A Look at Lederer Watches

Like Rudis Sylva with their harmonous oscillator, or David Candaux with his vertical pop-up crown, Lederer is a small-volume six-figure watch brand centered around one principal horological achievement. In this case, it’s Bernhard Lederer’s Double Detent Escapement with twin remontoirs d’égalité. It’s in everything they make, which is a big reason why their watches all cost more than $170,000. Here’s what you should know about Lederer watches.

A Brief History of Lederer Watches

Bernhard Lederer, a founding member of the AHCI and often called a “master of escapements,” founded Uhrenmanufaktur Lederer in Germany in 1979 primarily as a watchmaking services and restoration firm as well as a clock maker. Lederer sold the firm and its equipment in 1993 after a car accident destroyed a prototype watch he was working on. He would move to Switzerland and release watches under the Blu – Source du Temps brand from about 2002-2013. “Blu” stood for “Bernhard Lederer’s Universe,” and they made exotic wristwatches ranging from four figures to six figures, many with orbital dials or tourbillons.

In 2014, Lederer and his wife Ewa formally launched Manufacture de Haute Horlogerie et Micromécanique (MHM) in Neuchâtel. MHM remains an ultra-high-end supplier to the Swiss watch industry today. It’s also effectively the manufacture of the Lederer brand which was relaunched in 2020 (just “Lederer” this time) with the debut of their Central Impulse Chronometer. Currently, all of the watches that Lederer offers are Central Impulse Chronometers. The brand says that 98% of parts are made in-house at MHM.

What is a Central Impulse Chronometer?

Lederer’s Central Impulse Chronometer features the brand’s Dual Detent Escapement derived from the Daniels Independent Double-Wheel Escapement, which was in itself an interpretation of Breguet’s natural escapement. A detent escapement is an alternative to the ubiquitous Swiss lever escapement, and it usually features a small spring that “detains” (locks) the escape wheel until the appropriate point in the balance’s oscillation.

Because they deliver energy directly to the balance, detent escapements can be highly efficient and very accurate, but the conventional single-impulse design can be particularly vulnerable to shocks between impulses. Instead of a spring detent, Lederer uses a specially shaped ruby-set central anchor (“Metronome”) that alternately controls the CIC’s two escape wheels, allowing them to give its single balance a direct impulse on each half-oscillation. At very low amplitude, it can also supply an indirect impulse to make the escapement self-starting (which can be a challenge for standard detent escapements).

And there aren’t “just” two escape wheels. Each Lederer Central Impulse Chronometer also has two mainspring barrels, two independent gear trains, and two remontoirs d’égalité, effectively giving it two complete, parallel power-and-escapement systems feeding a single balance wheel. The George Daniels design was similar, but didn’t have the remontoirs.

Intriguingly, most Lederer watches also have dual small seconds hands–one rotating counterclockwise, one clockwise–and it’s quite satisfying to watch them “meet” in the upright position once per minute.

About the Remontoirs in Lederer Watches

A remontoir d’egalite is an intermediary spring that gets repeatedly wound and released, in order to even out torque delivery, i.e. the “bursts” of energy delivered by the remontoir are consistent regardless of the watch’s power reserve. In the CIC, equalizing torque is particularly important because you wouldn’t want either “side” of the balance’s oscillation to get a consistently stronger impulse than the other.

On 44mm Lederer watches, the remontoirs release every 10 seconds, while on 39mm models they release every 15 seconds. On a typical CIC, the remontoirs are staggered. But on the CIC 39 InVerto, they release their energy in sync for a big satisfying click of the minute hand every 15 seconds:

The Current Lederer Watch Lineup

Lederer Central Impulse Chronometers are only made in two sizes: 39mm and 44mm. Despite the preposterous level of complexity, they’re all between 10.5 and 12.2mm thick–very wearable, and less than the thickness of a Rolex Submariner.

While some models (namely the CIC 39 Longitude and CIC 44 Observatory) have traditional solid dials, Lederer seems to be focusing more on watches with one or both balances visible through the dial:

Meanwhile, InVerto models have movement architecture that’s completely, well, inverted. They also get a gloriously domed crystal that effectively acts as the bezel, and the front looks like the back:

Naturally, the back looks more like the front:

Here’s a quick breakdown of modern-day Lederer watches based on their running seconds hands, where they’re located and if they’re openworked or not:

Central Impulse Chronometer type	Running seconds hand(s)	Location
CIC 39 Longitude or CIC 44 Observatory	1 standard	Front
CIC 39	1 standard + 1 open	Front
CIC 44	2 open	Front
CIC 39 InVerto	1 open	Back
CIC 44 InVerto	1 standard + 1 open	Back

Personally I love the look of the two interlocking openworked seconds subdials of the CIC 44, but they’re all sweet:

Titanium, white gold, and 5N red gold seem to be Lederer’s preferred case materials at the moment. Their watches range from about $172,000-$196,000, and the craftsmanship absolutely befits the price tag.

Several of the most expensive watch brands in the world–like Richard Mille, Roger Smith, F.P. Journe, Rexhep Rexhepi and Kari Voutilainen–have impossibly long (or even closed) waitlists. This is driving some well-heeled collectors to seek other equally deserving but more under-the-radar brands, and I would certainly include Lederer in that list.

After all, few people alive could take one of the greatest achievements of George Daniels and fundamentally improve it. Already, because they only make about one watch per week, you can expect to wait a year for a new Lederer watch. If you want one, I suggest getting on the waitlist soon before the hype train fully reaches Lederer.