Swiss rose gold lever made for the Russian market Circa 1890

Rose gold chronometer by Paul Buhré
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A fine and heavy Swiss 18 carat rose gold open faced lever chronometer made for the Russian market, circa 1890. Precision bridge movement, a special form precision adjustment according to Swiss patent No. 24677 from January 31st, 1903 (balance spring regulator) by Charles Rosat, club tooth lever escapement and Guillaume gold screw compensation balance. White enamel dial with Arabic hours, an outer minute track, sunk subsidiary seconds at 6 0’clock and heavy moon hands. The plain case is monogrammed on the back. Dial signed, cuvette signed and numbered, case and movement numbered, movement, cuvette and case with matching numbers.
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Diameter: 54 mm
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Weight: 126 g
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Signed: Paul Buhré
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Montres Paul Buhré. The Buhré watch company was founded in 1815 in St. Petersburg by Karl Buhré, a Russian businessman of German descent. He moved from Revel together with his son Pavel Karlovich who grew up in the watch business of his father and eventually became his assistant and successor. His eldest son, Pavel Pavlovich Buhré, graduated from the Petropavlovsk Commercial College and became his father’s companion at the age of 26 in 1868. In 1874, he acquired a large watchmaking factory in the heart of the Swiss watchmaking industry in the town of Le Locle. In 1880 he was an appraiser under the Cabinet of His Imperial Majesty, a technician at the Imperial Hermitage, a supplier of the Supreme Court since 1879 and a Merchant of the First Guild since 1884. In the last 30 years before the revolution, Pavel Buhré became the firm without which it is inconceivable to talk about the history of Russian watchmaking. A store was opened in Moscow and then in Kiev to expand the business.

In 1899 the company was awarded the title of Supplier of the Imperial Court. Further, Buhré supplied watches to the railways and the army. Between 1881 and 1894, under the reign of Alexander III, watches were made in simple metal cases. These were prize army and railway watches and the world’s first real wristwatches. At a time when luxury accessory watches turned into a necessity, Pavel Buhré sold watches for everyone. Prices for their watches started from just two rubles. The company owned 50 per cent of the Russian market of inexpensive watches. For more wealthy buyers, the same mechanisms were inserted into the silver and gold cases. Complex mechanisms were ordered from the most authoritative Swiss watch companies. In 1916, Buhré obtained a Swiss patent No. 74144 for a chronograph mechanism of its own design. The company was awarded the highest awards at many national and international exhibitions, including at the World Exhibitions in Paris in 1889 a silver and in 1900 a gold medal.

The Revolution of 1917 put an end to business in Russia, but the firm did not cease to exist. The fact that the main production facilities were in Switzerland and the transfer of the headquarters from Petrograd (St. Petersburg) to Le Locle, Switzerland saved the company. Since the main market Russia was lost the first years were very difficult, but the company could not only survive it also significantly increased the geography of supply and became one of the leading watch companies in Switzerland. To be recognizable by consumers all over the world, the name was changed from Pavel Buhré to Paul Buhré. The brand returned to Russia in 2004 with the efforts of the trade house striving to revive the traditions of Pavel Karlovich Buhré, the watchmaker, and the following year, the year of the 190th anniversary of the firm.