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| Gevril Watch |
The idyllically forested and equally peaceful highs and lows of the Swiss Jura
mountains have traditionally been a mecca of watchmaking creativity. It was here that many world-famous names cultivated their talents and lay down the foundations for companies and legacies that would survive both the ravages of time and the quartz boom of the 1970s. Jacques Gevril certainly numbered as one of the gifted watchmakers of the 18th century to make a name for himself here.
Born in 1722 in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Gevril began his career as a restorer of timepieces, creating his first chronometer in 1743. He invented many watch and clock movements, and in the year 1744 he made horological history by creating a repetition dial. In 1758 he became the first Swiss watchmaker to ever export a timepiece, together with Pierre Jaquet Droz, and the recipient of this original work was the king of Spain. He was subsequently named watchmaker to the Spanish crown, remaining behind when Jaquet Droz returned to Switzerland. Gevril's family continued in the watchmaking tradition for a few generations, creating many fine and unique timepieces along the way that may still be found today in the world's best watch museums. Eventually, however, the company closed, becoming another historic name lying dormant for a modern entrepreneur to reawaken like Sleeping Beauty.
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This happened in the early 1990s when Switzerland's UTime, an international distribution conglomerate handling some of the most prestigious names in the business, purchased the rights to the Gevril name and created a high-end line with some interesting characteristics - such as the unlocked crown indicator and the exchangeable bezel system. In the late '90s, UTime disbanded and sold the rights to all of the brands it owned. After a brief stint with an American jeweler, in 2001 Gevril was bought by First SBF Holding, spearheaded and masterminded by Samuel Friedmann.
Friedmann, born in 1970 in Lugano, Switzerland, is a man with a long history in the watch business. His life-long dream was to own his own watch brand, and he patiently waited for many years until the right brand name came along. Although he possessed the know-how and connections to have created his own brand at any time, he was painfully aware of the advantages of a name with a certain history,
and when the Gevril name once again became available, he lost no time in fulfilling his destiny. His was a passion that was awakened for the first time at age seventeen. The youth, wanting to buy a watch for his brother, noticed that the particular Swiss city he was in contained a myriad of watch stores. He became fascinated by the ticking timepieces and their fine blend between art and science and immediately decided to enter the watch business, bucking a career in his family's upscale clothing boutiques. After graduating from college, Friedmann opened a sales office in Lugano that sold complicated pieces to collectors and also dealt in liquidation of overstocked watches. His later move to the United States had more to do with the love for his American wife than for watches, and today Friedmann is headquartered in New York, although he is more often than not to be found at the workshop in Tramelan,
Switzerland, than the 6,000-square-foot villa that he has made into Gevril's head office.
Well equipped to lead his company into the new century, Friedmann sets his sights on quality and building the brand. In just three short years, the collection has grown to encompass seven watch families and more than seventy models. Each and every model contains a high-quality mechanical movement and belongs to limited series. Rest assured that even the smallest detail has been looked after and no corners have been cut: Watch fans will never go home disappointed by any aspect of a Gevril watch. And different from the policies of many competitor brands, every part of a Gevril timepiece is manufactured in Switzerland.
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Gevril Watch
23 Dover Terrace
Monsey, NY 10952
Tel.: 866-425-9882
Fax.: 845-425-9897
www.gevril.net
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