Company profile:

In 2016, Raymond Weil celebrates its 40th anniversary. It was founded in 1976, during the quartz crisis that was driving many Swiss brands out of business, by M. Weil, whose basic concept was for affordable timepieces. It has been a family-owned company all along, for three generations. Raymond Weil’s son-in-law Olivier Bernheim joined the company in 1982, became CEO in 1996, and is currently President. Olivier’s son Elie Bernheim, 34 years of age (2015) took over as CEO in 2014. Elie is also a cellist, and his mother is a professional pianist. For this reason, one of the principal inspirations for watches by the brand is classical music, with collections having names such as Nabucco, Fidelio, Traviata, Amadeus and so forth.

The brand’s mechanical watches are positioned in the range from 700 to 4,000 Swiss francs, but the majority of its large production – 200,000 watches per year – have quartz movements, and the best sellers are in the Toccata collection of quartz watches.

For its mechanical timepieces, Raymond Weil uses movements made by Sellita and ETA, with a tourbillon watch that is based on a calibre by Tec Ebauches, a company based in Vallorbe, Switzerland. Since 1999 Raymond Weil has had its own research and development department, so that design is now entirely in-house. The brand also has the capability to personalize movements from external suppliers.

Location:

Raymond Weil S.A.
36-38 avenue Eugène-Lance, P.O. Box 1569
CH 1211 Geneva 26, Switzerland
http://www.raymond-weil.com/

Personalities:

Elie Bernheim, CEO

Olivier Bernheim, President

New watches:

Raymond Weil Maestro Frank Sinatra

39.5 mm steel case, 9 mm thick, 50 metres water resistance

12 o’clock index in Roman numerals is a reference to Frank's birthday, 12 December

Hands in blued steel, no SuperLuminova

Leather strap with steel buckle

Self-winding movement, with 26 jewels and 38 hours power reserve, calibre marked RW 4200, probably the Sellita SW200, running at 28,800 vph (4 Hertz)

Raymond Weil Maestro Frank Sinatra, reference 2837-STC-SINAT, price 1,400 Swiss francs, about €1,300. Available from June 2015

Raymond Weil Nabucco Cello Tourbillon

Mainspring bridge shaped like f-hole on a cello

Tourbillon bridge shaped like f-hole on a cello

Four metal "strings" suggesting the cello

Case in titanium and stainless steel, 46 mm diameter, 12.95 mm thick, water resistance 20 atm, 200 metres depth, sapphire caseback

Screw-down crown

Strap in black alligator, with black PVD-coated titanium clasp

Hand-wound movement, calibre RW 1842, 105 hours power reserve, 178 components

Tourbillon, balance runs at 21,600 vph (3 Hertz)

Nabucco Cello Tourbillon by Raymond Weil, reference 1842-BSF-20001, price 39,000 Swiss francs, about €36,000