In the second episode of The Phillips Watches Podcast, we sat down with Karl-Friedrich Scheufele, President of Ferdinand Berthoud and Co-President of Chopard, to talk about the arc of his career, the rebirth of the Berthoud name, and his belief that true craftsmanship is inseparable from patience and purpose.

The conversation coincides with the upcoming auction of Naissance d’Une Montre 3, a one-of-a-kind Ferdinand Berthoud timepiece that took more than six years to complete – entirely by hand, without the use of CNC machines or computer-aided design. It’s a project that captures the spirit of Scheufele’s entire approach to watchmaking: slow, deliberate, and grounded in respect for tradition.

Scheufele grew up surrounded by watches. His father purchased Chopard in 1963, when Karl-Friedrich was five years old. He recalls pedaling his bicycle to the family’s German workshop, where he’d spend afternoons building miniature cars from spare watch parts. “I was born into the industry,” he says. “And I’ve stayed there ever since.”

Episode 2

By the 1990s, he had a vision that would permanently reshape Chopard’s identity. At a time when few brands were investing in in-house movement production, he pushed for independence – founding the L.U.C Manufacture in Fleurier in 1996. The team’s first creation, the micro-rotor calibre 1.96, was groundbreaking. “In those days,” Scheufele recalled, “it wasn’t common for a company like ours to make its own movements. But I felt we had to, if we wanted to be taken seriously as watchmakers.”

That decision laid the foundation for everything that followed. “We started with a room not bigger than this one,” he said. “Every skill – decoration, assembly, research, development – we had to add one by one.” 

His fascination with horological history eventually led him further back in time – to the eighteenth-century chronometer maker Ferdinand Berthoud. The connection was more than intellectual. Berthoud was born just fifteen minutes from Fleurier, where Chopard Manufacture is located. Scheufele discovered Berthoud’s work while building a museum devoted to five centuries of timekeeping. “Everything he made looked simple, pure, to the point,” he said. “Form always followed function.”

That clarity guided the rebirth of the Chronométrie Ferdinand Berthoud in 2015. The goal wasn’t to replicate the past, but to honour its spirit through modern craftsmanship. Every Berthoud watch since has been certified for chronometric precision – a nod to its namesake’s lifetime pursuit. And the brand’s latest masterpiece, Naissance d’Une Montre 3, brings that philosophy full circle.

Scheufele describes the project as a collective act of preservation. Roughly 80 craftspeople from Chopard and Ferdinand Berthoud worked together to build a single watch, using only traditional tools. “We wanted to share knowledge the way Berthoud himself did – master to pupil,” he said. “It’s about keeping these techniques alive.” The result is a modern chronometer built entirely by hand, created not for efficiency but for posterity.

Late in our conversation, Scheufele drew a parallel between watchmaking and another of his passions: wine. He and his wife run a biodynamic vineyard in the south of France, where he’s learned to embrace time and uncertainty in equal measure. “If you plant a vineyard today, you won’t know for seven years whether you made the right choice,” he said. “It’s the same in watchmaking. You invest years before seeing the result.”

Then he shared a quote: What you do with time, time will respect. Few lines could better summarize Scheufele’s outlook – or the philosophy behind Ferdinand Berthoud and the Naissance d’Une Montre 3.

Episode 2 of The Phillips Watches Podcast – featuring Karl-Friedrich Scheufele, President of Chopard and Ferdinand Berthoud – is available now on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.

  • About Logan Baker

    Logan has spent the past decade reporting on every aspect of the watch business. He joined Phillips in Association with Bacs & Russo at the start of 2023 as the department's Senior Editorial Manager. He's based in Geneva.