“Gevril is a name that's been around for over 250 years and there is so much to build on,” Samuel Friedmann explains. “It's as if the royal prince had left the country and although he has been away for a long time, now that he has returned and 'in royale grandeur', he can find his way back to the palace and the throne.”

Friedmann and Gevril
Samuel Friedmann was born in Lugano, Switzerland in 1970 and from an early age took an interest in watches after having purchased an IWC model as a present for his brother. Having completed his university studies, Friedmann opened an office and began selling complication watches to Italian collectors - he also sold surplus stocks of Swiss watches. A little later he moved to the USA, continuing his activity over there.

But Friedmann had an overriding passion - to be the owner of a watch company renowned for its quality timepieces. Through his numerous contacts within the watch industry he had several opportunities to purchase a 'name', but they never measured up to his expectations. This changed when he discovered the work of Jacques Gevril, a Swiss watchmaker who created his first chronometer in 1744.

Gevril, a friend of such pioneers as Daniel JeanRichard and Pierre Jaquet-Droz, initially made his reputation restoring timepieces in La Chaux-de-Fonds. Then as his renown spread, he was requested to make a watch for the King of Spain and in 1758 he went to Madrid, along with Jaquet-Droz, to present the timepiece to the King. Delighted with his acquisition, the king appointed Gevril as watchmaker to the crown and from there he went on to achieve international fame for his craftsmanship and design.

The rebirth
Delighted with his discovery and acquisition of the historical 'name', Friedmann first set up his Gevril headquarters in a villa in the hills of New York and then established workshops in Tramélan, Switzerland. Very attached to the vastness of America, it was inevitable that Friedmann named the Gevril watches the 'New York Collection' and the various models have names such as Avenue of the Americas, “large like America yet conforming to the wrist,” he confides. Others are called Soho, Chelsea, Madison, Gramercy, Greenwich and Lafayette. The watches are in either 18 carat gold or stainless steel, equipped with ETA-based movements with Debwa Depress layers, dials are guilloché or in mother-of-pearl, there are sapphire crystals front and back, with some models decorated with calibrated top Wesselton diamonds. The collections are completed by the Gevril craftsmen in Tramélan.

Friedmann himself is very involved in both the expansion of the collections and customer relations. “We are a family oriented business and all of my customers should know that I am access-ible to help them with Gevril in any way that I can,” he underlines.

Having enjoyed a successful first time participation at BaselWorld with his collections, Samuel Friedmann is already looking to the future, which just happens to hold a diamond studded automatic ladies watches, a minute repeater and, it goes without saying ... a tourbillon!