A combination of unconventional contemporaries: Alfredo Häberli and Carl F. Bucherer
Independence, passion and diligence are the values on which the Carl F. Bucherer watch brand is built. The company’s nearly 90 years of watchmaking history promise tradition and the name a byword for integrity. The pioneering spirit and vision of Carl Friedrich Bucherer, who launched his first watch collection in 1919 in Switzerland’s Lucerne, together with the modernity of the 21st century galvanise today’s strongly profiled watch brand. World-renowned designer Alfredo Häberli represents the traditional company in its new advertising campaign. The partnership of the designer with the watch manufacturer Carl F. Bucherer is founded upon such values as passion, content and quality and is always focused away from the mainstream. This means transferring to Alfredo Häberli and he creates with passion in a different way. An ideal team also because the image of the designer corresponds with the Carl F. Bucherer motto “For people who do not go with the times.”
The Individual at the Centre
Everything hinges upon the individual. Alfredo Häberli works only with companies where a genuine human interaction takes place. People are also the inspiration for his creation. “They are my greatest motivation,” he says. How a man, a woman or a child reacts to an object fascinates him. Häberli does not produce art for the sake of art; for him it’s the highest compliment when his objects are appreciated by the users. Alfredo Häberli is extremely charming, very sincere and modest. He is not interested at all in any personal glory from stardom. Therefore he talks enthusiastically about men whom he admires, “because they do their job perfectly and remain simple and normal.”
Cleverness and Simplicity
Häberli’s furniture enjoys world acclaim. This, not the least because he has the gift of giving his creations a new meaning as well as a new appearance. His furniture designs are clever and functional. Functionality is however not apparent. “I do not want to have any seat in my living room, which can obviously be converted into a bed if required,“ explains Häberli with a smile. Reliability is another quality, which characterizes Häberli’s products. So he is developing some children’s tableware, based on his experiences with and observations of his own children. As a result, the service demonstrates a functionality, which matches the real eating and drinking habits of children.
A Happy Life
“My life is flourishing,” recounts Alfredo Häberli. “I have a wonderful family. My clients are interesting people, with whom I enjoy working.” In addition, he is today in the privileged position to be able to say no sometimes. His monograph, “Alfredo Häberli: sketching my own landscape,” published by Frame Publisher in Amsterdam, as well as being a discourse on design, is also a homage to a fortunate childhood in Argentina and a declaration of love towards his family. In his book “Design Live,” published in 2007, well-known and promising Swiss artists were invited to put on a show of Häberli’s works. It is, moreover, a great honour for the designer to have one of the exhibitions dedicated to his creations, entitled “Alfredo Häberli – Surround Things,” on display in June 2008 at the Zurich Museum for Artistic Design.
Watch Fascination
“Watches have played an important part in my life,” says Häberli. He smilingly says he was bitten by the “watch bug” when he was 18 years old. The spark ignited when he received his father’s rose gold watch as a birthday present. Of course this was a Swiss watch, which had earlier belonged to his grandfather. For the Häberlis living in South America, it was also a symbol of their Swiss roots, a piece of Switzerland and a connection to the old home country. Today, Häberli owns more than 20 watches. With watches, he is fascinated by the technicality, the precision, the complexity and the refinement of a watch movement. “A watch runs 24 hours a day and is sometimes subjected to shocks and large temperature variations,” he explains with enthusiasm. He has great respect for the watchmakers’ handicraft and for the families who carry on this tradition. “Here the very soul and spirit of the matter is palpable,” he says. All these ingredients are embodied by the Carl F. Bucherer watch brand, which, like himself, persistently follow its own path, and so Alfredo Häberli has added the Patravi Chronograde to his collection of watches.