Lederer Goldpfeil Seven Masters, 2001
Bernhard Lederer Goldpfeil Seven Masters, 2001
Bernhard Lederer Galaxy, 2002
Bernhard Lederer Galaxy, 2002

Lederer used his BLU Planet design for a unique piece with an orbital system of disks to indicate the time, where the position of the disk on the dial showed the hour while the hands on it were used to indicate the minutes.

 

The limited Goldpfeil Seven Masters model had a dial with a regulator layout to indicate the hour, a 24-hour hand, date and weekday displays and a hand to indicate the week number. Lederer displayed his Blu collection in Basel while collaborating on this project in order to gain feedback from retailers and professionals.

 

 

In 2000 Bernhard founded his own watch company in Neuchâtel called BLU.

 

The flagship pieces were undoubtedly the Planet watches with their unusual way of telling the time with two revolving disks dominating virtually the entire dial. The large disk replaced the traditional hour hand, while the small disk mounted on top also moved to perform the function of a minute hand, although Lederer installed an extra hand on some Planet models such as the Open Planet.

 

Time Dimension served as the basis for the Galaxy family of watches with three concentric disks to tell the time. Returning to the classic watch, hands were used for time indications and other functions on these watches. Lederer always departed from traditional designs and came up with 3D dials with round sector scales and apertures. 

 

Bernhard Lederer Blu Planet Moonlight, 2002
Bernhard Lederer Blu Planet Moonlight, 2002
Bernhard Lederer Quartett, 2002
Bernhard Lederer Quartett, 2002

The Terzett, Quartett and Quintett watches were built according to this basic design, which three, four and five indications respectively. In the early 2000s, complicated watches and collector's pieces were back on top in terms of popularity. Lederer didn't ignore this trend but took his own approach.

 

Using the Planet design as a basis with its orbital system of disks to indicate the time, Lederer constructed a movement with a built-in tourbillon from scratch. This was no typical tourbillon, of course. It completed not one rotation, but three: one around its axes in sync with the second hand, another with the minute disk rotating in time with the minute hand, and a third around the dial every twelve hours in time with the hour hand.

 

Lederer named this watch the Majesty Orbiting Tourbillon. The idea which came to him in 2003 was put into action in partnership with the independent engineer Willy Meier. The working prototype was ready by spring 2005, and the limited series of watches were put on show in Basel a year later.

 

Bernhard Lederer BLU Majesty Tourbillon, 2005
Bernhard Lederer BLU Majesty Tourbillon, 2005
Bernhard Lederer Majesty Tourbillon MT3, 2007
Bernhard Lederer Majesty Tourbillon MT3, 2007

In 2007, Bernhard Lederer presented his most impressive design for an orbital tourbillon — the unusually constructed Tourbillon MT3 open-dial watch. The Global Financial Crisis of 2008-2009 had a negative impact on the business and Blu collection sales fell. Lederer's extensive experience developing bespoke watches for order helped prevent him from going under.

 

In 2011, a watch which was probably the watchmaker's most extravagant creation saw the light of day — the Gagarin Tourbillon created for the Russian retailer Raff House. The watch's release was timed to mark the 50th anniversary of the first space flight made by Yuri Gagarin.

 

Bernhard Lederer Gagarin Tourbillon, 2011
Bernhard Lederer Gagarin Tourbillon, 2011
Bernhard Lederer Gagarin Tourbillon, 2011
Bernhard Lederer Gagarin Tourbillon, 2011

Lederer was clearly enthusiastic about the project. The Gagarin Tourbillon is technically similar to the Tourbillon MT3, although there's no denying it's an original piece. The tourbillon completes a full rotation around the dial every 108 minutes, which is how long Gagarin's space flight took.

 

It revolves under a curved bridge which symbolizes the 25-meter monument erected at the site where Gagarin's Vostok space capsule landed back on Earth, not far from the town of Engels near Saratov in Russia.

 

 

The Gagarin Tourbillon is technically similar to the Tourbillon MT3, although there's no denying it's an original piece.

 

There's a map of the Earth as if viewed from space in the center of the dial, or a depiction which allows you to picture the trajectory of Gagarin's space flight, while the a loupe placed over the crystal allows you to observe the tourbillon and magnified details of the dial. Unlike the Tourbillon MT3, the Gagarin Tourbillon uses traditional central hands to tell the time.

 

Another project created for Raff House was unveiled in 2013 — the El Noor Tourbillon wristwatch with a mechanism that leafs through images of animals shown in two apertures which symbolize ten verses of the Qur‘an. These watches marked the final chapter of BLU – Source du Temps SA as it was known.

 

Bernhard Lederer El Noor Tourbillon, 2013
Bernhard Lederer El Noor Tourbillon, 2013
Bernhard Lederer El Noor Tourbillon, 2013
Bernhard Lederer El Noor Tourbillon, 2013

Lederer completely restructured his business, shifting the focus towards to developing movements for other watch brands and transitioning from the B2C market to B2B. To make this transition, he set up MHM Manufacture de haute Horlogerie et Micromécanique SA in 2014.

 

In 2020 however, Lederer made a largely unexpected return to wristwatch mechanics with an eponymous Lederer watch and a bold new statement. The Central Impulse Chronometer which has an extremely neat appearance was equipped with a modified version of Abraham-Louis Breguet's échappement naturel. This wasn't the first time Breguet's invention had been modified by other watchmakers.

 

One example was George Daniels, who developed his own pocket-watch version called the Independent Double-Wheel Escapement. Bernhard Lederer made his own adjustments to the escapement. The most notable element of his "interpretation" was that each escapement wheel was practically built into a separate watch movement. 

 

The watchmaker
The watchmaker

The only thing the two mechanisms shared was the balance and escapement. Each mechanism was given its own mainspring barrel, but what's even more surprising is that they were each given their own constant-force device (remontoir d’égalité) as well, which take turns to release their alternating springs every five seconds, each one wound every ten seconds.

 

All of this combined makes Caliber 9012 with hour, minute and second hands one of the most complicated movements of its kind. Lederer unveiled a modified version one year later with dual synchronized seconds hands, one moving clockwise and the other counterclockwise. News of the Central Impulse Chronometer spread like wildfire in specialized watch publications.

 

Lederer has at least one more mind-blowing development up his sleeve which he came up with back in 2016, although there are still few who know much about it. We're talking about the Caliber 1201 Paramagnetic, capable of withstanding magnetic fields of up to 100,000 gauss.

 

Caliber 1201 Paramagnetic, 2016
Caliber 1201 Paramagnetic, 2016
Bernhard Lederer Central Impulse Chronometer
Bernhard Lederer Central Impulse Chronometer

Once the inventor gets around to making it, all the top engineers (ETA, Asulab and Nivarox-FAR) who developed the anti-magnetic system for Omega which can withstand 15,000 gauss will have to concede that first place goes to the one-and-only Bernhard Lederer, an extraordinary watchmaker.