Berney

Berney was founded in 1972 by Henri Berney in L'Abbaye, in the Vallée de Joux, canton Vaud, when he established Berney Blondeau S.A. with the goal of producing exceptional wristwatches, pendants, and ring watches built entirely from Swiss components — jewellery that tells time, worn on the finger or around the neck as readily as on the wrist. The house remains family-owned and independent more than fifty years on.

Its defining specialty is genuinely unusual: Berney restores and rebuilds long-discontinued Valjoux chronograph calibres from the 1950s through the 1970s — references like the 13'23, the 10½''' 69, and the 13'''88 — movements no manufacturer has produced in decades. Each is entirely hand-engraved and hand-finished, with column-wheel construction, bevelled steel parts, and Incabloc shock protection, running at 18,000 vibrations per hour across 17 jewels. Cases are cast in 18-karat rose or white gold, ranging from as small as 31mm to 39mm depending on the calibre housed inside, with open sapphire backs revealing the restored movement and each piece individually numbered.

Ring watches, pendant watches, and bangle watches remain brand signatures dating back to the company's founding, alongside the chronograph range built around those revived Valjoux movements. Among them, the Berney 8448 is a full-calendar moonphase chronograph powered by a restored Valjoux 88, offered as a character piece with an explicitly charitable purpose. Production is sized not to a fixed annual target but to the finite supply of surviving vintage movements and the workshop's own capacity, and pricing is not publicly disclosed beyond ring watches entering at a few hundred Swiss francs. Berney sells directly, through specialist retailers, and via a small number of Swiss partner boutiques, maintaining its physical workshop in L'Abbaye and a regular presence at enthusiast gatherings.