DonCorson
[AHCI]
3358
A visit at Blu Watches in Colombier
A Visit at Blu Watches in Colombier
Bernhard Lederer is one of the early members of the AHCI. He learned
watch and clock making during an apprenticeship in the restauration
shop of a museum in Wuppertal, Germany and worked many years as a
restorer for collectors and auction houses in Germany. This was fine
for some years, but didn't allow him to exercise his innate
creativity. He started making some designs, putting thoughts on
paper. The momentous day came when a collector saw one of his designs
and said: Make me one.
Once the challenge was given, Lederer rose to the occasion and took
that design from paper to it's fruition as a finished watch. That was
the beginning of a life as an independent watchmaker with many ups and
downs. The biggest down from having an entire collection destroyed on
the way to the Basel Fair when someone drove into his car from behind.
Sure, everything insured..., but the insurance only paid 55%!
After moving to Switzerland Lederer created the brand "Blu" (B ernhard
L ederer U hrmacher, Uhrmacher=Watchmaker in
German) with his
wife Ewa. Whereas Bernhard takes care of the technical and watchmaking
side, Ewa is the manager and sales person. Their wish with their
watches is to bring time back into our normal realm of experience, to
materialize times eternal advancement.
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The Blu Casino watch with Lederer's emblematic excentric rotating dial. The minutes are indicated by the inner excentric dial, the hours by the jewel at the edge of the large rotating dial. (6.10 o`clock) This watch has a mechanical movement, as do all the others in the collection.
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Ladies calender watch. The whole dial turns with the outermost jewel indicating the date.
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Blu Galaxy, aventurine with diamond markers, 42mm red gold
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Blu modelQuintett
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Blu model Quartett (retrograde Minute that allows you to set the hands both forwards and backwards)
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Blu Terzett 42mm in white gold
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model blu-Planet, showing 12.35
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Several Blu Lady-Planet models
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Blu Lady-Atoll
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another blu Lady-Atoll
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blu-Diamond
Starting small and adding to their manufacturing capability step by step Lederer and Blu want to avoid the investor trap. Advancing steadily through their own strength and not in a big bound because of external money. This keeps them independent and creative. The company with 9 collaborators delivered a few hundred watches last year. Each years growth allows them the investments necessary for a little more independence.
Two years ago they moved to a new location in Colombier, an old factory building which, now completely renovated, allows them much room for expansion. The big windows of the older factory building make their new home light and open. On the second floor are the offices and the "clean" shops, part finishing, cleaning, polishing and assembly, also jewel setting.
In the machine shop on the ground floor along with the usual array of Schaublin lathes and other milling machines are found 2 CNC stations, one is used for making plates and bridges, the other for gear and pinion cutting. A third is on order which will be used to allow Blu to gain independence from another supplier. They will be making their own cases.
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Final movement assembly
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Setting jewels
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Case parts waiting for assembly
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3 axis CNC for bridge and plate production
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A days work on the CNC
Saving the best for last
The Blu Majesty Tourbillon
This is actually a triple tourbillon. The innermost minute "half flying" tourbillon works in the standard way. The next tourbillon is on the same axis tourning once an hour to indicate the minutes. The third is the entire platform which orbits once in twelve hours to show the hours. The depth and apparent simplicity of this watch make it just breathtaking. To allow the owner of this piece of art to observe the beauty of that ingenious mechanism, there is no dial covering the internal details and additionally Blu designed a case with a sapphire crystal all the way around that lets you see into the movement from all sides.
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I hope you have enjoyed this visit.
Don
